THE CLIFFS is a long, complex novel about the nature of the existence of females. Jane, the daughter of an alcoholic woman, is determined to change her life so that she will not end up like her mother. The characters and plot begin in contemporary times but meander through unexpected events back to life at the very birth of the nation. Stories about women and children who suffered endlessly created tension, making the novel a page-turner.

I loved the detour into the history of Shaker life and, overall, enjoyed this book with its joys and the anguish so many women endured to survive to the present day.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book, which will be published on July 2, 2024.

I am such a fan of J. Courtney Sullivan's writing, so I was really looking forward to reading this. Thankfully, I was only disappointed that I didn't read this book while on vacation since it was so hard not being able to read it all in one sitting.

I loved The Cliffs and the way it explores how history is preserved, the stories that get told correctly and incorrectly, and how we are constantly struggling to find our way through life. The story primarily focuses on Jane, a historian who recently blew up her personal and professional life after one night of poor decisions. She returns to her hometown in Maine and soon finds herself immersed in her own family's history as she cleans out her deceased mother's home and the local history as she helps a woman convinced her recently remodeled seaside home is haunted. Interspersed in Jane's narrative are also chapters written from the POVs of other women connected to the past and present that add context and richness to the overall story.

I think this might be my favorite Sullivan book yet, and I can't recommend it highly enough. It's a story that has stuck with me, and I can't wait to discuss this one with others after its release.

Surprisingly enough, this is the first J. Courtney Sullivan novel I’ve read. I tend to enjoy novels set in New England, and this mashup of contemporary fiction /women’s fiction / historical fiction/ a touch of mystery was overall an enjoyable read. The old sea captain’s house on the cliffs of Maine made for an intriguing setting, and I for one enjoyed the multiple POVs. I appreciated how Sullivan explored the history (and terrible suffering) of the Indigenous people of Maine in real depth, as well as discussing the Shakers and Spiritualism. In its zeal to educate, the novel does veer into moments of talking AT you rather than talking TO you / moving the story forward, but I still appreciated the comprehensive research and solid writing.


🗓️ Release date: July 2, 2024

📚 Thanks so much to NetGalley and Knopf for my review copy!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
A decent historical fiction with some mystery thrown in as well.
I think the only thing that keeps me from giving this one a higher rating is that I didn't love the multiple POV's. That made the book a bit complicated and harder to follow.

Thank you Net Galley for the advanced reader copy. I love a solid historical fiction book that uses the setting of house to tell the stories of the people who lived there through time, and this one did not disappoint. The house is on a cliff in Maine, and tells the stories of the indigenous people, Shakers, sea captains, up to present day. The main character of the story is quite a mess, but her love of history brings the stories to life, and ultimately lead to her working through her demons and settling down in life. There are interesting family dynamics and generational patterns explored as well. Good historical fiction read.

A fantastic read that made me gasp and google. The Cliffs delivers so much: it felt like literary fiction with a tiny hint of magical realism, layered in between tumultuous relationships and a character’s journey through alcoholism, with a big side of history lessons and a dash of mystery. There are such subtle but powerful reveals throughout the story as you piece together the puzzle of how everyone is connected through the centuries and one house. The chapters are long and they have a tendency to move slowly then snap back and inch forward again, but if you can be patient through the set-up, the reward of the story is worth it.

I genuinely enjoyed the history aspect of this book, and went down some google rabbit holes to learn more when I found myself thinking Did this really happen? I am thoroughly impressed at the amount of research that went into writing this book (made clear in Sullivan’s acknowledgements), and the labor of love that was invested in telling such a special story. I am no where near qualified to say this but I feel the deeper and more sensitive story of indigenous people was well done: it was consistently at the forefront of the plot, with good attention paid to setting the record straight that American history starts with Native Americans and cannot be told without recognizing the sordid ways settlers pushed them out of their homes and wrote a population out of history.

One small piece that left me thinking was the observation that due to how our communication methods have changed with technology, we are failing to save and archive history in the present because we don’t write anything down. Although we are more honest in our writings now than someone may have been in their diary one hundred years ago, we are ‘losing’ this candor to the ether because it’s not well documented.

I really enjoyed The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan! Here we are introduced to a beautiful cliffside town in Maine. Through the main character Jane's eyes, we learn about the generations of women in her family and in the town. A little bit mystery, a little bit historical fiction, this book has it all. I left this book wanting to learn more about local Native American culture. An excellent read!

