Name: The Salt House
ISBN: 9781501156557

Lisa Duffy

"A gorgeously written debut novel set during a Maine summer, about a family navigating the confusing contradictions of grief, love, and hope after an unforgettable accident."--

A Novel

The Salt House

Colleen

3 Stars

I always look for books set in Maine, so The Salt House caught my eye even though contemporary dramas are not my main genre. But I like to mix things up, and the story sounded interesting. 

I started out listening to the audiobook narrated by Laurence Bouvard who is apparently from Massachusetts. Someone probably should have told the publishers that Maine accents and Massachusetts accents are not interchangeable. By Chapter 4 I had to turn it off. She couldn't even say lobster right, and if there is one damn word you need to get right with a Down East accent it's lobster. Plus she made the youngest character sound high pitched and squeaky. So I switched to the paperback and was much happier.

The Salt House tells the story of the Kelly family whose youngest daughter died. It starts out at a year after the tragedy. The family is already at rock bottom. Unfortunately, that made it hard to connect with any of the characters initially. Instead of getting to know the characters and being able to feel their emotions as events unfold, the narration just drops you into their darkest time. While I felt a general empathy over their tragedy, it was hard to feel anything gut-wrenching when I was still trying to figure out who was who and what had happened. 

The story is told in alternating turns by four narrators: Hope and Jack Kelly and their surviving daughters Kat and Jess. All four POV are told in first person. I'm not fond of first person often and even less so of alternating narration in first person. It's just a personal preference. The four narrators in The Salt House were distinct from each other at least. Hope's storyline was the most emotional. Kat's storyline was the weakest, and I was not particularly interested in her segments.

I did become more engrossed in the story as it went on. There were moments that were raw and poignant, but I still felt disconnected much of the time. Duffy certainly did an accurate job portraying the consuming grief and how it can destroy a family. Grief can be one of the hardest things in life. Not just grief itself but understanding that people grieve in different ways and at different paces. There were times while reading The Salt House that I wavered between touching emotion and just feeling depressed by the story. But I have never been one to enjoy tearjerkers just for the sake of crying. 

The story was good overall although some of the subplots were stretched a bit thin and the ending was a rushed. I thought it was building up to a more emotional climax, but right when it got to the most critical moment the story jumped ahead then told the events in a quick recap which was disappointing. There was some good symbolism, but then she over-explained the symbolism instead of leaving it as a subtle undertone.

Although this story did not resonate with me as deeply as I was hoping, it was still a good story and a promising debut. I would probably recommend it to those who enjoy contemporary fiction / realistic dramas. 


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 3 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 3 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

Cindy

Review:

This book took a while for me to get into, actually it took me the whole book. I did not have the heart to DNF this one. I think that it was just to sad and depressing for my taste. This book is very well written with a beautiful setting on the coast of Maine. The main character Hope is trying g to come back from a year long depression due to her baby's death.  I felt so sad for this family as each member has a voice and is telling their own story of dealing with this death and the pain that they are in. Each character is well developed and I would have to say that Hope was on my mind the most during this book. Her grief and pain just jumped off the pages and for that I have to commend the author on writing such a beautiful story. It just did not hit the mark with me.

Wrap Up:

I am sure that many readers will absolutely love this book, I just found it too sad and I just could not get past that feeling.This review was originally posted on Cindy's Book Binge

The Salt House A Novel

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