“I don’t think you’re doing it on purpose. But something is. And I don’t want to be the only one who sees it.”
If you have been on the horror side of Booktok or Horrorstagram at all this year, you’ve I like to come across this absolutely stunning cover for Rebecca Noble’s debut. At least for me, the cover definitely drew my attention, as well as Rebecca’s relentless and unique approaches to promoting the book.
I knew immediately it was one that I wanted to give a shot to, so I purchased this not long after release date.
I was lately intimidated because I haven’t read a book, stop or quite like this, in a while, but I finished a couple of short novellas and then immediately got to work.
And boy, was I not disappointed.
Unfortunately, life was kicking my ass a little bit, and reading time wasn’t as sparing, so I got about halfway through and I set it down for a bit. This has nothing to do with this book’s quality and everything to do with me, but I mention it because the book is so engrossing that I hopped right back in and it was like I hadn’t missed a beat.
After the crash that killed their parents, and left six-year-old Sadie hanging behind what was left of them, her older sister Amara is forced into the role of guardian. Taking Sadie to a quiet mountain town, into a house she had already been building, Amara hopes for a fresh start.
From the second they step inside, the house feels off. It looks perfect, but nothing about it sits right. Sadie starts experiencing things that don’t just stay in dreams. Things that follow her into the waking world. Amara wakes up bruised, worn down, with clear signs of violence on her body, but no memory of where it came from.
Perhaps something had already been waiting for her…
Noble’s ability to twist words and make her prose is incomparable, almost every line is a piece of poetry, written with vivid clarity. Not in a try hard way either, but in a calculated way. I can’t think of any debut with the precision of craft in which she executes this novel.
The characters Noble created were also equally as vivid, as if they stepped out of reality and into the page.
Sadie was such a relatable kid (and one after my own heart). I found myself wanting to just give her the biggest hug and tell her that everything was going to be all right multiple times throughout the book.
Amara, for me any way, was even more relatable. The struggle of between a young women with her whole life ahead of her and being forced into a parent/guardian role was always apparent and balanced extremely well. I felt like I had known her for years and I could easily see myself being friends with her (or more. Duke’s up Knox 😝).
If I was going to be nitpicky (for the sake of honest review), I would have liked to see a little more on Amara’s relationship with her parents. The loss of her parents was such a key point in Sadie’s narrative and that void from her perspective is explored in quite a lot more detail than Amara’s perspective (This isn’t even a complaint, I just feel the need to add some sort of criticism so I don’t feel like I am kissing the author’s ass the entire time — which she is entirely deserving of).
Honestly, this debut is spectacular and has me questioning literally every aspect of my capabilities as a writer.
Rebecca Noble has created an utterly amazing door stopper of a book that will have you questioning how turning so many fucking pages can happen so quickly.
I am immediately jumping into a BETA read that she was kind of enough to share with me because she is the newest entry to my list of auto-buy authors.
Noble is an author you need to keep your eye on. I literally cannot wait for whatever she comes out with next.
You can buy it here through my affiliate links that I will get a insignificant percentage from that will help me to continue bringing you content like this and more.
Canada: https://amzn.to/3QfJSNK
SPOILERS BELOW:
I clocked the Knox twist pretty early, but that didn’t diminish my experience at all (I usually figure stuff out).
That ending though, caught me surprise. Fuck you, Rebecca. Fuck you.