You say J. Courtney Sullivan, I say sold! She is a must-read author for me and I absolutely loved The Cliffs. The story centers on an abandoned house in Maine, ghosts, family secrets, and the numerous people who inhabited and loved the house over the years. As with Sullivan’s other books, I couldn’t put this one down. Part historical fiction, part family drama, and with a hint of supernatural elements at play - a unique and beautiful book that reads like a love letter to the great state of Maine. One of my favorite summer reads!

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for this ARC.

This is book is very interesting to say the least. There are quite a few themes that the author brings up. There is also a lot of characters. Some of theses characters are alive and some are not. I struggled a little keeping track of the characters. The story centers around an old abandoned house and a girl (now woman) named Jane. Jane would visit the house when she was a child to get away from her abusive Mom. The first time she went she was enthralled to find dishes still in the cupboards and cups and glasses and furniture. It was very run down and mouse ridden but it was her escape. The author then brings in who lived in the house before and what happened to them. A new family buys the house and remodels it and there is a ghost that shows up that only the owner's son can see. So this brings in more about spirits and how to talk to them through mediums. You are introduced to Clementine who is a medium and a great character. There is also a a Camp Mira where you could go and meet up with different mediums who might tell you things about your past. Being from Western New York, there is a place just like Camp Mira called Lilly Dale. I wondered if the author had been there because Camp Mira was very similar.
Alcoholism is also a big topic in this book. Jane comes from generations of women alcoholics. Unfortunately she succombs to alcohol which ruins her life. There are stories about Shakers, indigenous people, and much much more in this book. It is not an easy read but it is well written and there is great history that I learned about. I would recommend this book.
Thanks to #netgalley, #knopf and @jcourtsullivan for an ARC of this great read.

Thank you @netgalley and @aaknopf for this advance copy.
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This book is hard to explain. It is the history of a house and the land, a history of family and women, generational trauma, spirituality, marriage…it’s a hodge podge of subject matter that had me very skeptical in the beginning. Some of it was not my cup of tea, and the chapters were sooooo long. (Why??) But in spite of that, I quickly became obsessed. I could not put down this powerful story that all came together beautifully in the end. I recommend this one to fans of history and complex female characters who like a balance of plot and character development and a strong sense of place. After enjoying Friends & Strangers in 2020, J. Courtney Sullivan is a new auto buy author for me.

I'll read anything Ms. Sullivan writes and have been looking forward to the publication of The Cliffs....and wasn't disappointed!
In The Cliffs, Ms. Sullivan takes us back to Maine - a state she writes about so well. The book is set in a small seaside town where Jane, the main character, grew up with a challenging family situation and where she couldn't wait to leave. She's since built a full life for herself with a college education, prestigious job and husband...but then this world collapses.
Jane returns to Maine to try and work through her current life/work situation and also to clean out the house of her recently deceased mother. She also returns to the Victorian house that is at the center of Jane's life and the book. The house overlooks the ocean and is hidden away from view, but Jane discovered it when she was in high school and the house had been long abandoned. She rediscovers the house, which is now occupied and has undergone a significant renovation by its new owners. We quickly learn that in its former and current states, the house brings a lot of history and character to the novel.
There are several demons in The Cliffs - and not just the ghostly kind. The book tackles infertility, substance abuse, mother-daughter relationships, and Alzheimer's Disease.
The Cliffs includes a tremendous amount of history, going back to 1609, and reflecting great research by Ms. Sullivan. The list of resources in her acknowledgements provides a bounty of books to read further on the indigenous people of Maine, the Shakers, etc. The Editor's letter in the beginning also introduces us to some of the real resources used in her research and I hope to visit some on my next trip to Maine.
It takes a long time for Jane's full story to unfold, but the resolution wrapped up a bit too quickly for me. There were parts of the book that were too long for me, and you won't always like Jane. But I especially liked the sections on the history of the indigenous people of Maine as well as the glimpse into Jane's life working at the Schlesinger Library.
Thanks to Netgalley and Alfred A. Knopf for the opportunity to read The Cliffs in exchange for an honest review.

"Perhaps in order to be true, love must also be inconvenient." Languishing in the Kindle app on my iPad, I decided to give #TheCliffs a go when it became a Reese's pick. So glad I did. It has all the things I love in a book - multi-POV, mystery, history, ghosts - it is at turns, uplifting and devastating. One might say that Ms. Sullivan tries to accomplish too much with multiple story lines - alcoholism, gender, race and sexual discrimination, the obliteration of certain histories, family trauma and reincarnation - and maybe that's true, but I savored every word. Highly, highly recommend.

P.S. Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC.

