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A twisty gothic debut about two women—who shared an intense, toxic friendship as children—reconnecting at a secluded house deep in the swamplands of Florida It’s been years since Ingrid has heard from her childhood best friend, Mayra, a fearless rebel who fled their hometown of Miami for college in the Northeast. But when Mayra calls out of the blue to invite Ingrid to a weekend at a house in the Everglades, Ingrid impulsively accepts. From the moment Ingrid sets out for the house, danger looms: the directions to the house are difficult, she’s out of reach of cell service, and the wet maw of the swamp threatens to swallow her up as she drives deeper into the Everglades. But once she arrives, the two women settle into the familiar intimacy of each other’s company—their reunion only spoiled by the reemergence of past disagreements, and the unexpected presence of Mayra’s new boyfriend Benji. The trio spend their hours hiking around the property, eating lavish meals, and exploring the labyrinthine house, which has belonged to Benji’s family for many generations. In the house and its grounds, time itself seems to stretch and expand, and Ingrid begins to lose a sense of the outside world, and herself. When Ingrid finds an aged journal that holds a clue to understanding the house, she must fight to hold onto herself while uncovering the journal’s secrets, or risk being subsumed by the insatiable draw of the house forever.
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First off thank you Netgalley and Random House for the eARC.
What can I say about this book,
1. it was really well written, I cannot believe this is Nicky Gonzalez debut novel. The writing alone had me hooked and kept me engaged.
Herein lies the problem, I was engaged and really enjoyed reading the prose, however nothing every really happened. You would start piecing together what was going on, the atmosphere would become tense, and there was an extremely slow burn heading to something magical. Then it kind of fizzled out and turned into a bad LSD or Acid trip, I had to reread several passages of the last 15% just to make sure I could at least pretend to grasp what was going on.
Although I did not particularly like the story after the 85% mark, the first 85% was absolutely flawless.
I will definitely be adding Nicky to my authors to follow for no other reason alone than I really enjoyed the time I spent reading her artistic way of tying the English language together.