Marion is a 50-year old woman who lacks social skills and still lives with her brother in their childhood home. Marion loves John but is also scared of his temper, and so turns a blind eye to what he keeps in the cellar - he is the only person she has after all.

This is a very character-focused novel as we follow Marion through past and present timelines. We learn about her childhood and her relationship with her parents, in particular her cold and controlling mother, and we also learn about her relationship with her brother John and what he was like as a child, and what he's like now as an adult. Marion never had friends, and was bullied in school and so, lacks a lot of social skills other people have and also looks decades older than she is. We see her focus on fantasies she has about a different kind of life with friends and family.

This book reminded me a bit of a Liz Nugent novel as Liz is a master at a morally gray character and unsettling quiet plots. However, I think the blurb of this novel completely throws off reader's expectations - we are told Marion is faced with a decision about the cellar when John has a heart attack but this doesn't happen till over 80% into the book so I was reading it expecting this to happen much sooner and became frustrated when it didn't.

This book was very creepy and difficult emotionally. It was hard to get through yet I couldn't stop reading until the very sad end. I will not recommend this book to others.

I was excited to read The Visitors by Catherine Burns and initially anticipated what I felt would be a wonderful gothic story full of suspense and revelation. Unfortunately, what I encountered fell far short of goal, with characters I neither cared about or for and a plot that grew increasingly "gross" and unpalatable. I tried--I really did--to find something about this story to redeem it, but was unable to do so.

It's been a long time since I have had such a visceral reaction to a story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for this reader's copy. In exchange, I am providing an honest review.

Reviews promised a super creepy, disturbing read. And it is creepy to think that Marion lives in a house with her brother John and women that she never sees nor hears. John and Marion are an elderly sibling pair that live in the house they grew up in and inherited. They are a rather strange pair of people. Marion seems to have some kind of developmental delay and John was an Oxford graduate that had a successful teaching career that ended in scandal. Throughout the story, the reader is taken back and forth from past to present as Burns gives us a very thorough introduction to Marion and John. Marion vaguely refers to visitors in the house and John acts as if it is just the two of them living there. But on Mondays Marion does their laundry and John makes up food trays for them so there are visitors in the house. Near the end of the book, we finally get more insight into these visitors and Marion's role in their stay in the home.

The creepiness was anti-climatic and predictable. John and Marion are disturbing characters and for exactly the reasons you suspect they are. There was no gasp of surprise or shock from me at any point in the book when who they both are and what they both had done was revealed. And then the story just kind of ended. Eh. *shrug*

Oh this was so creepy and upsetting, and full of completely unredeemable characters. Sometimes a book is about bad people but twisted so, in a way, you root for them, but this one was really akin to lifting something in a garden and seeing dozens of squirming maggots. I think it was a success in what it was trying to do, but I did not enjoy the experience.

One of the most quietly disturbing books I’ve read. The suspense is tight as violin strings all the while, finally snapping in a way that flings horror and relief into your face all of a sudden — in the best way possible.

I wasn't able to finish this story. This book is too dark and disturbing for my taste. No that I'm saying it is badly written. Thank you for a the galley copy.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to review this book and to be an early reader via NetGalley! However, I will not be writing a review for this title at this time, as my reading preferences have since changed somewhat. In the event that I decide to review the book in the future, I will make sure to purchase a copy for myself or borrow it from a library. Once again, thank you so much for providing me with early access to this title. I truly appreciate it. Please feel free to contact me with any follow-up questions or concerns.

I am currently working on expanding our school library's senior section after years of a dismal and uninspiring selection of books that our older readers never checked out. My job has been to seek out much more diverse, gripping and modern books that will get them into reading by appealing to as broad a range of readers as possible. This really appealed to me because of its fantastic narrative and sense of atmosphere, combined with believable characterisation and its wonderful writing. It's hard to get young people into reading and if the library is not stocking the kind of book that they might grow up to buy as adult readers then we are not really meeting their needs. I can imagine this provoking lots of discussion after finishing it and a long queue of people trying to reserve it as they've heard so much about it. Will definitely be buying a copy and know that it's going to be a very popular choice. An engrossing read that kept me up far too late to finish reading it. It certainly stood out from the other books that I was considering and I look forward to converting more Catherine Burns fans in future!

Creepy and abhorrent characters who do some really despicable things, yet one can't help experiencing a little empathy (an author friend called this kind of feeling "radical empathy") and turning the pages to find out how it all ends.

Note: If anyone reading this review finds the term "radical empathy" interesting, it was Rene Denfeld who mentioned the term after I told her my feelings about her recent book, CHILD FINDER.

Wow. That was utterly...disturbing, yet extremely fascinating. A character analysis of an older woman, Marion, told from her POV about her spinster life living in her childhood home with her crazy abusive brother John. Told in flashbacks and present scenes, from he story of the twos relationship is one of horror and fear but love and understanding as well.

For a while I just assumed Marion was disabled. But then as I read on, I realized that she was not-but she was so neglected and talked down to as a child that her entire growth process was stunted. A mother who didn’t care, a father who could care even less and an emotionally and mentally abusive brother as the only crutch you stand on? Yea, no wonder you’re messed up, lady. And for me, it was hard to see Marion ALMOST confront her fears then-nope-nothing. The ending more than made up for the creepy in the book.

This was a wonderfully crafted novel, disturbing but deliciously so.

*This ARC was given in exchange for an honest review.*

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Bex Rees's review Aug 18, 2018 · edit
really liked it

Super creepy but I really liked the author's writing style.Kept me reading to the point my husband 'put my kindle away!'Definite page-turner

Creepy, skin crawling, scary, dark, disturbing, what's not to love!!!!!
Catherine Burns has created a really twisted story in "The Visitors" that I thoroughly enjoyed and it will stay with me a long time (choosing rather inept moments to pop into my thoughts) - it's dark, quite disturbing and really rather evil and I'd happily recommend to readers who fancy a change to the fast paced and aggressive thrillers that are flooding the market at the minute. Loved it!

Though I liked the book, I made the decision at the time I finished not to review it on my site. Maybe in the future I will include it in a book list post or another article.

Creepy and compelling, this narrative pulls you along with it, kicking against the increasing inevitability of the conclusion. Visitors? Long term 'guests' perhaps...

I received an advance digital copy of this novel from NetGalley.

The main characters in "The Visitors" are well developed, but there seemed to be something missing in the story. I kept thinking it was building up toward a crescendo that really never happened. For me, it was rather anticlimactic. It was a pretty quick read, however, and worthy of at least a 3-star rating.

I liked the premise of this novel and initially found it wonderfully creepy. Extremely dark and disturbing, but intriguing nonetheless. Unfortunately for me it really started to drag. I feel like a great deal of the novel could honestly have been trimmed back because after a while I truly struggled to focus.

I did not finish this book. A lot of people really liked it, but the first 30% of the book didn't grab me, so I opted to not finish. Overall, I think it just wasn't for me.

I don’t know what to say. I do not think this book was for me in many ways. Whereas I do love the story line of the brother and sister and the secrets this family had, in the end it just didn’t sit right with me. Wonderfully written and I’m sure there is an audience out there that will appreciate it better than myself.

The Visitors is one of the most disturbing books I read this year. Marion and John's twisted relationship was interesting and compelling. I was so frustrated with Marion for being so weak and subservient...imagine my surprise as the story unfolded. Hated the parts about the dogs, though.