Couldn’t finish the book. Too confusing from the different points of view. Tried to give it a chance but it didn’t capture my attention.

Jane Flanagan has grown up along the Maine coast, she has found refuge in a long abandoned Victorian house. Many days of her teen years are spent in this sprawling mansion. She returns to her hometown after a scandal at a fundraiser for the archives she has worked at for many years. The house has been purchased and is being gutted and turned into a show house for a family. Jane meets the new owner as she has left the house with her son and taken a suite at Jane's friends hotel. She has left the house because her son is hearing noises and a ghost is suspected. The book explores the relationships that Jane has had with her family, her friends, her coworkers and now with the owner of the house as well as a medium. Another great J. Courtney Sullivan book that will be seen on many beaches and pools this summer & summers to come

Did you know Awadapquit means "where the beautiful cliffs meet the sea." If you didn't you would hear that 25 more times in this meandering novel that spans three generations and reaches back into the Indigenous people's era. Too much alcohol, too all over the place and too confusing to follow. I did not enjoy the novel even though I finished it. I had hoped it would get better. Needless to say it did not.

I've really enjoyed J. Courtney Sullivan's other books and will read her again in the future, but this one was a bit of a miss for me. I really enjoyed the main story line, but I found all the switching of POVs to be jarring and some of the themes it addressed came across as a bit didactic. It does deal with various aspects of history and preservation that are fascinating.

I requested The Cliffs on NetGalley because her previous book (Friends and Strangers) was a stand-out read for me in the summer of 2020, which is saying something considering that I (like a lot of people) found myself reading a lot that summer as "social distancing" was a new thing in our collective vocabularies.

First, let me say that if you also enjoyed Friends and Strangers that her newest book reads very differently. Both books are well written, but other than that they are quite different from one another. It is difficult to classify The Cliffs as far as genre. It's part ghost story, part historical fiction, and part literary fiction with flawed, well-developed characters. I love a book where the characters aren't cookie cutter!

The Cliffs is a sprawling book that covers a longer time period while also focusing heavily on the main character, Jane. We get a lot of Jane's backstory as well as a more birds-eye view of the 2 generations that preceded her. In addition, a portion of the book is told from some characters that go much further back in history. On top of that, we get a history of the Shaker movement as well as a thoughtful look at the issues surrounding American history, the treatment of Indigenous people, and the present-day issues that confront museums and historians. An esoteric house that Jane has felt a strange attraction to since her teen years is the constant through line of the story. If that seems like a wild hodge-podge...well, it is, and yet J. Courtney Sullivan pulls it off!

The historical parts of the book were some of the most interesting to me. Clearly the author has done a great deal of research and the historical pieces here are what really make this book unique.

The part that was hardest to read was about Jane's train wreck of a life. She is an alcoholic and from the beginning of the book the reader thinks she has hit rock bottom. Oh, no, dear reader, it gets worse. I was rooting for Jane to get herself together but for a large chunk of the book she is in denial about her issues with alcohol. I also found the part about what happened to D in the story to be so sad and I think readers who are sensitive to mentions of children dying should be cautious with this book.

The redeeming grace here is the ending. I won't give away any spoilers, but I will say I thought it was really well done. It felt like a "real" real life ending, where things don't always end perfectly but often end up better than we deserve.

Overall, I really, really enjoyed this book. 4.5 stars.

