Eventide
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Eventide is an evocative YA historical fantasy thriller by debut author Sarah Goodman, for fans of Jennifer Donnelly and Libba Bray.
A BEA YA Buzz Pick
A SIBA Fall Okra Pick
A Once Upon a Book Club Subscription Box Selection
MADNESS, SECRETS, AND LIES
Wheeler, Arkansas, 1907
When their father descends into madness after the death of their mother, Verity Pruitt and her little sister Lilah find themselves on an orphan train to rural Arkansas.
In Wheeler, eleven-year-old Lilah is quickly adopted, but seventeen-year-old Verity is not. Desperate to stay close to her sister, Verity indentures herself as a farmhand. But even charming farm boy Abel Atchley can’t completely distract her from the sense that something is not quite right in this little town. Strange local superstitions abound, especially about the eerie old well at the center of the forest. The woods play tricks, unleashing heavy fog and bone-chilling cold…and sometimes visions of things that aren’t there.
But for Verity, perhaps most unsettling of all is the revelation that her own parents have a scandalous history in this very town. And as she tries to unearth the past, sinister secrets come with it—secrets that someone will go to violent lengths to protect….
A haunting tale of long-buried secrets, small-town scandal, and single-minded vengeance by talented debut novelist Sarah Goodman.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Abandonments, rural secrets, and revenge web Goodman's earnest but overstuffed historical fantasy debut. In June 1907, impoverished 17-year-old Verity Pruitt and her dreamy sister, Lilah, 11, leave New York on an Arkansas-bound orphan train. But Verity's determination to earn them passage back to New York and study medicine derails when a robber baron and his ethereal schoolteacher niece, Maeve, are approved to adopt only Lilah. To stay close, Verity indentures herself to a kindly farm couple nearby and their charming nephew, Abel. But the secrets of the town's haunted woods connect the siblings' institutionalized father, Maeve, and the disappearance of a preacher's spurned, pregnant daughter; Verity must unravel the connections them to save her sister and herself. Though a warm, grounded romance delights, a sprawl of overfamiliar plot elements undermine their own suspense, and outdated ones a notably unattractive antagonist, Verity's gendered fate may alienate modern readers. A sincere small-town ghost story that never quite coheres. Ages 13 up.
Customer Reviews
Good, but a lot going on....
I found the story hard to focus on due to it being a bit overstuffed with storylines. Seemed "busy".