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.

I have loved Courtney Sullivan's books since I first read Maine. I'm always excited to see when she has a new book coming out.
This book was a bit harder for me to get into, though I eventually did. Part historical fiction, part contemporary, The Cliffs" centers around an abandoned home along the cliffs of Maine. Jane, who first encounters the abandoned home as a child, is later hired to research its history. Sullivan did her research on this one, we are taken back in time, and even have a ghost in the story. Somehow she manages to tie it all together. Recommended for all public libraries/

I liked this one. Actually I loved it for about 70% of the book, but for some reason my interest quickly waned. The author tells a good story, and creates real characters that I can identify with. The issue for me felt like an abundance of ideas, which were attempted to be joined together for the story, some successfully, some not. I liked Jane; she was real, flawed, unapologetically human. I loved the coastal Maine setting, having spent some time in the Ogunquit area.

I think the author is extremely talented, and look forward to being a faithful reader for years to come. I just hope she can thin out and sharpen some of her ideas a little bit.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being left freely.

I love family drama stories and boy does this book have it all. Not only the main character, Jane, has family secrets she is uncovering while cleaning out her mother's house. But the house she has been obsessed with her whole life has secrets Jane discovers while researching the history of the house and those who lived there. This book is so magical and heartbreaking.
Jane going through a separation, her battle with alcoholism, and trying to connect with her sister and deceased mother is almost too much. Then the own of the house on the cliff, asks Jane to research the house's history. Jane never dreams that the house is connected to her family in any way other than her dreaming of owning the house since she was a teenager. This book is the definition of tales woven together to form a history going all the way to the indigenous tribes who first belonged to the land and of course the colonists who drove them away, kidnapped them or killed them.
I kept coming back to the book ready to learn more. This is exquisite.

I wanted to really like this book, but it really meanders. It started off good an interesting story with an old house and ghosts then goes into a long history lesson. It just bored me at some parts. She should have really cut back on the history portions of the book.

J. Courtney Sullivan's sixth novel, The Cliffs, is a sweeping opus to life and death, love and heartbreak, longing and loss. A slow burn, multi-layered story of various women tied together through history and time to a house on the cliffs in a small town in Maine. Strong elements of historical fiction, the complexities and complications of family and history, and also a thread of a ghost story. I admittedly struggled a bit at times while reading this - an issue I never encountered reading any of Sullivan's previous novels (all of which I loved). However, I had a feeling that all the pieces would eventually come together, and I'm glad I stayed with the novels and its characters until the satisfying conclusion.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.

This book is the epitome of a slow burn. Life stories from many women, layered and interconnected over decades and shared histories.

I wish i had more time to take this book in slowly as my rushed approach made me skim some of the details.

A large Victorian house on the coast in Maine has loomed large in Jane Flanagan's life. When she was a teenager, the house was abandoned and became a refuge from her own home. Two decades later, Jane returns home to Maine after a mistake threatens her professional future. Jane finds the house is much different than she remembered it—it is occupied and the owner, Genevieve, has renovated it to the point it is nearly unrecognizable. Genevieve hires Jane to research the history of the home, and she uncovers a history that is even more dramatic than she could have ever expected, just as she is coming to terms with the surprising turns in her own life.

This was a touching and perceptive novel, weaving together historical fiction with timely modern themes.

Highly recommended!

While this synopsis drew me in and got me interested initially, it unfortunately felt long and dragged out for the majority of this story. It felt like a long history lesson in parts and ultimately, started to loose my attention. Due to this, I felt like it lost sight of the main plot. It did start out promising and I was interested until about 25% then I started skimming each page. The writing at times was well done, but then other parts, it felt very juvenile. Overall, it felt scattered and all over the place and one I don't be recommending to friends, family, or followers.