A haunting story about life and death. Extremely thought-provoking and a fantastic read. Recommended.

A pleasant gentle novel and a quite touching and heart-warming one at times, if a little sentimental. It’s the story of a deserted cottage, a mystery and a young boy, Marcus, who is sent to live with his great-aunt after the death of his mother. Part coming-of-age story, part ghost story, overall I enjoyed it, although my credulity was stretched not just by the ghost element but by Marcus himself, who, although charming in a way, is far too mature for his 11 years, and shows an understanding and wisdom well beyond a child’s capacity. This unfortunately made the whole book less convincing than it could have been. Nevertheless an enjoyable enough read.

After the death of his mother,11 year old Marcus is sent to his mother's aunt who lives in a beach house on an island in South Carolina .A derelict cottage (and it's sad story)attracts his attention.It is in this cottage that he "meets" a ghost.The ghost of a 15 year old boy who disappeared during a hurricane in the fifties. But this is in the first place a story about the ghost of a beloved(and departed )mother.It is the ghost of grief and bereavement. I think this is a marvellous story,the pace(probably too slow for some) depicts so well the lazy summer and the slow adjustments of this boy to his new situation, to his aunt,to his new life.
Grief cottage is a well chosen title!

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Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing PLC for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. It is always appreciated.

Although I was sent an early copy of this, I am not going to lie in my review. I will be brutally honest. Always.

I just didn’t ‘get’ this novel and I did not enjoy it. I was actually disappointed in it. The description of the book and other reviews paint the novel as a ghost story but ghost story, it is not. The novel is more of a coming-of-age, coming-to-terms-with-grief kind of novel. I am always disappointed when books are different from their descriptions or do not fit the genre they have been assigned. I sign up for novels for a reason and if they deviate too far from the description then I am disappointed.

Grief Cottage by Gail Godwin is described as a ghost story. Marcus, our eleven year old protagonist moves to a small South Carolina island with his reclusive, painter, great aunt Charlotte after his mother dies suddenly. Marcus becomes obsessed with Grief Cottage, which the islanders have named as a family went missing there, during a hurricane. Marcus becomes obsessed with this story, visiting the cottage every morning and speaking to the boy whose body was never found. One day, the dead boy reveals himself and along with it, more questions are asked and answered.

Unfortunately, that is where the ghost story ends.

Marcus becomes obsessed with Grief Cottage and does all he can to learn about the house and its deceased inhabitants. Through this research, I thought we would be given some great revelation in the end but all of that falls flat. There was an opportunity for more but as soon as the dead boy reveals himself, the ghost story disappears. I really thought I was in for something haunting and beautiful. Instead, we get a lot of rambling plot points and threads that just seem as if the author is trying to do too much.

It took me SO long to get into this novel also. There isn’t really a plot. Instead, we get a lot of character development and the focus is on all of the developments in Marcus and Aunt Charlotte’s lives. One redeeming factor of this is that Marcus is an amazing character. He is so likeable, you will not believe he is only eleven. He has a certain curiosity that will make you curious too. If it wasn’t for Marcus, I would have stopped reading.

Finally, I have seen a lot of people praise Godwin’s writing style but I really disliked it. She is very good at describing scenes but I’m not into big scenic descriptions. I like excitement and fluidity but Godwin skips chronologically and does not seem to flow, which annoys me.

Unfortunately, this book was not the book I thought I was reading. I have given this 2 stars. I would give it 2.5 just because I liked Marcus but I am just too disappointed in it. Maybe the more I think of it, this will change.

I am not sure that I ever worked out where this book was going and consequently I am not sure if it ever got there.

Marcus is orphaned at the age of 11. His Mother goes out for a pizza and the car slips on some ice and crashes. Marcus ends up living on an island with a great-aunt that he has not met previously.

Marcus is quite a strange boy. He is perfectly happy in his own company and that of older people. He seems to struggle with people his own age. He is a bit of a cleanliness freak which is certainly unusual for an 11 year old boy! Marcus builds routines during his summer break and becomes obsessed with the boy who once lived in a wrecked cottage called Grief Cottage.

There is a lot of grief and struggle in this book. It touches on many difficult subjects including sexual abuse and the loss of friends and relatives. All of the characters seem to be a bit unusual especially his aunt, the old lady next door and his aunt's friend, Lash.

