Claire Douglas's writing is brilliant, beautiful, insightful, and terrifying all at the same time. With the ability to draw you in and make you feel like you're sitting in a room with these characters this story enthralled me and kept me at the edge of my seat from the very beginning.
Three generations of women, one with dementia, not knowing what's real and what's not a lot of the time, one that has spent most of her life only thinking of herself before others and what she needs to be happy, and one pregnant, getting ready to bring the next generation into this idyllic cottage, the way these lives and the lives of so many others intersect is nothing short of mind blowing.
Three stories being told almost simultaneously through the one story, each woman having her own problems, her own loves, her own losses and the hope they all held for the future while trying to keep their secrets from being brought to light, there were moments I could empathize and understand each of them and then moments where I couldn't figure out what they were thinking or why they made the choices they did.
I watched my Grandmother go through dementia and I have to say that the authors compassion and accuracy while writing about what it's like both for Rose and her family is so honest and relatable, there were a few times during the visits with Rose that it felt so familiar, almost like a memory.
The mystery component of this was done brilliantly, it's twists and turns keep you guessing who's who and what do they know or even have to do with all of this till the end, I will be reading as much by Claire Douglas as I can get my hand on, the writing is phenomenal and the story is something that feels like it's completely possible yet something you don't want to believe all at the same time.
I will say our ending is something I didn't see coming and now find myself looking back at the pages, thinking about the little things that are said here and there and while our author never gives anything away before she wants to, she does leave a trail of breadcrumbs that spans generations as we try and find justice for the two people found behind Number Nine.
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