A Victorian house, painted lavender with gingerbread trim, sits abandoned on a cliff in Maine, overlooking the ocean. When Jane discovers the property as a teenager, she’s drawn to its mystery and finds comfort in it as an escape from her home life.

20 years later, when Jane returns to Maine following a mistake that threatens her marriage and career, she is disappointed to learn the house’s new owner, Genevieve, has remodeled. The house is now white, not lavender, and very little of its charm remains. Genevieve is convinced the house is haunted and she hires Jane to research its history.

There are several interconnected stories in The Cliffs, all tying back to women who spent time in the Victorian home. While I didn’t always agree with Jane’s decisions, I was rooting for her and enjoyed her story the most. I liked that the house was such an integral part of the story and in a way, a character itself.

J. Courtney Sullivan is my favorite author and liked how The Cliffs combined history, a little mystery, family drama, and contemporary life.

A departure from the author’s earlier novels, the book is a complex weave of characters, time periods, and a mystery. The main character, Jane, has an alcoholic single mother, and whenever she can, she escapes to a purple house on a cliff near her home in Awadquit, Maine. As Jane’s story unfolds, with her career successes but personal setbacks, other women are introduced including the original owners of the purple house. The current owner’s son is sure he saw a ghost, which begins chapters on spiritualism, mediums and reincarnation. The history of the house includes a time period where the Wabanaki Indians lived there, as the importance of preserving history as well as honoring indigenous people are an additional theme. I liked the book but it requires a lot of concentration to appreciate the various characters, themes and events. Recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I went into this story expecting a ghost story and ended up with a profound work of hist0rical fiction. Historical fiction is not my thing but I was captivated by this book and had trouble putting it down. It expertly weaved past and present together to create a great story. The book centers primarily on Jane, who is back in her hometown after her mother's death and being down on her luck in general She finds that the mansion on the cliffs that she always loved as a child is now inhabited by a city dweller named Genevieve who doesn't seem to care about the history at all, but ends up hiring Jane (an archivist) to dig up sone history because she thinks the house is haunted. You also end up getting some chapters told from the POV of various other characters inspersed with Jane's chapters that further give background to the history.

I was captivated by Jane's story and always disappointed when another POV was introduced, but then I found myself also captivated by them and having to pull myself out when the next chapter shifted back to Jane. I thought the history (over multiple generations) was very interesting (albeit often sad) and I loved the way the past and present were tied together. Reading about psychic and mediums is also not normally in my wheelhouse but I was also fascinated by that subject matter in this particular story, as it was just really well done. I did occasionally want to strangle Jane, who made poor choices and seemed fixed on self-destruction, but I also found her a likable character. I thought the ending of the book tied things up nicely; maybe a bit too clean, but I always kind of like that.

Overall, this was a really interesting book that I am so glad I picked up without realizing what it was about. I found it to be very memorable. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is an interesting read, but for me not a captivating read. The basic storyline itself about the historical history of this house on a cliff and how multiple generations tie to it is intriguing. This is not a fast read, this story takes time, patience and your ability to catalog and weave a large amount of history together. While I love learning new historical facts in books (even fiction ones), the amount of history in this one was overwhelming and very disjointed. It does all come together in the end, I just felt exhausted getting there.

Overall, it is a good book, not a great book I couldn't out down. It's worth the read from a historical aspect and if you have the patience to hold on to get to the how, it is interesting how the different generations and families tie together.

My thanks to J. Courtney Sullivan, Knopf, and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book review for The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan

Thank you @netgalley for the early release copy. This is also a Reese Book Club pick.

This book takes you into a look into the past for this house on the cliff's in a small town in Maine. Is the house haunted? We have a lot of spiritual references and ideas in this one.
Jane loved the house as a child and now that she has come home to clean out her mother's house, she is hired by the current owner of the house to research it's history. During the renovation of the house, Genevieve our new owner, feels that her son is speaking to a ghost.
Jane goes down the path of ghosts, lost loves, stolen artifacts and lots more. She also has to look deep into her own past to find some of the "ghosts" that haunt her.
It's a pretty fast paced book, with a lot of historical references. The descriptions of the house and coastline will have you wanting to visit.

This comes out August 15, so make sure to order you a copy!

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"𝘐𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘺𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦, 𝘢 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦, 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘺."

I don't want to say too much about the plot of 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗟𝗜𝗙𝗙𝗦 because I loved how it surprised me as it unfolded, but the book centers around an old house set on the cliffs in Maine and the secrets it holds.

"𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵. "

J. Courtney Sullivan weaves together multiple timelines and POVs to tell the stories of generations of interconnected women, the kind who were forgotten while their husbands and fathers made history. She also examines the many different ways time changes our world - from the lost art of Abenaki basket weaving and the almost defunct Shaker way of life to the way places are renamed over the years - and it's hard not to be moved when things that have disappeared become known again. This novel made me realize how much better we need to be better at preserving the treasures of our past and facing the often hard truths about why they've been erased.

4.5 stars

Thanks to AA Knopf the copy to review.

