Cover Image: The Hush

The Hush

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Member Reviews

Received free advanced Kindle copy for review from Netgalley.com
The first chapter was somewhat confusing at first. I had to go back and read the overview to figure it out. I was starting to get a little disappointed but after the 1st chapter it starts picking up. After a while, it was so good I could not stop reading, especially about 3/4 way thru, to the end.
It really took me awhile to read this book because at first I just wasn't that into it for some reason. I kept reading it because I has to leave a review and I am really glad I stuck with it.
The middle thru the end made this book the 4 stars I gave it.

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If, like me, you were completely enamored with Johnny and Jack from The Last Child, here’s your chance to find out where time and space has landed the childhood friends. Be warned though, this might not be what you had in mind when you thought about a follow-up.

From the suspense driven whodunnit of The Last Child, to a mystery swathed in magical realism, it’s safe to say, John Hart took a bit of a risk with The Hush. If you’re not a reader that suspends disbelief easily—hello, that’s me!—this might not work for you. Missing was the frantic page turning frenzy his writing usually incites; replaced instead by this mantra, “keep an open mind . . . keep an open mind . . . keep an open mind.” That’s never a good sign, am I right?

Hush Arbors or The Hush—6,000 acres of dense woods, swamp, rocky terrain, creatures and spookiness—is known for having a bit of a shady history. Once belonging to Johnny's ancestors, but ultimately signed over to a group of freed slaves, the land reverted back to Johnny on a technicality after the death of one of the pivotal characters from The Last Child.

Something about Hush Arbors captured Johnny’s heart immediately and he chose to become a hermit of sorts, living in a desolate cabin and watching over his property from a ancient tree. People that step foot on the land experience a host of things—weightiness, the sense of being watched, hours unaccounted for, disorientation and for some, it costs them the ultimate price. Unearthing what transpired between Johnny’s ancestors and the slaves is ultimately the mystery that drives the story. Who or what are the strange beings that now inhabit the land and torture the visitors? Again, not a storyline that got my blood pumping. In fact, the last 25% of the story was sort of torturous. Ludicrous. Pointless. Blah. You pick the adjective.

While this is technically a follow-up, in no way is The Last Child required reading beforehand. In fact, although most of the characters are present and accounted for, so much time has passed between the two stories—there’s a 10 year gap in the timeline—they’re almost unrecognizable, along with the writing itself. It’s like starting all over with a new cast and maybe even a new author.

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One of my favorite authors does it again! Another masterpiece that kept me up most of the night. I just had to finish it in one sitting to see how it ended. Here's hoping an Edgar is awaiting.

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Another supernatural tale from the author. Suspense and adventure leads the reader from chapter to the next mesmerizing chapter. A book I recommend to all.

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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31450687-the-hush" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Hush" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1476553744m/31450687.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31450687-the-hush">The Hush</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/47072.John_Hart">John Hart</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1990290558">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Ok y’all, Johnny and Jack are back! Ten years have passed since the tragedies in The Last Child, and their bond of friendship is as tight as ever. Jack is now a lawyer and Johnny owns a lot of land left to him from his fathers side and within that land is The Hush were he lives his solitary life in a small cabin. Sinister things happen here due to events of the past! Very very sinister things!<br />John Hart never disappoints! Such a great storyteller!<br /><br />Digital galley from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press!
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/12851291-karen">View all my reviews</a>

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This novel uses the same setting and characters from the author’s award-winning thriller “The Last Child,” picking up the story ten years later. It can be read as a standalone, although reading the previous book first would enrich the experience.

In “The Last Child,” Johnny Merrimon helped solve the mystery of what happened to his missing twin sister Alyssa. Now 23, Johnny lives alone in the isolated and forbidding back country outside of town in Raven County, North Carolina. He stays there in part because he dislikes his “celebrity” status in town from the old murder case, as well as the constant questions along the lines of “What really happened?” and “How are you holding up?” He also wants to avoid his mom, because he knows she looks at him and sees the face of his murdered twin, as well as the face of his dad who tried trying to save Alyssa. The wilderness offers him escape, as well as beauty, serenity, and sustenance. Even the portion that is the swamp once occupied by slaves, Hush Arbor, is magical to him, not only figuratively, but literally. But that’s a truth Johnny doesn’t want to share.

When Johnny is in Hush Arbor, he has a supernatural awareness. He can sense movement in the grass, the water, the air, and the activities of all life around him, both seen and unseen. Moreover, he gets healed from any ailment when he is there. He loves the entanglement with nature he experiences in the Hush, and hates leaving at all.

Johnny rarely has visitors, except his best friend Jack Cross, who comes once a month for dinner. For Jack, Johnny had been “more father than Jack’s father, more brother than any brother God had seen fit to give. In every way that mattered, Johnny Merrimon had defined Jack’s childhood.”