I am not exactly sure where the author wanted to take the reader. This book is certainly not designed to be simply a story of an orphaned 11 year old. Several characters, not just Marcus, are dealing with grief in different ways. The elderly neighbour, Coral Upchurch, is dealing with the recent death of her son and Marcus' Aunt has things from the past to deal with. Perhaps the author is writing about how we all deal differently with difficult situations?

Did I enjoy this book? I think so. I did like Marcus despite him being a bit odd. The author did create interesting and three dimensional characters whom I enjoyed reading about. However, despite it being a few days since I have completed this book I am still slightly at a loss as to where it was going and I am not totally sure I have fully understand what the author was trying to say.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

This is a wonderful meditation of grief and loss but also on family and human connection. I absolutely adored this very slow-moving, character focussed novel - but I thought the ending fizzled out and focussed different aspects than I would have liked.

This book follows Marcus, who after just having lost his mother moves to live with his great-aunt Charlotte. She is a bit of a hermit, earning her money painting pictures of the island she lives on and avoiding human interaction as much as possible and has to drastically alter her life to accommodate having an 11-year-old boy live with her. Marcus becomes obsessed with an old house and its history - especially with the history of the boy who lost his life there whose body was never found and whose ghost he starts to see and converse with.

Marcus and Charlotte circle each other, both unsure what to make of the other and of the way their lives have changed; both are not particulary articulated, they are closed off and try to solve their problems on their own. They do not know how to help each other, but they try anyways. I love the human connection that is at the core of this novel and I adore the personification of it by the way of Lachicotte - a wonderful character with so much empathy and love

The story unfolds very very slowly and carefully, moving in circles much in the same way Marcus' thoughts move in circles around the unbelievable fact of his mother's death. Gail Godwin creates a mesmerizing picture of a place and of a feeling where the roughness of nature mirrors Marcus' loss in an absolutely spell-binding way.

First (two) sentence(s): "Once there was a boy who lost his mother. He was eleven years, five months, four days - and would never know how many hours and minutes."

This is a hauntingly profound and moving novel that meditates on the spaces between life and death. 11 year old Marcus's life falls apart when his mother dies. He and his mother were so close, and her circumstances meant that Marcus was in a very grown place, taking care of her and their home, struggling to make ends meet. The lonely, adrift Marcus never knew his father and eventually ends up living on a South Carolina island with his crabby Aunt Charlotte, a woman who values her privacy and has her own emotionally damaging issues. She is obsessed with a cottage in ruins, known locally as Grief Cottage, which inspired her to become a painter as she searches to depict its spirit of utter devastation that parallels her own life experiences and childhood. This is a novel of spiritual ghosts, loss, grief, secrets, haunting memories, acceptance, redemption and survival.

Grief Cottage has a tragic history that Marcus comes to be aware of. In 1954, after a terrifying hurricane, the parents and a boy were discovered to have disappeared from the cottage. Uncertain in his new home and unsure whether his aunt wants him, Marcus takes on the responsibility of keeping the home in order whilst his aunt works in the studio. He spends his time outdoors to minimise his impact on her life and becomes enthralled with nature. He finds himself gravitating to Grief Cottage on a regular basis, despite the dangers that it poses, and sees the ghost of the boy. Marcus is an intelligent, sensitive, independent and inquisitive boy steeped in grief, as indeed is his aunt, and both are loners. He finds comfort in the ghost of the dead boy, this intimate knowledge of death and life allows him to endure and survive. He becomes close to his aunt learning of her trauma and family history, and adapting to his new life. Eventually a mystery comes to be resolved.

Gail Godwin writes beautifully, tenderly and atmospherically, on death and grief, topics that society oft deals with awkwardly, with discomfort and even insensitively on occasion. She gives us a great sense of location in her descriptions of the island and its people. The book is steeped in the rhythms of nature, the circle of life and death, such as with the turtles. The character development is superb and I liked the capable Laciotte and the elderly Coral who Marcus becomes close to. It is the grief of the characters that predominates and it is symbolised by Grief Cottage. I loved this low key, slow moving, thoughtful and insightful novel that I found myself completely immersed in. Highly recommended. Thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC.