“The Cliffs” by J. Courtney Sullivan is an ambitious novel centered around a house and the beautiful land on which it sits in Maine. Concepts explored include family relationships (particularly mother-daughter relationships), friendship, spiritualism, alcoholism, divorce, the Shaker religion, feminism, Alzheimer’s disease, generational trauma and indigenous people. Yes, very ambitious!

There were many characters introduced throughout the book - mostly strong women. They were well drawn and relatable. I found myself becoming exasperated with the main character, Jane, midway through the book - wanting to shake her “awake” and tell her to be more positive about her life. Eventually that happened and the various storylines were woven together in an all too neat finish - not a “happy ending” exactly, but close.

One area of concern was the demonization of the British “colonizers” over the indigenous people. Although some “colonizers” came for secular reasons, the great majority left Europe to worship God in the way they believed to be correct after being persecuted for their beliefs. The indigenous people’s spirituality seemed to carry greater weight with the author.

The beginning of the book was quite riveting and I was quickly engrossed in the characters and the connection to the house. The middle became a bit muddled with the various storylines and characters. The ending was satisfying with many loose ends “tied up”.

Couldn’t help but notice the parallels between the (main character) house on “The Cliffs” with Jane’s family home.

“The Cliffs” will be released in July 2024 and I highly recommend it. I will be reading other books by J. Courtney Sullivan; she’s a wonderful storyteller!

Set on a secluded bluff in Maine with dual timelines, The Cliffs is full of family drama, secrets, & suspense. If you love historical fiction, this one is for you. I can’t wait to check out more works by this author.

Thank you NetGalley & Knofp, Pantheon, Vintage, & Anchor for the ARC copy of this book.

Sullivan is venturing into Jodi Picoult and Anita Shreve territory with her fabulous researched novel about a property used over time, first by indigenous people until the Abenaki are displaced from their spot overlooking the ocean by white men. Tragedy seems to befall each successive owner. Harvard archivist Jane was obsessed with the charming and abandoned lavender Victorian house as a teenager; an encounter with the newest owner, who believes the house to be haunted after her young son reveals he is kept awake by the little girl in his bedroom at night, leads to a gig researching it's history. Jane is as gutted as the house by Genevieve's renovations, but, in between jobs and relationships, accepts the challenge.

The novel moves back and forth masterfully through a century of time, layering the complex stories of each who laid claim to the land. Sullivan produces rich, fully developed characters, and develops a sense of Maine's culture, character, and charm. She builds suspense, shows respect for her topic, weaves supernatural and historical elements, and allows her sense of the disrespect of colonialism to flavor the novel without significant alienation to guilty white parties, so we can begin to have honest, accountable discussions around artifacts, land, and cultural appropriation.

I received a free, advance reader's review copy of #TheCliffs via #NetGalley, courtesy of Knopf.

Story set in Maine in two different time frames. It had some history of Maine, secrets, family and the Native Americans who lived there combined with the current story. The oceanfront Victorian house has gingerbread trim has a mystic quality and tells the stories of the women who came before us.
Very enjoyable.

This story by J Courtney Sullivan centers itself in a picturesque and quaint village in Maine as do many of her books. Her description of the Maine lifestyle and what is offered to tourists says a lot about her familiarity with this charming state. This story's centerpiece is a house on a cliff which has existed for over a century and whose inhabitants have left their spiritual DNA behind after their deaths. A librarian archivist named Jane is the primary character in this story who found peace and solace on the abandoned property when she was a young girl, trying to survive her mother's alcoholism while trying to mange growing up with very little affection, food or attention. She found books a refuge and excelled in school finally landing a gem of a job working at the Schlesinger library at Harvard. She loves seeking out history and the people who came before. She is well respected and promoted often. Finally finding friendships she never had growing up, she parties hard often not always remembering what she did after a night of drinking. She isn't aware yet, but she is following in her mother's footsteps and it will eventually cost her everything because of one stupid night of drinking and foolish behavior. It is after this incident, she is put on leave from Harvard, feels she should give her husband space to deal with her mess up and returns to Maine to clean up her mother's house following her recent death. She discovers that the house on the cliff has been purchased by a bougie Bostonian who intends to renovate the entire place and is introduced to this woman through a childhood friend who now owns an inn in town. Jane wins an auction item of a reading by a medium/spiritualist that her friend thinks might help her connect with her dead mother and put some closure to their toxic relationship. What the medium does though is open some doors of past lives of the house on the cliff who come through and Jane is now intrigued to find out who this child "D" is and the mother she wants to reassure she is okay. This is when the story changes a bit.
The cast of characters that were associated with the house or the property are now the storytellers as the author goes back in time to answer some mysteries that have been lost to time. The reader is introduced to the history of the indigenous peoples first making their homes on these cliffs and the tragic love story of one couple, the European settlers that found this part of Maine, then about the Shaker community who lived and worked for decades in this seaside town, and all the way up to present day. It takes a while for the reader to find out exactly what happened for Jane's life to implode and the secrets that defined her childhood. They all come out as the spirits over time tell their tales.
This is a long and slow burn of a story. It is quite interesting to learn about the cultures that settled there and influenced so much of Maine's history but at the same time, there was a lot of jumping around and seemed extraneous which needed some trimming to make it flow better. The one intriguing aspect of the storytelling was the thread that all the spirits had to one another all the way down to Jane. Also, the ending was so abrupt left me feeling unsatisfied. However, the writing and creativity of the book is really engaging. Telling the lost history of this patch of land through the voices of the departed was very creative.
Strong themes: alcohol abuse, indigenous culture mistreatment, child endangerment, dementia. 3.5 stars

