i don't know how to feel about this, i read through this super quickly but ended up dissatisfied & disappointed in the end.

the premise: Ellen has one simple job: spend five days at Elver House, record 20 hours of interviews with Miss Carey, then head home to London and ghostwrite her memoirs. easy enough, right? trading the comfort of her flat for the quiet village of Conger Brook, Ellen expects a cozy cottage, a charming elderly woman, and a straightforward assignment. instead, nothing goes as planned. the house looms at the village’s edge, the weather turns ominous, and there’s no phone signal—just one red flag after another. but she pushes forward, determined to do her job. yet, as she unearths Miss Carey’s past, Ellen starts to wonder: is she the one uncovering the story, or is the story closing in on her?

the setting was claustrophobic and eerie, with a creeping sense of wrongness that won’t let go. it feels slow at first like it’s taking its time but before I know it, the plot has wrapped itself around me, tightening with every page. BUT this one was pretty predictable, and i kept getting stuck on Ellen's reflections about her childhood friend. that whole subplot—how their friendship faded after marriage and motherhood—felt underdeveloped and didn’t really go anywhere it felt like a filler and it takes away from the plot. and bringing up Ellen's mom and her complicated relationship with her (NOT NECESSARY) i get that it might’ve been tying into themes of isolation or even the mother-daughter dynamic with Miss Carey, but it didn’t add much to the overall story. it felt like an idea that never fully landed.

then again. i finished the book in under two days, so it wasn’t a waste of time, but it left me wanting more. thank you Salt Publishing for trusting me to read the book and give my honest thoughts about it. maybe it just wasn't for me.

3.5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC. I enjoyed the book a lot. It has a strong plot and great characters. This was a phenomenal read and very engaging. I enjoyed the stories pacing and outcome of the MC’s journey.

Ellen is contracted to stay with Miss Carey for 5 days and obtain 20 hours of interviews. After collecting the recordings, Ellen will go home and ghost-write Miss Carey’s memoirs. Easy peasy, right? Ellen trades the comfort of her London for flat for the small village of Conger Brook with Elver House being on the outskirts of the village. She pictures a sweet little old lady, a cute little cottage to hole up in, and of course, nothing meets her expectations. Ellen ignores all the red flags screaming at her, including: ominous weather, nothing going according to plan, no service; all leads to something being afoot, right? As Ellen delves into Miss Carey’s past, are things as they seem?
This one was a bit predictable. I found myself confused by the narrator’s reflections on her childhood friend that she’d grown apart from, that whole line of the plot was not adequately resolved or thoroughly explained. Overall, I don’t think it was a waste of time and read it under 2 days’ time.
#ThxNetGalley #ZoeApostolides

A moody, damp, dark, gothic, feminist tale and with eels for flavor. (I kind of wish there had been more eels to be honest.)

The writing style is perfect for the tone of the book, descriptive and thoughtful. I will be thinking about this book for a while.

4.5 stars. I clocked what was going on about half way. I think it took me longer to figure out why we were getting the flashbacks about her friend than to figure out the main plot. Then it all weaves together. It isn’t going to be for everyone. If you are looking for a scary story to tell in the dark this isn’t for you. But it you are looking for an eerie brooding tale of the inner lives of women (one where there are eels), you will feel at home in this story.

Thanks to Salt Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC of 'The Homecoming' by Zoë Apostolides.

This is essentially a haunted house, Gothic tale in which a ghostwriter - Ellen - is sent to capture the voice of an elderly woman in a crumbling great house in order to create her memoirs.

The atmosphere is very well captured - pathetic fallacy in all its glory. Ellen encounters many odd occurrences as she navigates to and around the physical house, Elver, and in and around the life of her subject, Catherine Carey and the author keeps us on edge and maintains that Gothic chill throughout, very well done.

There's a whole thread that I didn't get where Ellen is recounting her dwindling relationship with a close friend due to that friend's marriage and motherhood. Maybe it ties in with the theme of isolation? Or motherhood since the relationship between Catherine Carey and her mother is examined? In any case, I didn't think it added too much to the overall story.

'The Homecoming' by Zoë Apostolides messed up with my mind like no other book. I've read several haunting tales before but never have I been so startled by the discovery of the fulcrum of the narrative. Almost 80% of the story went on in such a lumbering sort of way that on several occasions I wished things would speed up a little. But now on retrospection, I see what a brilliant tactic it was on the part of the author to ultimately thrust you into the tumbling gyre of secrets and mystery once the layers around them started unraveling.

Ellen is a ghost-writer who has been sent to Elver House to record the past memories of Catherine Carey and ultimately write a memoir on her behalf. When she arrives on the estate, everything is a haze and honestly, I'd run for my life on the very first walk to the manor if I was her. But then I guess that's why I'm not the protagonist of the novel and she is.

Initially I wanted to know so much more, to see more, but towards the end I sort of leaned into the acceptance and understanding that this is exactly how life is. Not every secret is unearthed, not every question in answered. There're things beyond our comprehension that are as much a part of this world as us, and the only thing we can do is lay a hand gently on their presence, and keep living alongside them.

The novel is about a lot of things, but mostly it's about how hauntingly tender memories and love can be. It's about spindly, liberating, intertwining female friendships that span generations, and the loneliness that can grip you both at the centre of a hustling and bustling city and a deserted, dilapidated manor house. It's about eels and hunger and freedom, and the obfuscation and associated vulnerability that comes with age, especially in the case of women. But mostly it's about learning to care about the humans that we come in contact with, even when our stays in their life's journey might be only for a moment or so.

In the end we all become stories, and may be we write because every story deserves to be heard. I genuinely wish I could give a tight hug to Catherine.

Ellen’s had many assignments before as a ghost writer, but none as strange as Elver House. She arrives amidst a storm, locals reluctant to speak of the house and its caretaker, Catherine Carey. The house itself is beautiful, in a sort of ramshackle way, fallen to disrepair over the years as its caretaker has grown older. As Ellen conducts her interviews of Miss Carey, her life, and the house, she gets more involved than she expects.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this one when I started reading it. It has a bit of a lot of things in it: part memoir (on behalf of Miss Carey), part mystery, and a dive into women’s roles in society. I figured out the plot line pretty early on, and spent the majority of the book waiting for Ellen to catch up to me. It is a slow burn, but wraps up pretty neatly by the end.

Recommended if you like: slow burn mysteries, ghost stories

A slow burn gothic setting in the style of M. Night Shyamalan. The setting is claustrophobic, forbidding, with an ever growing sense of wrongness. I mistakenly believed that the pace of this book was slow, only to realize that the plot was coiling around me the entire time.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC, this is one I will be thinking about for a while.