J. Courtney Sullivan has written movingly about Irish Catholics in. New England and their struggles with alcohol, family, and religion. "The Cliffs" has all of this and much, much more. In this novel she takes on slews of other topics. Too many? Let's see.

Jane Flanagan is a lonely girl who escapes her hard-drinking mother and sister by hanging out at an old lavender house on the edge of a cliff near her Maine home. The house looks as if the people just walked out one day and never returned. It's irresistible to a teen, and turns out to be irresistible to Jane twenty years later when she returns to clean out her mother's house. She's now a Harvard archivist, but her behavior at a gala opening--blackout drunk--has endanged he career and her marriage. The lavender Victorian has been purchased by a wealthy couple and the wife hires Jane to research the house's history. Genevieve is spurred to do this because she believes her son is seeing a ghost.

Jane's research will expose her to spiritualism, Native American history, centuries of colonialism, the Shakers, one-percenters, murder and more. Some of these sidebars are fascinating and the others are lectures. It would have been wonderful if discussion of colonialism did not have a finger-shaking delivery that stops the narrative short. Sullivan is taking on some important issues and it's a shame that they are not better integrated into the story.

What works is that you really do want to find out what went on in the lavender house. You care about Jane, and although you won't know what she did at that gala for quite some time (It's pretty cringy,) her brilliance, loneliness, drive, and prickly humanity made me root for her.

3.5 stars rounded up. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital review copy of "The Cliffs" In exchange for an honest review.

Yikes. This book was not for me. It started out great. An abandoned house, a little boy seeing a ghost, secrets, & house with history that has been forgotten. However, for a lot of it I felt like I was being lectured. A history lesson of the Shakers & Indigenous people. Indians being mistreated. A woman dealing with alcoholism & a contentious relationship with her family. The chapters were incredibly long. One was over an hour long. When you feel like you’re being lectured, well, my eyes were getting glazed over. This felt all over the place. I enjoyed the house & wanted more from that & the ghost angle. Unfortunately, by 80% I was ready for it to be done. I personally felt like this story didn’t have the flow that made me want to keep reading.