From Goodreads
In the tradition of Neil Gaiman (The Ocean at the End of the Lane), Scott Smith (The Ruins), and Jason Mott (The Returned),
award-winning playwright Robert Levy spins a dark tale of alienation
and belonging, the familiar and the surreal, family secrets and the
search for truth in his debut supernatural thriller.
When up-and-coming chef Michael “Blue” Whitley returns with three friends to the remote Canadian community of his birth, it appears to be the perfect getaway from New York. He soon discovers, however, that everything he thought he knew about himself is a carefully orchestrated lie. Though he had no recollection of the event, as a young boy Blue and another child went missing for weeks in the idyllic, mysterious woods of Starling Cove. Soon thereafter, his mother suddenly fled with him to America, their homeland left behind.
But then Blue begins to remember. And once the shocking truth starts bleeding back into his life, his closest friends—Elisa, his former partner in crime; her stalwart husband, Jason; and Gabe, Blue’s young and admiring co-worker—must unravel the secrets of Starling Cove and the artists’ colony it once harbored. All four will face their troubled pasts, their most private demons, and a mysterious race of beings that inhabits the land, spoken of by the locals only as the Other Kind…
When up-and-coming chef Michael “Blue” Whitley returns with three friends to the remote Canadian community of his birth, it appears to be the perfect getaway from New York. He soon discovers, however, that everything he thought he knew about himself is a carefully orchestrated lie. Though he had no recollection of the event, as a young boy Blue and another child went missing for weeks in the idyllic, mysterious woods of Starling Cove. Soon thereafter, his mother suddenly fled with him to America, their homeland left behind.
But then Blue begins to remember. And once the shocking truth starts bleeding back into his life, his closest friends—Elisa, his former partner in crime; her stalwart husband, Jason; and Gabe, Blue’s young and admiring co-worker—must unravel the secrets of Starling Cove and the artists’ colony it once harbored. All four will face their troubled pasts, their most private demons, and a mysterious race of beings that inhabits the land, spoken of by the locals only as the Other Kind…
My thoughts
My thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for the opportunity to read this story in exchange for an honest review. I gave this a 7/10 or 3.5 stars.
This is a debut novel by Robert Levy, classed as a supernatural thriller. I found it to be quite a well written magical quirky read. The story is told in four parts featuring on different people, but with the story flowing through each part.
It tells the story of Michael (Blue) and three friends as he returns to the place that he grew up in. On his return to the remote community he came from, things that happened in his past that he had little recollecton of come to light. He was one of two young children who went missing to return some time later. What happened to them while they were away? As the past and present begin to blur with one another and both he and his friends become interwoven into certain events, you the reader begin to wonder whether the decision Blue made to return was the right one for him and for his friends to go with him.
I'd rather not go into too much story detail as it would be so easy to spoil the story for others and personally I hate reviews that do that.
I enjoyed the story for the most part and can thoroughly recommend it to others. If you like a book that stretches your imagination and takes you out of the real world then this is one of those books. In some ways it's a fairy tale with a dark sinister centre written for adults.
I will look out for more stories by this Author and I was drawn to this one as much by it's cover as the synopsis.
The story is now available for purchase.
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