This one was complex! There were so many storylines from varying timelines, and although they do eventually tie together, this book was very detailed and more than I bargained for. The storyline of Jane being drawn to the abandoned Victorian house on the cliff was what originally caught my interest. The portion of the book about Native Americans and repatriation as well as the part dedicated to the Shakers were informative and interesting, but did sometimes read like a social studies textbook. Overall, I enjoyed the book, but it was not necessarily the type of book that I originally thought I was picking up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for an ARC of The Cliffs, in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

A beautiful story weaving together the lives of several women across centuries in a seaside town of Maine. All these women have at some point in their lives been involved with a magnificent house that stands on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. Jane Flanagan grew up in Maine and went on to become a researcher-archivist at Harvard. Now she has returned in disgrace. Genevieve has recently purchased the house on the cliffs. As their paths cross, Jane unearths the stories and mysteries of the house and its past. Filled with mystical elements, magical realism and literally the ghosts of the past, this is a poignant tale, expertly told by the author. It is a wonderful ode to mother-daughter relationships. The author writes in an unhurried manner and the story is long and meandering at times. There is a lot of reference to the indigenous history of the place. At its heart, this a book of love, loss, grief and what it means to start all over again. A good one for book clubs.

Thank you NetGalley, Knopf Publishing and J Courtney Sullivan for the ARC.

The Cliffs is a book full of so many stories... stories of sisters, of friends, of motherhood, of romantic love, of addiction and of recovery, of grief, of generational trauma, of wounds to the soul, of ghosts, of Indigenous history, and of American history. There are so many storylines in this book that one would think it would be a hot mess or a 1000-page tome, but it is not. Somehow all these complex stories come together, sort of how like life happens. Beautiful and ugly at the same time, The Cliffs reflects human nature which has both capacities to love and harm, often simultaneously. It is an ode to history, particularly that which has been forgotten or suppressed., and all those working to uncover and share truths and perspectives of our past.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

I really, really loved The Cliffs. It is so much more than meets the eye, and so much more than what can be contained on a book jacket. Told from multiple perspectives, we learn the history of a house, and each person that house has impacted. I learned so much about the Indigenous people of Maine, as well as Shakers. This is also a story about generational trauma in all forms and addiction. So many layers to this book, which is a daunting task for any author, but this was a executed SO well. I think this will work well for so many different kinds of readers.

What an exquisite, smart book - I loved all of the layers of history that Sullivan embedded throughout the story, and the cliffside house felt so real it was as if you were there. Filled with beautiful, vulnerable, fallible characters and a plot that keeps you turning the page. It's really everything one could want in a novel, and all of the kudos are well-deserved.

Oh how I wanted to love this book but about 25% in I did not feel like any story had even begun to develop. I am going to put aside for now and hope to come back and finish. Very slow-paced and no important action in my opinion. I like a story that grips you from the first page and this one is not doing it for me.

"The fear of scarcity followed Jane into adulthood, into her marriage. It popped up at odd times, surprising her." J. Courtney Sullivan, The Cliffs

Through the coastal setting on Maine, main character Jane takes on both an external mystery and her own demons as she searches for clues to both history of the area and how her past has formed her present. She's returned to the area as a Harvard archivist after making a terrible mistake that threatens to shatter both her personal and professional life.

She learns of her own past as she uncovers that of sacred ground, native customs and seeks to heal her own nagging wounds. This story is rich in culture, place, family, spirits, love, loss, forgiveness and legacy. We learn of ourselves through those that came before us, in making way for those who will come after us.

There are things to like about this story, but on the whole it isn’t Sullivan’s best work by a long shot.

What’s good: The sense of place here is strong and very well rendered, and I liked the plot as it related to the protagonist’s professional background. Additionally, the part of the plot centered on the medium and the mystery spirit was intriguing and well-structured.

The pacing and tone were fine as well, but that’s where the positives end.

The biggest issue with this is that alcoholics simply do not make good protagonists. I felt sorry for her at times, but I felt worse for the people around her, and in some ways I felt Holly was more sympathetic because at least she was honest about who she was.

All the content about repatriation was interesting to an extent, but it doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the story, and it’s clear that this is a pet issue for Sullivan. And like most novels that discuss repatriation, this is—while well intentioned—an oversimplification of the issue and the problems that go along with it.

There are also some really silly and preventable fact-checking errors in this. The one that really bugged me was this: As a lifelong Cleveland baseball fan, it’s disappointing to see the glaring error that “the Cleveland Spiders were later called the Cleveland Indians.” This is not correct. The Spiders were an American Association and later National League team that folded in 1899. The Cleveland Indians were an American League team called many different things before they became the Indians, but they were never the Spiders.

These were two different teams with no connection except that at different times they were located in the same city. This isn’t obscure knowledge. It’s is very easy to discover simply by checking Wikipedia. Probably not a big deal to most readers, but because I know it’s both wrong and easy to find out, I question the rest of the content the book presents as fact.

The Cliffs tells the story of the rise and fall of Jane Flanagan, who returns home to Maine after some very bad choices threaten to end both her marriage and her career.