On the coast of Maine, just outside the hamlet of Awadapquit, an abandoned lavender Victorian home, its belongings seemingly intact, stands sentinel on the jutting cliffs overlooking the sea. The home and its story captures the imagination of teenager Jane Flanagan, and becomes her refuge as she both grieves her beloved grandmother and copes with an alcoholic mother. She fantasizes someday claiming ownership of the property and becoming the caretaker of the house's secrets. Crucial to the story is a small burial plot near the edge of the property.
Jane leaves home and her fascination with things past leads her to a career as an archivist at Harvard's Scheslinger Library. She returns to her hometown to deal with the aftermath of her mother's death, at the same time she faces both a marital and professional crisis complicated by her own fraught relationship with alcohol.
She is startled to learn "her house" on the cliffs has been purchased, and rather insensitively renovated by a couple and their young son. The woman, Genevieve, hires Jane to explore the home's history due in part to her son claiming to have had a number of unsettling encounters with a spirit in the house. This sets in motion any number of startling revelations which keep the reader anxious for a resolution to the truths - spiritual, historical, personal- that Jane uncovers through her research. The process enables Jane to rediscover her own sense of worth and purpose, as long held family secrets are intertwined with the house as well.
Sullivan is a master of family saga and evocative settings, and this book is no exception. This novel has at it's core a history to tell. She not only focuses on one family's history, but on the history of this property, its various owners and guardians. She takes on a number of timely topics from the rights of indigenous people, the meaning of spiritualism, friendship, loss, grief and forgiveness, as well as, a powerful female perspective. Beautifully told and researched. The book gives new meaning to," If the wall could talk, the tales the would tell!"

A gothic story of family, friends and what a home means, The Cliffs will take residence in your heart long after you finish.

Jane has always loved the purple house up on the bluffs - a place to escape her own house as a kid. When she returns home to deal with the death of her mother, she finds that the house has been sold. The new owner is transforming it and Jane is hired to unlock the history of the house. What she finds will change life for everyone involved.

Told through multiple points of view, plenty of interesting historical information, The Cliffs is a slow burner for anyone who likes a historical and gothic story.
#knopf #knopfpantheonvinatgeanchor #jcourtneysullivan #thecliffs

Five stars! This is J. Courtney Sullivan’s best book to date. This story contained many different elements that made it such a fascinating and unique read, such as the rich history of the Native Americans who lived in Maine centuries ago, to the modern day story of the protagonist. This story even contained a haunted house, in addition to mysticism and spiritualism.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for an unbiased review. This book is out July 16th - you don’t want to miss it!

"The Cliffs," by J. Courtney Sullivan felt chaotic. While it may appeal to a niche audience, I think most people will find it confusing both in its story and its message.

The book starts off intriguing. An old, abandoned house, a ghost, and an element of mystery. But then it went all over the place. Suddenly the reader is being lectured about Native American history and The Shakers, while also being told the story of a woman dealing with alcoholism in the midst of all the history lessons.

I really didn't like how the book was structured. There was too much going on, and I'm not sure there was a cohesive story to be found in all the mess. At times it felt like a mystery, and then it suddenly felt like I was reading from a textbook.

I have read a couple of other books by Sullivan and enjoyed them. But "The Cliffs" missed the mark for me.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC copy of this incredible novel. One house with a lot of history. Sullivan creatively weaves history and present, joy and sorrow, challenges and successes together in this story that captivates the reader from the first page. The characters are complex and their individual stories come together to make this an exceptional story that sweeps through decades. The writing is vivid and makes the reader feel a part of the story. You will be sad when the story ends!

Thank you, NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for this advanced readers copy. I really enjoyed this story about a beautiful Victorian house on a cliff by the ocean in Maine and the different families who have lived it in and around it over the years. The story is told mostly through the main character, Jane, who has loved the house since she was a child. Jane returns to her hometown after issues with her work and marriage and she finds the house is not how she remembered it. Jane uses the skill she has learned in her career to work as she tries to repair her life, to find out more about this beautiful house and its history. This was a fascinating study into the history into the area of Maine and its native inhabitants and the fictionized original owners of the Victorian house. This was my first J. Courtney Sullivan book, but I really enjoyed her style of writing and this story, so I will be looking into more of her stories in the future.

there were parts of this book that i really enjoyed and other parts i ended up skimming over.

set in maine, there is a house on a cliff that has a rich history. you are able to dive into the history of the home, those who lived and loved in it, and those who were/are around it from before it was built through the present day. storytelling, archives, artifacts, and personal history is a main focus of this book which i thoroughly enjoyed. i struggled with feeling like some of the book was forcing me to sit down in a history class. important information was presented but it's not what i expected when i started reading. it almost felt like reading two or three separate books merged into one.

Thank you to Knopf for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This book should have been right up my alley from the description but I kept getting lost along the way. The book would jump around and you would end up forgetting about other characters while you got lost in the past. I wish those past elements had been more interwoven sporadically rather than large chunks at a time.

I also found the main character hard to relate to.

Really interesting concept and good use of historical details, just needed to be woven more like the Maine basket in the book.