Jack is now an attorney, and Johnny asks him to help with the legal battle to save his family’s land. Johnny owns 6,000 acres, and doesn’t want to lose it. A rich New York hedge-fund owner, William Boyd, wants it for trophy hunting. And Johnny faces a legal challenge from a descendant of Isaac Freemantle, the first freed slave in Raven County. Johnny’s ancestor had freed Isaac and given him all 6,000 acres. No one understands why that transaction took place. In addition, the deed stipulated that the land would go back to the Merrimon family when and if the last male Freemantle died. That happened ten years earlier, and the land went to Johnny. But now a female descendant, Luana Freemantle is challenging the transfer.

Jack has only been in practice a short time, and in any event, does bankruptcy law. He asks an appellate attorney in his firm, Leslie Green, if she would take the case pro bono, since Johnny is out of money. She agrees to look into it, in part because she is one of the celebrity gawkers when it comes to Johnny. She tells Johnny that Luana could indeed have a case - not because of an error of law, but on the grounds of public policy, equity, and gender inequality.

Meanwhile, William Boyd also asks for Leslie’s help, and he is offering her twice her yearly salary as well as his fund’s hugely profitable business for her firm. He claims he only wants the land because “hunting is my passion.” But Boyd’s grandfather was born in Raven County, and Boyd is desperate for the land for reasons he won’t say.

Luana wants to sell the land for complex reasons, but her daughter Cree wants the land to keep it. Freemantle relatives also get involved in the struggle. As Johnny and Cree learn the secrets of the Hush through their dreams, the danger increases to all who are trying to interfere with the fate of this magical space.

Evaluation: There is an element of magic in this book that might put off some readers, but Hart handles it with dexterity. Rather than seeming like a “paranormal” story, Hart uses the magic to expose the history of slavery in the area, as well as a way to reveal the complex nature of temptation and greed. Through it all, the bonds of friendship and family moor the story to reality, and the mystery of what is happening adds tension and interest.

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I appreciated the magical world created by John Hart. I've never read a John Hart novel before and noticed the excitement that comes from his fans when a new one comes out. The magical world he created in this book is extraordinary and it pulls you in. It was interesting to learn about the life of solitude cultivated by Johnny Merrimon. You attempt to learn about the present story and crave the past because it is what has built the main character. The book delves into the past and present in a unique way and you learn about the cultivated bond between our main character and his old friend Jack. The world that surrounds Johnny is magical beyond belief and you definitely didn't want this story to end. I appreciated the exploration of friendship, being taken into a world that my own mind could have never thought of, and the connection between a person's past and present, and what it may bring to their future.

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4.5 Ten years have passed since the last time readers heard from John Merriman and Jack. John now as an adult lives a solitary life in a cabin he built, on the land he loves. He sees few, but he and Jack are still best friends. Some people find him strange and dangerous, for others he holds almost a mythical reputation.

The Hush is a place like no other. Things happen here that can not be explained, and many have lost their minds, their lives, or both trying to walk through this land. For Johnny it is a place of magic, things he can see and feel, things that don't seem right, but mean home to him. But his land is in danger, legally and out worldly ,there are people that want the power for themselves. The Hush has seen gross injustice, terrible deaths and a great love that unleashes a powerful persona. Can a place like this really exist? A great mix of people and their motives in this novel as well.

Much belief must be put aside when reading this. It won me over because it was the nature of the book, the legend of the place and the experiences of the characters within this book. It was true to the story. There is violence, strange experiences, but the writing for the most part I found very powerful.
I was pulled into the story, skepticism and all. Does some land contain traces of past violence, I believe it can, that some places have the ability to reach out to the present, whether with just uneasy feelings, or strange sightings. This writer has the amazing ability to take me to places I've never been, to fully enter this strange world he has concocted. It is also a novel about a great friendship and a family's unconditional love.

When I am truly immersed in a book, loving what I'm reading I try to make it last as long as possible. Force myself to put it down and read something else, which is what I did with this book. This is why I am giving it five stars. All may not feel this way and I can understand that too, as I said reality must be suspended. The ending I did think may have been somewhat over the top, but it does provide explanations and closure.


ARC from Netgalley.

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If I see John Hart’s name on the cover of a book, I know I’m in for a complex, multilayered mystery. This is the follow-up the The Last Child and takes place years after that story. Johnny Merrimon is now a grown man and lives off the grid in a wooded swamp called the Hush. He stays away from people and that’s just the way folks like it, Johnny has been under a cloud of suspicion since his sister disappeared all those years ago. It’s only when his right to the land he lives on is called into question that he leaves his solitary existence to seek out his childhood friend, Jack, now an attorney, to get help hanging on the land that’s been in his family for generations. What follows is a story of family secrets, long-held prejudices and a hint of the supernatural. I loved this book and welcomed the addition of a supernatural element. Hart is an amazing, gifted writer

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