I loved the first 25% of The Cliffs and was eager to see how Jane would work through her problems.
At this point in the book, the story moved to cover some very important political issues. Although I don’t disagree with anything the author presented, it was done in a very clunky and forced manner that felt more like a lecture than a narrative fiction.
Both the story and the position on the issues presented would have been much stronger with a few more passes by an editor.

With so much going on in J. Courtney Sullivan’s latest book, The Cliffs, it’s hard to decide what it actually wants to be. At certain points it reads like a mystery with a reader, perhaps, on the edge of their seat, but then it turns into historical fiction and then again into a textbook on American history. Additionally there are studies in relationships and finding and keeping love. Phew! Hold onto your hat and enjoy the ride.

Atmospheric with a lot of interesting rabbit trails but they made the plot a bit muddled. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

“The Cliffs” by J. Courtney Sullivan is a captivating novel that weaves together family secrets, ghosts, and homecoming against the backdrop of the Maine coast.

The story revolves around Jane Flanagan, who becomes enamored with an abandoned Victorian house perched on a cliff overlooking the water. As she unravels the house’s history, she also grapples with her own past. Sullivan’s compassionate writing delves into America’s complex history, touching on Indigenous and Shaker women.

To me, this novel’s strength lies in its multifaceted characters. Jane, the protagonist, is both relatable and mysterious. Her journey of self-discovery is intertwined with the house’s secrets, creating a sense of interconnectedness. The supporting characters—neighbors, friends, and even the ghosts—are equally well-drawn. Their interactions reveal layers of emotion and history, making the narrative rich and engaging.

Sullivan’s prose is evocative, painting vivid images of the rugged coastline, the crashing waves, and the eerie beauty of the cliffs. The house itself becomes a character, with its creaking floors, hidden passages, and whispered echoes. The dual timelines—one set in the present day and the other in the early 20th century—add depth and intrigue, as the past informs the present and vice versa.

Themes of identity, belonging, and the passage of time permeate the novel. Jane’s search for answers about her family’s past mirrors our universal quest for understanding. The exploration of women’s roles across generations—whether as wives, mothers, or independent individuals—resonates deeply. Sullivan skillfully balances these themes, never veering into sentimentality or didacticism.

“The Cliffs” invites reflection. You will find yourself pondering your own connections to place, family, and history. The novel’s resolution is satisfying, leaving room for interpretation and discussion. Whether you’re a fan of family sagas, ghost stories, or literary fiction, “The Cliffs” offers a compelling and immersive experience.

Having loved J. Courtney Sullivan's previous novel, Saints for All Occasions, I was excited to dive into her newest. The Cliffs was a deeply researched, multi-layered exploration of inheritance, collective memory, and the legacies we celebrate and conceal. By no means a beach read, but set in a small town on the coast of Maine, Jane Flanagan anchors our story: as a bookish teen seeking an escape from her alcoholic mother and junk-filled home; to a women in the throes of mid-life crisis, grappling with not only her own demons, but those of the women before her.

I thoroughly appreciated how much research J. Courtney Sullivan put into this book - it comes through in every page, and was clearly some sort of passion project. Her care for how she examines collective memory and how white, European-descended New Englanders have preserved and hidden the histories of the indigenous people before them was enlightening. Her carefully crafted family of Flanagan women were difficult, independent, and relatable.

The only negatives I came away with, were the opposite sides of both of these highlights. At times, the density of the scholarly information shared made it feel as though Sullivan crammed in everything she could - it slowed the middle of the book down quite a bit. And, the characterization of Jane's sister Holly and the family secret that Jane discovers, both felt a bit hollow compared to how dynamic Jane and her grandmother seemed.

This book is a great fit for lovers of Ann Patchett, or Ann Napolitano's recent Hello Beautiful.

I love J. Courtney Sullivan's beautiful writing, so I was excited to get The Cliffs to read and review. This was a totally engrossing story, part a ghost story, part a story of a woman's life and her connection to an old house in the town where she grew up. It seems it has been chosen for Reese's Book Club, so I'm sure you will hear more about this title. I loved it, though, and couldn't put it down!

I was excited to be given the opportunity to read The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan. I thought that being a Reese’s Book Club pick that I was surely in for a treat. But if I’m being honest, it wasn’t exactly what I was anticipating. Although the main storyline about the Victorian house on the cliffs, the story of ghosts and learning about Jane, the main character, and her life of dealing with alcoholism really appealed to me, I felt the rest of the story seemed to wander off giving way too much information that had me feeling as if I was back in school in a Social Studies/History class. A class and subject I did not excel in. There were times that I almost gave up and didn’t want to finish the book but I was really intrigued by the story of the house and that’s why I decided to carry on. I’d like to thank NetGalley for the arc that I believe I found on the Read Now section. If it wasn’t for the too in depth information, I would have enjoyed the book more and would have given it a higher rating. But because if this, I’m only giving it a 3 star rating and hope that other readers will enjoy it more.