Great premise, cool mixed-media delivery. Beautiful imagery, super creepy atmosphere

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This story had my attention from the first words. It is presented in a "found footage" format (and I love that approach!) It opens with scraps of radio transcripts from 1973, sent by residents of Landontown, on the island of Bitter Rock, Alaska. It seems there was a violent storm with strong winds and flooding. The residents report that they're not alone, that there are figures everywhere in the mist. They beg for evacuation, for help. A later transmission directs any listeners to avoid Bitter Rock, to not come there under any circumstances. Then the transmission abruptly ends. We learn that the 31 residents of Landontown disappeared without a trace after the last transmission. No bodies were ever recovered. From here the narrative moves to modern day, and the story moves forward utilizing a mixed variety of medias - from interviews to written testimony, snippets of video from social media, posts on internet message boards. The story moves to Sophia Novak, a young woman who was orphaned at age 3, and grew up in foster homes. Her earliest memories are of drowning, although she had never been to the ocean. She thought her drowning memories were just nightmares, nothing more, until she was contacted by Abby Ryder. Abby called Sophia out of the blue to ask her what she knew about her mom's disappearance and about Bitter Rock. Abby grew up believing that her mother had died in a hospital in Montana after an accident. Abby had a picture of a 3 year old Sophia and her mother at a beach on Bitter Rock. Abby was piecing together distressing events that had happened on the island and had found a pattern of disappearances that couldn't just be a coincidence. There had been more than just the residents of Landontown. The Krachka, a fishing boat whose crew went missing. There was an airbase on the island during World War II which was abandoned without explanation. A commune was wiped off the map. Three ornithologists disappeared without a trace. Sophia senses that this island is her history, and she intends to unravel it's mysteries.

I love the premise of this book. "All stories turn into ghost stories if you wait long enough…" There are dark forces at work on this island, and we have no idea of what, how or why. We can sense that Sophia has suffered a loss to this creepy, desolate island. I like her spunkiness right off the bat. The island is currently being used as an aviation research center, and Sophia has wrangled her way into an internship. After reading the excerpt provided, I was super curious to see what she does next, and to read what she finds out about her history and about the island. The author uses a very lovely descriptive prose, carefully illustrating everything that the narrator is seeing, smelling and feeling as she travels to the island.
"The sea had been a constant since we left the shore; the water had sloshed, sucked, and slapped at the sides of the boat. But now a new sound reached us: a sibilant crashing of water meeting rock…" I could really picture myself in the boat, and feel what she was feeling: : "The engine thrummed through me, singing in my bones…"
And the sights and sounds as she first stepped onto the island: "The wind made the grass hiss, like the island already disapproved of my presence…"
This vivid imagery creates a deliciously creepy atmosphere of fear and dream. I felt very compelled to hear how the rest of the story unfolds. I'm very much looking forward to the rest of this book.