I had seen this book on plenty of TBRs and several book vlogs and suggestion videos, and so once I read the brief synopsis I felt like this book would be something I would like to read, especially since Fall and Halloween are coming. I was able to get it quite quickly at my local public library and started reading it as soon as I got it. I read through the first half --almost-- very fast and was really loving the story and then it just fell flat for me. I have had a lot going on this past week including a very traumatic experience, so perhaps my reading was affected by that, but I am not sure. Regardless, I finished this book a few days ago and I did sort of enjoy how it was tied up.
This book begins with a letter from a father to his son. In the letter, the father apologizes for monsters and it offers a resolution to events in their past which become the focus on the book. The father Tom Kennedy, and his son Jake are moving to a different city after the death of their wife/mother Rebecca. Tom is a writer and is stuck in a writing rut while Jake can't get the traumatic imagery of his dead mother out of this mind. They settle on a weird-looking house in the quiet town of Featherbank. Little do they know, 20 years earlier this quiet town was the scene of a set of gruesome murders and The Whisper Man who was known for whispering into the windows of his victims. Jake is a very imaginative boy with childhood trauma and a packet of special things that he carries around with him at all times. Throughout the story, events make it seem like The Whisper Man may be back, although he was put behind bars years ago. Another young boy has gone missing, while a cold case is still open from 20 years ago.
I don't want to give too much away here because there are a lot of things that happen and a lot of plot twists that are paced throughout the book. The part that I really struggled with in this book was the pacing....actually. It was difficult for me to realize it as I was reading, but this book is nicely even when it comes to events and it unfolds well. Perhaps I was just too eager to find out what was happening. Also, there is a nice mix of supernatural and natural events that come together to make a really interesting story and add some flair to this murder mystery/thriller. I enjoyed how this was obviously a human story, but it didn't leave out elements that are beyond our control. I also liked how there wasn't an overload of details and elements related to the supernatural at the beginning or the ending, but they seemed to be distributed.
I really loved the connection between father and child; I feel like this isn't a story that is written often or thought about. Usually, we hear or read about a mother or woman's intuition about a child versus a father's or a man's. This story really turns that upside down and focuses on the father-son/child bond but doesn't just throw out the connection to the mother. It also uses a lot of details about the emotional bond between a father and his children. Again, this isn't something that we are used to reading about or even viewed as similar to a mother's. If this story was centered around a mother and her child, we would probably expect whatever happens rather than being surprised when it comes to a father and child. I liked reading this alternate telling, although it should be normalized. I was really surprised at the end when some things are revealed and loved that tie up and connection. I felt like that plot twist was well done, and not expected by me at all.
Overall, this was a really interesting story to read. I haven't read a proper murder/serial killer thriller in a bit that I can remember, so it was a nice refreshing into a genre that I like to read but just forget about. I felt like the story was well done. Although there was a lag in the middle, it seemed like it picked back up just after and finished up nicely. The ending of this book, and what The Whisper Man says at the end was quite chilling. It is a little open-ended, so I am curious what the author meant to be understood in that scene.
This would be a great book to read around the spooky Halloween season because it is quite creepy and disturbing and has some really strong and frightening imagery at times. The story delves into the dark sides of human activity and the psyche while maintaining a core of humanity, love, and redemption.
This book begins with a letter from a father to his son. In the letter, the father apologizes for monsters and it offers a resolution to events in their past which become the focus on the book. The father Tom Kennedy, and his son Jake are moving to a different city after the death of their wife/mother Rebecca. Tom is a writer and is stuck in a writing rut while Jake can't get the traumatic imagery of his dead mother out of this mind. They settle on a weird-looking house in the quiet town of Featherbank. Little do they know, 20 years earlier this quiet town was the scene of a set of gruesome murders and The Whisper Man who was known for whispering into the windows of his victims. Jake is a very imaginative boy with childhood trauma and a packet of special things that he carries around with him at all times. Throughout the story, events make it seem like The Whisper Man may be back, although he was put behind bars years ago. Another young boy has gone missing, while a cold case is still open from 20 years ago.
I don't want to give too much away here because there are a lot of things that happen and a lot of plot twists that are paced throughout the book. The part that I really struggled with in this book was the pacing....actually. It was difficult for me to realize it as I was reading, but this book is nicely even when it comes to events and it unfolds well. Perhaps I was just too eager to find out what was happening. Also, there is a nice mix of supernatural and natural events that come together to make a really interesting story and add some flair to this murder mystery/thriller. I enjoyed how this was obviously a human story, but it didn't leave out elements that are beyond our control. I also liked how there wasn't an overload of details and elements related to the supernatural at the beginning or the ending, but they seemed to be distributed.
I really loved the connection between father and child; I feel like this isn't a story that is written often or thought about. Usually, we hear or read about a mother or woman's intuition about a child versus a father's or a man's. This story really turns that upside down and focuses on the father-son/child bond but doesn't just throw out the connection to the mother. It also uses a lot of details about the emotional bond between a father and his children. Again, this isn't something that we are used to reading about or even viewed as similar to a mother's. If this story was centered around a mother and her child, we would probably expect whatever happens rather than being surprised when it comes to a father and child. I liked reading this alternate telling, although it should be normalized. I was really surprised at the end when some things are revealed and loved that tie up and connection. I felt like that plot twist was well done, and not expected by me at all.
Overall, this was a really interesting story to read. I haven't read a proper murder/serial killer thriller in a bit that I can remember, so it was a nice refreshing into a genre that I like to read but just forget about. I felt like the story was well done. Although there was a lag in the middle, it seemed like it picked back up just after and finished up nicely. The ending of this book, and what The Whisper Man says at the end was quite chilling. It is a little open-ended, so I am curious what the author meant to be understood in that scene.
This would be a great book to read around the spooky Halloween season because it is quite creepy and disturbing and has some really strong and frightening imagery at times. The story delves into the dark sides of human activity and the psyche while maintaining a core of humanity, love, and redemption.