B

Eventide

Eventide is an atmospheric story with an unusual setting and plot complications that I did not see coming. This book is simply but descriptively written and the hinted supernatural element is suitably creepy, but the plot doesn’t quite hang together and some threads are resolved too easily.

I’m getting cranky about books that promise me a haunt and end up pulling a Scooby Doo instead, so here’s a quick spoiler as to whether the book actually has supernatural elements or not:

Show Spoiler

Some of both, but a lot of the story is supernatural. I’ll try not to spoil the supernatural parts.

Verity and Lilah come to Wheeler, Arkansas from New York City in 1907 on an orphan train. Their mother is dead and their father, a doctor, has been institutionalized due to mental illness. The girls are quickly placed with different families – Verity with farmers and Lilah with the town teacher, Miss Maeve. Both households are kind and allow visits between the sisters, and Verity becomes attracted to her fellow farmhand, Abel. However, the woods surrounding the town and fields are menacing and forbidden, and strange phenomena occur near the well in the woods. The ensuing story is essentially a historical supernatural mystery with elements of thriller and romance, and several surprising twists.

Verity has a strong voice and is a fun character – her flaws are consistent and understandable and her virtues (a willingness to admit when she’s wrong, and dogged determination) are commendable. Verity is determined and stubborn and there’s something satisfying about seeing her get her teeth into an idea (metaphorically speaking) and chew away at it until she’s proved wrong or right.

Verity’s romance with Abel is not the focus of the story, which is much more about Verity’s attempts to provide for her sister even when that might mean letting her go. It’s an emotionally rich story with a lot of internal conflict even before the supernatural intrudes, with ideas about family, home, ambition, and responsibility colliding for both Verity and Abel.

I found this book to be engrossing if not wholly believable. It strains credibility while also being mysterious and exciting. I enjoyed the use of the orphan train as a device since that’s a part of history that I’m interested in and that doesn’t get much attention. I especially enjoyed the different expectations of the families and the fact that Verity’s new family subverted my expectations by being matter-of-fact but also kind and patient (not all orphan train children were so fortunate). There’s a real sense of work and of place and great delight when New Yorker Verity drops her first “Y’all,” followed quickly by a well-timed and well-utilized, “Bless your heart.” Verity has many flaws (her very first response to being told not to go into the woods is to go into the woods) but her love for her sister is powerful and moving.

Readers should be prepared for an ending which is, romantically and otherwise, sort of happy? Sort of not? I’d say that the resolution of the book will leave some readers mostly content and others completely horrified. It’s quite a whammy. Even though this book does not hold up to strenuous questioning, I was entertained by it and at times genuinely creeped out. This is a good Halloween read which will entertain without being too taxing or traumatizing, which is exactly what I like.

– Carrie S

MADNESS, SECRETS, AND THE LENGTHS WE’LL GO TO KEEP THEM BURIED
Wheeler, Arkansas, 1907
When her father descends into madness, Verity Pruitt and her little sister Lilah find themselves uprooted from New York, on an orphan train to rural Arkansas.
In Wheeler, Lilah is quickly adopted by the town’s beloved schoolteacher—but Verity is not. Willing to do anything to stay close, she pawns herself off 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.