Tamar Glass fled an abusive mother when she was eighteen, running away from home to find a better life elsewhere. She has lived in freedom from her mother, Ruth, for decades, until one night she wakes to find her now-elderly mother standing over her bed.
As Tamar takes in her mother, strange events start happening inside her the house is oppressively hot, lights flicker, and cupboards open and shut on their own. Whispers filter beneath her bedroom door. Tamar learns that Ruth has been kicked out of her assisted living home and other facilities refuse to house her and endanger their own residents. Tamar has spent years suppressing her childhood trauma, but it comes rushing back with each strange event in her home. As Tamar copes with their disturbing past which her mother stubbornly refuses to admit to, Tamar can’t shake the feeling that there’s something worse than her mother lurking in the shadows.
Perfect for fans of The Haunting of Hill House, this terrifying novel unravels one dark strand at a time.
Tamar Glass grew up in a house where she was neglected at best and physically and emotionally abused at worst. Or maybe that wasn't even the worst. Maybe the worst was the thing standing over her bed, the whispers coming from the drains, the complete and utter aloneness she felt in knowing that there was nowhere to turn, and nobody to believe her. Maybe the worst was seeing how her mother doted on her sister, while never sparing an ounce of love or kindness for Tamar. Or maybe the worst was yet to come.
After barely escaping with her life, she never looked back. She is close to her sister but has avoided her mother as much as possible for the past 3 decades. Until the night she awoke to her mother appearing in her bedroom, having left the elderly housing apartment in the middle of the night and walked barefoot all the way to Tamar's house. Now she is stuck with her. The elderly housing complex is kicking her out, for unspecified reasons although something sinister is implied. No other home will take her. Tamar feels duty-bound to care for her until other arrangements can be made, but the creepy happenings that plagued her childhood are starting again.
For me, the pacing was perfect. Secrets are gradually revealed, and disturbing incidents that at first appear to be the normal progression of dementia taking hold of a woman who was never particularly kind to begin with turn undeniably to supernatural evil. Mina Hardy has combined a dysfunctional family dynamic with Jewish Folklore for the win. I loved this book.
5 out of 5 stars.
My thanks to Crooked Lane Books
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