A sapphic reimagining of The Turn of the Screw, yes please! And boy did this book deliver on the ominous, growing fear that the classic novel was so good at. From the moment Marin arrives in her threadbare clothes and Wren is standoffish you know something is wrong and Marin has nowhere to escape to if something bad happens. And, as Marin navigates the grief of her mother's death, she must also help the children as they grieve the death of their father that happened not too long ago. This book deals heavily in grief and the need to confront your emotions and the pain of loss. Bottling grief, in this case, quite literally causes chaos and terror. Marin and Evie were so cautious with each other, knowing their pain, knowing the power imbalance, knowing that something is wrong with Alice, and then finding out the truth of Marin's mother. They navigate from distrust, to friendship, to understanding and the love builds so naturally between them. Both care deeply for the other and have already faced such terrors for their age. It was also nice to see the character growth of Marin as she needed to work through some of her own fears and anxieties in order to protect those she cares about. The premise of the story was interesting and I actually liked the vagueness of Evie's gift and family inheritance. It was dark, creepy, and at times too terrifying to trust that these young women could survive. This book also talks about culpability and choices. What would you do with the power to revive those you love from death? Even if they come back wrong, if they do not want to return, if it means having only part of them? It is such a hard question, because you never know until that choice is laid before you. Initially you would want them back, but you would need to truly grasp what that would mean for the person not returning whole. And is it really them? Or just a facsimile? This book is about confronting death, both emotionally and physically, It is about accepting death, all the hard parts of it, of saying goodbye, of grieving fully. Marin continuously remembers the last moments of her mother's life and her mother simply asking her to "let go." It is the exact thing that both these young women must do in order to truly live. Also, I will always read a book where the house itself feels like a character. Where the corridors and hallways, the rooms and the basement, feel like they are breathing as the characters move through them. Traverse the caverns hidden underneath, smell the salt of the sea in the wood. This estate was like all great gothic estates, it bled atmosphere and apprehension. It fed Marin's fear, it built up Evie's sadness, it encouraged Wren's behaviour, and it weighed heavily on Alice (all the memories and moments within the house punishing and pulverizing her as she desperately missed her husband). And the greenhouse with Evie's obsession with flowers, the bizarre flowers she cares for, reflecting the nature of the house and grounds around them.
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