I am new to Sullivan, but I am definitely a fan. I thoroughly enjoyed the many stories presented in the Cliffs. The author tackles quite a few heavy topics but does so with a deft hand. It is a long story but never feels cumbersome or too heavy. There are histories that I wish I was able to spend a little more time with, but overall I was very pleased with how everything unfolded. The author’s own connection to Maine was also abundantly apparent. This was a wonderful historical fiction that I thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

I have read all of this author's books. The first three were excellent, the last one was okay, and this one was just okay as well. Hopefully, her writing is not going downhill. This book would have earned 4 stars from me if large parts of it didn't read like a textbook. It seemed the author wanted to show us just how much research she had done. She also virtue signaled with every opportunity she gave herself. Take that away and we had a good story about interesting characters who happened to have all lived in the same house. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A new favorite Reese Book Club pick for sure! I loved how multi-layered this story was, filled with rich characterization and the stories of strong women who are connected to one Maine, cliff-side house across the ages.

Told from alternating POVs, this story touches on Sapphic love, alcoholism, colonialism, loss and so much more! I loved the multi-cast narration on audio that included some of my favs, Cassandra Campbell and Brittney Pressley, among others.

The main character of the story is Jane, a Harvard archivist whose alcohol addiction causes her to lose both her her job and her husband. As she escapes to her recently deceased mother's house in Maine to prepare it for sale, she finds herself caught up in the past as she researches the lives of the women who lived and died in the cliff house she's admired since she was a child.

Rich in detail and deeply moving, this was a long but so well-written story and I couldn't get enough. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and BookSparks for sending me a beautiful finished copy in exchange for my honest review!

I enjoyed the start of this book but about 40% in it lost me. It became disjointed and read like a lecture. It had a little bit too much storyline that made it so informational that it made you lose interest. A little fine editing and I think I’d enjoyed it more. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for read and review

I loved the premise of this book about women growing and learning all revolving around an old house in a beachside community. The characters are complex and nuanced in a way that made me instantly invested. At times the book felt longer than it needed to be but the writing was so solid that I kept turning pages to find out what was going to happen. Heartfelt thanks to the publisher for the copy.

I want to start by saying that J. Courtney Sullivan is one of my favorite authors, and I absolutely love her writing. I have loved most (all?) of her novels, and I did mostly like this one too, but with some caveats. The writing was her typical super strong prose that pulls the reader in and holds you throughout the novel. My issue with this book is that there was just too much going on. A lot of characters, a lot of side plots, new people being introduced really late in the book, it just felt a bit disorganized. I did enjoy it, and ultimately by the end of the novel, things came together pretty nicely, but there were multiple points while reading it that I wanted to give up, as I just couldn't pull all the threads together as I was reading.

Before reading The Cliffs, I listened to an NPR Book of the Day podcast episode where J. Courtney Sullivan was interviewed about the book. She talked about how an inspiration behind the story was how much the time a woman is born impacts her life, and in the end this is one of the central themes of the story. What drew me in was the setting, an abandoned, potentially haunted home on the ocean in Maine. However, the way several women's stories are woven together, all tied to this piece of land, is what really makes it a compelling story.

There is a secondary storyline of the main character's struggles in her marriage and with sobriety, and honestly I think these almost distracted from what was otherwise a great story. There is a point near the end where I assumed a large scale episode was about to happen, and instead it just cut away to two chapters of backstory.

Overall this was a great read, especially if you dream of Maine in the summer like I do.

I really liked this book, it was not at all what I was expecting, I guess more of a ghost story. And yes, it had ghosts but it was also a deep dive through the indigenous people and cultures of Maine, which I had never learned about, I found it very fascinating.

This is another great book from J. Courtney Sullivan that ties in the author's usual themes of family, history, and a coastal setting. I liked that this is a beach/summer read and release with a more "gothic" feel, especially with the mystery of the old house. If you are new to this author but like the books of Kate Morton, this would be a good title to start with!

A long abandoned house is the through line in this novel. Jane, the protagonist is obsessed with this house as a teenager in a dysfunctional family. Her research into the house as an adult allow us to see the rich history of the house and the land before it. The novel reveals many different historical themes through the history of the house. I felt it was a little disjointed as I was reading but, I liked how it was all tied up and the end and how they were all really related after all.

I was intrigued by the synopsis of this one. Unfortunately, I didn't think it lived up to it.

Jane was very taken with an old house near her home when she was a teenager. Now many years later she is dismayed to see the so called improvements that have been made to it by the new owner.

I liked the history of the house and it's owners along with many other aspects of the story. I just felt like some parts dragged on a little too long and the book lost its momentum several times throughout.

Not a bad book, but not a great one either.

Thanks to netgalley and Knopf for the arc.

Jane returns home to Maine after making a disastrous mistake at her job and ends up helping the new owner of the house she loved as a teenager find out more about the house's history. Jane discovers more about the previous owners of the house as well as how one part of it intersects with her own family's history. Overall, a story about family history as well as place history, as part of the book focuses on the Indigenous people of Maine and on repatriation. It was a bit hard to follow at times with a huge cast of characters and the multiple side plots and Jane's avoidance of her alcoholism was difficult to read. Recommended to readers who like history and family mysteries.

Absolutely loved this book and would recommend as a perfect summer beach read. Loved the characters, the dual timeline, and the house was the best part of the story and how it changed over time.

I loved all the history included in the book. I loved the history of the people who lived in the house that was the focal point of the story.
There were some appalling things that went on in the book that were hard to digest involving the cemetery and a pool.
I found it difficult to relate to Jane and I didn’t really care for her.