Girls of Brackenhill

A Thriller

By: Kate Moretti

Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen

Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Haunted by her sister’s disappearance, a troubled woman becomes consumed by past secrets in this gripping thriller from the New York Times best-selling author of The Vanishing Year.

When Hannah Maloney’s aunt dies in a car accident, she returns to her family’s castle in the Catskills and the epicenter of a childhood trauma: her sister’s unsolved disappearance. It’s been 17 years, and though desperate to start a new life with her fiancé, Hannah is compelled to question the events of her last summer at Brackenhill.

When a human bone is found near the estate, Hannah is convinced it belongs to her long-lost sister. She launches her own investigation into that magical summer that ended in a nightmare. As strange happenings plague the castle, Hannah uncovers disturbing details about the past and startling realizations about her own repressed childhood memories.

Fueled by guilt over her sister’s vanishing, Hannah becomes obsessed with discovering what happened all those years ago, but by the time Hannah realizes some mysteries are best left buried, it’s too late to stop digging. Overwhelmed by what she has exposed, Hannah isn’t sure her new life can survive her old ghosts.

©2020 Kate Moretti (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“A Gothic chiller filled with secrets, lies, and things that go bump in the night. I was riveted from the first page to the last.” (Riley Sager, New York Times best-selling author of Lock Every Door)

“Finally, an honest-to-goodness gothic ghost story, full of everything you need in a story like this - a creepy castle, suspicious townspeople, and a dying old man who may just have answers to everything. In Moretti’s deft hands the story unspools with an expert unfolding of clues. As the deaths pile up, you’ll feel just as disoriented and full of unnamed dread as Hannah the main character, trying to figure out what really happened to her sister all those years ago. Oh. And wait’ll you see what’s in the basement....” (Emily Carpenter, best-selling author of Until the Day I Die)

Thought it was going to be great

I really liked the synopsis of this book and thought I'd love the story once I started listening. The problem is, once the protagonist becomes unlikable, I have no desire to keep listening. It's not long before we realize that the alleged protagonist still desires to be with her high school boyfriend, even though she's engaged to someone. I don't understand this trope. It's wholly unrelateable. Do people just go around aching with desire for long lost lovers from their school days? Of course she ends up cheating on her fiancé. Any time the main character does something like this - something unequivocally stupid - I either stop listening or spend the rest of the book rooting against them. I decided to finish this one. Wish I hadn't. The author made the fiancé out to be a bad guy for leaving the woman who cheated on him. Made Hannah, the one who cheated, out to be the proverbial good guy. The cheating husband or wife or fiancé is just a tired trope that I wish authors would get away from. It immediately makes the character unsympathetic and unlikeable and is likely to make me stop listening/reading. The story itself was good. Though I did figure out the big twist about halfway through. As for the characters, there isn't a single one who I really grew attached to. The one guy I kind of liked (the fiancé) just wasn't a big part of the story. He was basically there for the main character to blame for her own shortcomings. Hannah, Wyatt, Stuart, Faye, Alice, Warren. None of them were likable people. In fact, Wyatt, Alice, Hannah, Faye and Warren were pretty crappy people.

ending was lacking

Drawn out story line that took one step forward and 2 steps back. Main character was all over the place.

I thought this book was unfinished

To many things made no sense.

1. Julia and Hannah met Ellie at the pool the summer of 2001. Hannah said the girls Julia found to hang out with all wore bikini that summer. When they found the body, she was very pregnant. She was killed in September 2001. How is that possible.

2. Julia was locked in a room with an unlocked door, why not use it like Hannah? where did the supplies came from?

3. If Hannah wanted to keep Wyatt daughter away from the castle, why have him move in?

I never thought Hannah relationship with Huck was going to last since the drive up. She was being who she thought Huck wanted her to be.

I didn't like her cheating on Huck, lying to him was kind. That relationship was broken to no repair when they both realized Hannah was lying to both of them about who she was. Huck never knew her.

Why did her uncle need to say sorry to her before he died. What was he sorry for?

The ending was not good.

Will there be another book explaining everything?
The book was about finding Julia, you still do not know what happened to her. Is she dead? Did her aunt or uncle found her? Even Hannah said it takes longer for a person to die than four days. Why all the old food?
If Julia was a live what secrets does she have? Can she save Nina from Ellie?

Too drawn out.

The book was a real struggle to finish. Unnecessary information frequently repeated. I would not recommend.

GADS!

got thru 10 chapters before deleting book. boring and repetitive

can't stand "breathless" narrators.

mediocre

the story was good enough to keep me listening despite the narrators whiney voice getting on my nerves.

Not one of my favorite “reads”.

I prefer stories with tied up loose ends, which this one did not have. Perhaps I should have read the synopsis more carefully as I also do not care for books with supernatural elements. I found the reader’s voice annoying, too breathy and whispery. This was not one of my favorite «reads».

Omg the narrator 🤦🏻‍♀️

The story is ok, characters are ok, narrator drive me absolutely crazy with her overacting, weird breathy voice. Ugh. I probably should have given up in the middle like I considered...

Girls of Brackenhill

Pretty good but disappointing ending. Would liked to see more resolution of some of the characters. Performance was good with voices and emotional parts. Story was pretty good.

Repetitive and dull

I truly struggle to get through this one. it kept repeating itself and the ending was just abysmal. I don't really see much redemption in this book