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A shattering thriller about three women, strangers, on a heart-wrenching collision course none of them could have seen coming. Long after anyone expected Kate to do anything with her life, she did. Using the journals left behind by her aunt and grandmother, she wrote a novel based on a very real generation-old love story that ended in tragedy. On the other side of town, Emily is about to set fire to her life. She's in a dead-end job and is involved with the wrong man; she can feel herself being drawn into darkness, with horrific consequences. With nowhere to go, she finds herself on the run. Without knowing each other, and with lives that couldn't be more different, Kate and Emily head to the same point on the map: Heart Island, an idyllic place in the middle of a lake in the Adirondacks, owned for generations by Birdie Burke's family. The harsh and unyielding Birdie is at one with this island, which has a terrifying history all its own. She, too, has consequences to face. Heartbroken is a tense, mesmerizing novel about the limits of dysfunctional families, of an island haunted by dark memories and restless ghosts, and of the all-too-real demons we must battle. Wonderfully suspenseful, exquisitely crafted, and written with raw, emotional power, this is Lisa Unger at her very best. Praise for Heartbroken "Stellar. . . . Heartbroken should be on everyone's summer to-read list. For best results, read it alone on an island on a dark and stormy night."--USA Today (4 stars) "Heartbroken has all the makings of a high-wire thriller. But it's the twisted psyches of its main characters that really unsettle. . . . Unger expertly shows how quiet betrayals can rupture a life as deeply as an act of violence."--People (3 ½ stars) "A can't-put-down thriller interlaced with insightful family drama and echoes of Wuthering Heights."--Family Circle "Lisa Unger is one of the few women to first break into the genre of thrillers, then to dominate it."--Minneapolis Star Tribune "Lisa Unger masterfully writes of the joys and frustrations of family life in her latest novel. . . . What makes [it] shine is the struggle of multidimensional characters with issues that all of us face but sometimes don't want to acknowledge."--Associated Press… (more)
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What made her this way is the reason for this story. Perhaps I should say stories,
because there are always many threads woven into any good story.
Kate, her husband Sean and her children are preparing for yet another
Heart Island to spend time with Kate's mother Birdie. They all feel a strange mixture
of anticipation and dread, but for different reasons. But they went to the island every
year, and Kate really had no idea how to avoid it. Her children liked it there, she had
some good feelings for the place as well. But Birdie, her mother, was an enigma. Time spent
with her was rarely pleasant or comfortable. But going was the right thing to do, wasn't it?
Emilie had no husband, no children and in fact her own mother was more like Kate's. Cold
and not very loving to her daughter. That was one thing that they seemed to have in common.
The only thing that they seemed to have in common. Yet, meeting each other in an unlikely place
would change both of their lives forever. It is well worth following the threads to find
the story of how and why.
recommended
This was the fourth book I had read by Lisa Unger and I look forward to reading her future books. Her stream-lined style of writing draws the reader in the story very quickly and takes you along for a noteworthy and fascinating ride.
The
Unger intertwines the past and the present into narrative about the twists and turns that some family relationships seem to contain… especially about the connection between mothers and daughters. Birdie’s daughter Kate is closer to her aunt, Caroline (Birdie’s sister) and uses journals from her family to write her first book about Heart Island.
Unger cleverly interweaves several story lines into a climax that takes place on Heart Island, during stormy weather, and brings all the characters together for a thrilling conclusion.
I recommend this book by Lisa Unger as a thriller you will want to read and additionally as an introduction to an author to add to your “to read” list.
For me the story was definitely worth the patience required to hang in for the first few chapters. There are three main characters: Kate, happily married but having deferred a lifelong dream; Birdie, proud and controlling owner of Heart Island, and Emily, naively in love with the wrong man and caught in a series of poor choices. Birdie turned out to be the most compelling character for me, perhaps because she was so multifaceted and complex where Kate and Emily were a bit more one-dimensional.
Heart Island is almost its own character, in its wild isolation and with its mysterious past, hints of island ghosts, and the undeniable hold it has had over Birdie’s family for years. It pulls the characters of this novel together with almost magnet-like force, to a suspenseful, tension-filled climax that’s a good payoff to the slow build of the story. The setting was the most powerful element in the novel, creating a delightfully spooky atmosphere. It’s a good summer read that kept me turning the pages until late.
I definitely had a hard time putting the book down. no matter
My only complaint was the ending. There was too much left hanging and I felt as if the author was either in a hurry or needed to tie up loose ends. Maybe there will be a sequel, but I felt let down after being so absorbed. It was an "oh. huh. ok." moment.
I will definitely read more by Unger.