Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by the publisher, Tor Publishing Group, for an honest review.
Genre: Horror/Gothic/Paranormal/Adult/Fiction
Plot:
Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive.
It isn’t easy when she’s the only one in the family who doesn’t quite fit in. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow so much he’s practically dissolved, and her older sister, Nicole, is so used to everyone—including her blandly docile husband and two kids—falling in line that Anna often ends up in trouble for simply asking a question. Mom seizes every opportunity to question her life choices, and Dad, when not reminding everyone who paid for this vacation, just wants some peace and quiet.
The gorgeous, remote villa in tiny Monteperso seems like a perfect place to endure so much family togetherness, until things start going off the rails—the strange noises at night, the unsettling warnings from the local villagers, and the dark, violent past of the villa itself.
Opinion:
“Tread lightly. Survive.”
The time has come again for another dreaded Pace family reunion. Anna can feel the weight of her family’s weariness and judgment as soon as she enters their private Italian villa. But Anna has vowed to keep the peace during this trip, to stay amicable and pleasant, no matter what happens. And it almost seems it could be easy, as Anna finds herself surrounded by beautiful architecture, rich culture and a historic Italian home to reside in. But this festive family vacation doesn’t turn out to be another test of her normalcy, as strange occurrences begin to litter their days. Pockets of cold, nightly moaning and dreams, doors closing, food rotting, and a strange tower that is blocked off from all guests. As her family’s intricate dynamics poke and prod at her sanity, visions of floating bodies and bloodied patrons of the past begin to sharpen her senses. There is evil in this house, but where does it come from?
“…there was something idiosyncratic about Villa Taccola. The whole house suggested pentimenti, original brushstrokes covered over by something else. The same object in a different style. Past mistakes hidden by fresh paint.
What mistakes had been made here?”
Our MC is Anna, an artist who works at a marketing firm who utilizes her drawings for advertisements. Anna thinks in lines, sketches, brush strokes and lighting. It is clear very early on that she has an eye for artistic expression and sees the finer details that others may quickly overlook. But when we meet Anna, there is a thick fog of mystery around her. She is clearly hesitant about being with her family again, and it immediately made me wonder if I had a Saltburn collection of rich weirdos on my hands.
Unfortunately, not.
As soon as Anna arrives at the villa, there is a sense of foreboding and mystery. But the million dollar question is: is it the house or just her passive-aggressive family?
OoOoOo the suspense!
It’s quickly clear that Anna’s family are a bunch of judgey, rude, self-centered and rigid assholes.
To put it nicely.
“…there were only so many times Anna could stand like a seawall and let the waves hit her again and again, unmoving.”
Everyone seems to have a grudge or hesitancy around Anna that she, quite impressively, lets slide off her. This is a constant theme with her family, the polarizing effect she seems to have on them, but our Anna behaves rather maturely and unbothered by their antics – which I found really admirable. Had it been me, I would be telling everyone to go f**k themselves.
“I’m not a lost lamb. I’m a black sheep.”
So as our story progresses during this family trip, there’s a sense that something isn’t quite right with Anna, according to her siblings and parents. There are stories from the past that are alluded to, indifference and indignation from her parents, and downright hostility from her siblings more times than not. But while we stumble into oblivion and let our imaginations run wild (me kindly hoping she splatters the walls with her kin) the real mystery here is Villa Taccola.
“The smell hit Anna first. Stale. Dust of ages, a pharaoh’s tomb. Then she felt the weight.
The air in here was active. It had intent.”
A beautiful old farmhouse, the villa is an Italian vacation dream. Though there is a tower that is locked and a black antique key the caretaker said NOT to use to open it (suspicious), odd sounds at night, dozens of stray cats, frightening and vivid dreams of the past, and hallucinations of dead bodies in the pool. But Anna seems to be the only person really experiencing the spooky effects of the house, or seeing apparitions and mangled bodies.
But as the vacation goes on, time begins to skip unnaturally and the tension between Anna and her family becomes taut. Until everything eventually explodes.
Now without giving anything away, I will continue in vague descriptions.
By the end of the book, I still hate Anna’s family and wish a lot worse had been done to them. Anna’s progression as a character starts out with her keeping a leash on herself, and by the end of the book our girl is letting it ALL. HANG. OUT. And I love her for every flawed, chaotic, crazed, and sassy moment of it. Because there were moments in this book where I was DYING laughing out loud. Because she does not care one iota.
“Could you back the fuck off for two seconds? I am monologuing!”
I found the story to be a little slow at first in terms of the plot, but the family dynamics were what propelled it forward until we really got into the thick of the mystery. I liked the switch back to Anna’s normal life and how her character unravels, especially with the hotdog scene that catapults everything into motion.
Truly, a work of art.
I think this book was great, a truly lovely paranormal horror that had humor, character progression, death, twists and turns, and an ending that rounded the story out well. I think Jennifer Marie Thorne will be an author I keep my eyes on in the future, especially if she continues writing in this genre.
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