The Cliffs by J Courtney Sullivan is a slow burn historical fiction, which examines the history of an abandoned Victorian mansion on the cliffs of a little town on the coast of Maine and its inhabitants.

When a teenage Jane Flanagan discovers the abandoned home as a teenager, it becomes her safe place - it's where she escapes to her with best friend Allison or just by herself - to read, to study, to get away from her complicated mother and underprivileged life. The house is a mystery unto itself, filled with furniture, dishes in the cabinets, clothes in the closets, marbles still scattered across the floor - a still life of days gone by, a home that it appears the inhabitants walked away from in the middle of their lives, never to return.

Two decades later, a broken Jane returns to her hometown with her marriage and career on the brink of collapse. Jane, a historian and archivist at Harvard, has a chance meeting with Genevieve, the new owner of the mysterious home, who wants to hire her to trace the house's history and its inhabitants because Genevieve believes the mysterious home is haunted by its prior inhabitants.

As Jane uncovers the long and heartbreaking history that unfolded in the house and atop those cliffs, she also uncovers how the interconnectedness of a place, its people, and its events shapes everything and everyone around it.

Four stars, a good read for lovers of historical fiction with a touch of magical realism sprinkled in.

I received a free copy of, The Cliffs, by J. Courtney Sullivan, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. In Maine sits a house on the cliffs, a neglected house that draws Jane Flanagan to it. Twenty years later Jane is back, and the house has a new owner, and is getting repaired. This book has a lot going on. I enjoyed this book, it was a captivating read.

I loved everything about J. Courtney Sullivan's latest book The Cliffs! It is a beautiful meditation on female friendship, the relationship between mothers, daughters, and sisters, and how the generations of women who came before us impact how we live today. It also explores ideas of loss, memory, and whose stories are told - and, more importantly, aren't told - by our cultural institutions.

After a devastating personal incident, Jane - an Archivist at the Schlesinger Library - returns to her mother's home in Southern Maine. She becomes involved in researching the history of a 19th century house that overlooks the rocky coast and uncovers (with the help of a medium!) information about the lives the women who lived there, including the wife of a ship captain, an orphan who was adopted into a Shaker community, and an artist in the mid-20th century. Along the way, the reader also learns about the indigenous Abenaki and Penobscot women who lived for generations on the land of Jane's hometown.

Throughout the book, I felt like Jane was a friend I'd love to have a long conversation with. I will return to this novel again and again and will recommend it to my own friends.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review; all opinions are my own.

DNF…..I tried a couple of times to get into this book and it’s not for me. I found it difficult to relate to the characters and the story. I got to about page 60 and found that I could not concentrate. My mind kept wandering and I had to restart paragraphs multiple times. I finally gave up. I’m sorry but it just didn’t get interested this story.
#thecliffs
#netgalley

I received an early copy of the book from NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf. This is my honest review.
I enjoyed this story. It started out strong, slowed down a bit in the middle but then picked back up for the ending. There is quite a bit going on as the story moves from present day to the past and back again, told from the viewpoint of various women. The history of the indigenous people of Maine, the Shakers, legends that are based on truths, ghosts and modern day secrets all combine for an interesting read. The only trigger warning that my be needed is there is a family history of alcoholism in the modern section of the story.
#HistoricalFiction #IndigenousPeople #Ghosts #Alcoholism

The Cliffs was an amazing story with some history, some mystery and a little ghost story mixed in. I loved how the author delved into the history of the indigenous peoples of Maine. The mystical was woven artfully without being too woo woo.

The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan is a complex novel that intricately weaves several themes into a story about the significance of place through time. I can’t even begin to comprehend the level research that went into this work - from Native American tribes of New England and English explorers to Spiritualism and Shakers. There is a lot going on here, but the author does a fantastic job of bringing together all of the elements into a satisfying conclusion.

There is a very strong female narrative, as told by several women at many different points in time. The story explores the ways with which women’s lives are shaped by tragedies of the present and the past, as well as the struggles between connectedness and independence. It delves into weighty topics such as the far reaching effects of alcoholism, the legacy of colonialism and its impact on indigenous communities, and alternatives to a patriarchal worldview, such as Spiritualism and Shaker beliefs.

I found the juxtaposition of the danger inherent in romantic relationships with the deepest love between a mother and a daughter fascinating. The reconsideration of not just what story is told, but how and by whom also really resonated.

Lastly, I enjoyed reading about some familiar places, such as the Schlesinger Library and Cambridge, as well as a few mentions of locations across update New York.

I’m excited to read Sullivan’s previous novels and I hope to explore southern Maine someday! Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC!

Story set in Maine in two different time frames. It was confusing at first, but I eventually got on board. I enjoyed the novel over all, but didn't love it the way I loved some of her other books. It had some history of Maine and the Native Americans who lived there combined with the current story of an alcoholic that kind of crashed her life.

Thank you Net Galley for my advance ebook copy of this book. I wanted to love this book; at first I was really into the story and quickly read a hundred pages. Then I'm not sure why but it just dragged on and was a little choppy. I think it might have been too many characters to keep track of but I enjoyed how they were all connected at the end of the book. I also appreciated the historical aspect and enjoyed learning more about Maine.

I liked the general plot line and characters were likable enough. What I struggled with was how often as the plot started picking up the pace...boom - there is a long essay dealing with art history or indigenous people or women's history. It took me out of the story.

US pub date: 7/16/24
Genre: contemporary fiction
Quick summary: Jane grew up in a small town in Maine, but a lot has changed when she returns 20 years later. Starting with her favorite house in the town - now occupied by a Bostonian who's gutted it and thinks it's haunted - can the two of them figure out the truth?

I haven't spent a lot of time in Maine, so I loved the chance for armchair travel! Sullivan did a wonderful job setting the atmosphere and bringing something new to the well-trodden "summer people vs year-round residents" narrative. There are historical and social justice aspects to the story as well, including discussion of the tribes originally native to the area. The book slowed down a bit in the middle, but the ending came together really well. This may be my favorite of Sullivan's books, and I think readers looking for a beach read with a little more weight will enjoy it!

Thank you to Knopf for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love love love all of J. Courtney Sullivan's books, and this one is no exception, but it is a deviation. There is a deeper history lesson here, with some paranormal elements, as well as deep dives into alcoholism and colonialism. It’s not a beach read! But still worth reading.

I love Courtney Sullivan and was very excited to read this however reading this book dragged for me. There are several themes including alcoholism, indigenous people's rights, ghosts, mediums and more; it didn't feel like any of these themes really gelled together into a cohesive story. It felt like several vignettes put together in an unaligned way. Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the ARC!

I'm not sure what repatriation of Native American artifacts, spiritualism, and alcoholism in families, with a little bit of feminism thrown in all have to do with each other, but Ms. Sullivan has blended all these themes together to create a story that is so compelling that it sticks with the reader. BUT even though all these ideas are important on their own, I think it is the Jane's personal story that is the one that I was most interested in. The other characters--Genevieve, Allison, Holly, Marilyn, her mother and grandmother, and even dead Eliza, support Jane and scaffold her journey to true sobriety and her realization of what she is meant to do with her life. For those of us who know Maine, the townspeople and place descriptions ring true, as none of the characters are all bad or all good and all the circumstances are perfect--just like in real life.

This book has so much appeal for readers -- it is both a page-turner and a book with much to say about Native American history and culture, and about the ravages of alcoholism. Jane Flanagan, a Harvard archivist, returns to her coastal Maine hometown in disgrace. As the result of one horrible night, she has lost both her husband and her job. Her mother has recently died and she is charged with getting the house ready to sell. In the meantime, she meets Genevieve, who along with her ultra-wealthy husband, has purchased an historic home that Jane has been obsessed with since she was a teenager. Genevieve ends up hiring Jane to research the house's history. There are ghosts, psychics, mediums, unscrupulous antique dealers and lots and lots of history. I truly look forward to recommending this book.