The Invited: A Novel
A chilling ghost story with a twist: the New York Times bestselling author of The Winter People returns to the woods of Vermont to tell the story of a husband and wife who don't simply move into a haunted house--they build one....
In a quest for a simpler life, Helen and Nate have abandoned the comforts of suburbia to take up residence on forty-four acres of rural land where they will begin the ultimate, aspirational do-it-yourself project: building the house of their dreams. When they discover that this beautiful property has a dark and violent past, Helen, a former history teacher, becomes consumed by the local legend of Hattie Breckenridge, a woman who lived and died there a century ago. With her passion for artifacts, Helen finds special materials to incorporate into the house--a beam from an old schoolroom, bricks from a mill, a mantel from a farmhouse--objects that draw her deeper into the story of Hattie and her descendants, three generations of Breckenridge women, each of whom died suspiciously. As the building project progresses, the house will become a place of menace and unfinished business: a new home, now haunted, that beckons its owners and their neighbors toward unimaginable danger.
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Readers say this novel blends an eerie Vermont setting, a supposedly haunted bog, and witchy local lore into a mystery that keeps many turning pages. ...
I don’t normally read this type of book because I’m a scaredy-cat, but this was an excellent novel! I did have to sleep with the lights on a couple of times and tried not to read it at night, but eventually the scary parts weren’t so scary and actually play an intricate part in the mystery and I was able to read through them and I’m so glad I did. The only evil was in the hearts of the living.
I have been absolutely craving creepy and spooky ghost stories and this one satisfied that craving. For me, it was kind of like that first bite into the pumpkin mousse tarts, turnovers and donut holes (yep, I’ve tried them all – LOVE pumpkin!!!) that the bakery down the street has been displaying for weeks in every window case they have. In other words, this was a really good ghost story.
The book summary basically introduces the primary storyline of Nate and Helen chucking their city life and jobs in CT for the rural life in VT, building their own home on the former Breckenridge farm. Hattie Breckenridge, a suspected witch, was hanged there in 1924 and is rumored to be haunting the place. For decades, many of the locals believe they have either seen Hattie’s ghost or an incarnation of Hattie’s ghost in a white deer. Pretty early in the story, Helen believes she saw Hattie, after her and Nate installed a beam that was rumored to be the one that Hattie was hanged from. Later the same night, Nate sees the white deer.
What the book summary doesn’t mention is the secondary storyline of a local teenager, Olive (14yrs old), who is looking for the rumored “treasure” (Hattie’s family fortune) that Hattie was supposedly to have hidden somewhere on the property. The rumor of the “treasure” was something that Olive and her estranged, mother truly believed in. Olive believes that once she finds the treasure, she can hire a PI to find her mother and bring her home and then her father will be ok again. Olive’s mother disappeared one day, without a trace, and it is rumored she ran off with another man. Olive doesn’t believe it; she thinks something happened to her.
Olive befriends Nate and Helen (after getting caught stealing from them) and most of the story revolves around Olive looking for the Breakenridge treasure and Helen and Nate building their home, and sometimes using stuff they find on their property (from the rubble of Hattie’s old home). Most of the chapters flip back and forth between Helen and Olive with a couple of chapters from a couple of Hattie’s descendants
From the get-go, McMahone creates a creepy vibe from the haunted environment on the old Breckenridge property. From the bog on the property that swallows people (and almost got Nate), to the reports of missing people as well as all of the ghost sightings, for me, the story got spookier and spookier. There are even creepy Ouija board seances and a "Spirit Group" of locals that claim to have seen the ghost of Hattie or some other dead person.
The characterization for Helen and Olive and Nate, to some degree, was well done. I would have liked to know more about a couple of other characters like Riley and Lori. The pacing was steady and the storylines interesting and kept me engrossed. The writing was well done for the most part, even though the ending got a little convoluted. McMahone created a great ghost story and I’m looking at an overall rating of 4.2 that I will round down to a 4star review.
The book summary basically introduces the primary storyline of Nate and Helen chucking their city life and jobs in CT for the rural life in VT, building their own home on the former Breckenridge farm. Hattie Breckenridge, a suspected witch, was hanged there in 1924 and is rumored to be haunting the place. For decades, many of the locals believe they have either seen Hattie’s ghost or an incarnation of Hattie’s ghost in a white deer. Pretty early in the story, Helen believes she saw Hattie, after her and Nate installed a beam that was rumored to be the one that Hattie was hanged from. Later the same night, Nate sees the white deer.
What the book summary doesn’t mention is the secondary storyline of a local teenager, Olive (14yrs old), who is looking for the rumored “treasure” (Hattie’s family fortune) that Hattie was supposedly to have hidden somewhere on the property. The rumor of the “treasure” was something that Olive and her estranged, mother truly believed in. Olive believes that once she finds the treasure, she can hire a PI to find her mother and bring her home and then her father will be ok again. Olive’s mother disappeared one day, without a trace, and it is rumored she ran off with another man. Olive doesn’t believe it; she thinks something happened to her.
Olive befriends Nate and Helen (after getting caught stealing from them) and most of the story revolves around Olive looking for the Breakenridge treasure and Helen and Nate building their home, and sometimes using stuff they find on their property (from the rubble of Hattie’s old home). Most of the chapters flip back and forth between Helen and Olive with a couple of chapters from a couple of Hattie’s descendants
From the get-go, McMahone creates a creepy vibe from the haunted environment on the old Breckenridge property. From the bog on the property that swallows people (and almost got Nate), to the reports of missing people as well as all of the ghost sightings, for me, the story got spookier and spookier. There are even creepy Ouija board seances and a "Spirit Group" of locals that claim to have seen the ghost of Hattie or some other dead person.
The characterization for Helen and Olive and Nate, to some degree, was well done. I would have liked to know more about a couple of other characters like Riley and Lori. The pacing was steady and the storylines interesting and kept me engrossed. The writing was well done for the most part, even though the ending got a little convoluted. McMahone created a great ghost story and I’m looking at an overall rating of 4.2 that I will round down to a 4star review.