Source: Goodreads
Maria Dark is returning to Connecticut for the first time in 15 years, ready to start over surrounded by her family at their little house between Bell Stream and the big old brick women’s prison. Not everything is as wonderful as she dreams, however, and soon everyone’s secrets begin to make life in the sleepy seaside town of Hatauquitit complicated, and even downright dangerous.
I picked this book up in August 2016 while I was babysitting in Boston. I was running out of things to read because I hadn’t anticipated just how much a 4-month-old can sleep when I came upon this book in one of those Little Free Libraries. I was intrigued by the title, cover, and location of the story, and brought it home with me. It didn’t hurt that Maria is a “nomad archaeologist” and I just thought that sounded extra cool.
The story starts off innocently enough, but about a third of the way in, it starts hinting at a darker core. I’m not usually one for dark or scary stories, but I was in too deep to back out of this one by that point. The inconsistencies in characters stories fascinated me even as it brought Maria closer to the truth. With some care questioning and superb intuition, Maria unravels the secrets being kept and finds a way to keep a calm and collected head on her shoulders as they all deal with the aftermath.
Honestly, this book kind of blew my mind. I finished it at one o’clock in the morning and immediately pulled out my phone to message one of my communications professors who also teaches women’s studies and like dark stories among other cool things, and told her she needed to read it immediately. It has so many twists and turns! It’s rare for me to be unable to guess the plot of a story or where it’s going/will end up, but this stumped me again and again until the very, very last second. Amazing. I’m only taking a half-star off, and that’s because it tricked me into reading something much darker than I usually like.
HHC Rating: 4.5 Stars