The problem was always you. [Girls of Brackenhill by Kate Moretti]

Haunted by her sister’s disappearance, a troubled woman becomes consumed by past secrets in this gripping thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Year.

When Hannah Maloney’s aunt dies in a car accident, she returns to her family’s castle in the Catskills and the epicenter of a childhood trauma: her sister’s unsolved disappearance. It’s been seventeen years, and though desperate to start a new life with her fiancé, Hannah is compelled to question the events of her last summer at Brackenhill.

When a human bone is found near the estate, Hannah is convinced it belongs to her long-lost sister. She launches her own investigation into that magical summer that ended in a nightmare. As strange happenings plague the castle, Hannah uncovers disturbing details about the past and startling realizations about her own repressed childhood memories.

Fueled by guilt over her sister’s vanishing, Hannah becomes obsessed with discovering what happened all those years ago, but by the time Hannah realizes some mysteries are best left buried, it’s too late to stop digging. Overwhelmed by what she has exposed, Hannah isn’t sure her new life can survive her old ghosts.

I saw a TikTok recently that was recapping one reader's gripes with the plot of a YA book. While Kate Moretti's Girls of Brackenhill isn't YA, there's still some overlap. The most visible was the relationship our protagonist, Hannah, had as a teenager with a boy significantly older than her. I am aware that an age difference of three or four years between teenagers of that age has been normalized, through history and ongoing cultural practices, that that is a reality for many, but reading about it will never be unnerving for me. For my reading experiences it will always be very awkward and inappropriate. 

Seeing Hannah's weird fixation and romanticizing of an obviously toxic relationship just felt was sad, not like some love story. But okay, she's a broken person with trauma doing her best to survive. And that's a lot of the horror of the story, how neglected she was. But maybe then we should have focused more on her mother, on vilifying her mother? It was just a legacy of unfortunate living surrounding this one family for some reason. Most disappointing was the realization, the reveal that this was not a gothic horror. At least not in the sense of this being the story of a house with innate supernatural elements that contributed to a sordid and mysterious history. It was just a mess of family drama and murders where ghosts are around for some unexplained reason. 

Thinking of the story in its entirety, was it edifying? Sure, if the point is to say that sexual trauma is insidious and that loveless relationships for security, but in terms of the overall story? Not at all. Was it entertaining? Not really. There was no clear villain or hero, everyone's actions had an angle of justification. More than anything I was annoyed with Hannah, her mother, and the lack of clear motivation for most pivotal actors. But I guess that's life? Anyway, 2 stars from me.

Girls of Brackenhill is due for publication November 15, 2020.