I tried 3 times to get into this book, but I just couldn't!

The premise itself is a good one: a woman dies while staying at her sister's guest house, which results in tearing the family apart. But then all the other plot points come in -- the sister is having an affair, she stalks the wife, there's a lady being kept in a barn... what? There's just too much going on. Combine that with the storyline jumping back and forth between past, recent past, and now and it just makes for a mish-mash that is hard to follow. Furthermore, you get to where you just don't care what happens to these characters.

My mind is completely blown! In The Vines was a crazy and wonderful, modern, gothic thriller. Bonus points for being loaded with strong, fierce, fabulous, terrifying women.

Bizarrely, after just finishing the novel, I am finding it difficult to describe one central storyline. As the title suggests there are several stories within this novel twisted and knotted like vines. Mop is the daughter and niece of a pair of lovingly-tight-knit “Vanderbilt”-like sisters. A tragedy befalls her family and the rest of the book disentangles thread after thread of a large scale mystery set in a New England ocean-/cliff-side estate.

I was addicted to every word. At times the prose read like poetry. As a couple of the characters descended into madness, the prose got choppier and crazier and they just fit with the mood and atmosphere.

I loved the relationships described in the novel, especially the honesty about how even the best relationships have dysfunction in them.

Though thoroughly modern in its graphic nature, In The Vines does harken the reader back to other gothic, female-driven greats like Rebecca and Jane Eyre. I would recommend this novel to everyone!

Okay, let me first start off by saying I get scared easily... hence my low-ish rating. This thriller was so hauntingly beautiful. I'd almost classify it as horror, and I can't handle that. This book was jammed packed with so many anxiety-ridden moments.... I'm so lucky I made it out of this book still breathing. I did adore the gothic elements, of the house, the family and the secrets riddled within. I will for sure be recommending this book to the people I know who love dark, scary thrillers. This would easily be a 5-star read for them!

This book is literally a 300-page panic attack.

I love books that push boundaries and this book does just that. IN THE VINES is a thriller that, in my opinion, borders on horror. The writing style is haunting and really makes you feel like you may actually be becoming unhinged right alongside the characters.

The story also has a great gothic that is really thought out and fleshed out well. I love a creepy, sprawling estate setting.

I loved the idea of this book but I found it to be a little disjointed. The characters were engrossing but I never connected to them. When I read the description of this book, I instantly thought I had to read it and while I enjoyed it, I didn't love it. That's okay though, you don't have to love every book. I would still recommend it to my fellow thriller lovers because it truly is different.

Fan-freakin-tastic. This is one of my favorite thrillers I've ever read. This is a wonderfully written gothic thriller that has both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre feels. I found myself highlighting whole paragraphs and just completely sinking into the words. This book is very dark...and for that it will not be for everyone. I love stories that focus on a narrator who is mentally unstable. But this is the first time I've ever fully felt the mental unraveling myself! I felt as if I too was losing my mind. Wonderful.

Really enjoyed this. Very unusual but gripping thriller. Read it in 2 days over a lovely big bank holiday weekend. Highly recommended. 5 stars on goodreads

After two years of her mother's death, Mary Olivia Pentecost (Mop) decides to go to her aunt's estranged seaside estate and hopefully find out the truth about what really happened to her mother, and other shocking family secrets she never imagined could even exist.

The book starts with a heart-thudding scene taking place in the present time, featuring one of the protagonists being trapped in a burned guest cottage and seeking escape from a demented woman with a hatchet trying to kill her.

From the start, it is evident how the story will unsettle you deeply - in a good way.
The events - told through different periods of time: two years prior, two weeks prior and the present time - are incredibly engaging as we see through the mind of the main female characters: Mop, who is trying to figure out the truth about her family, and Aunty Liv, a woman whose overly dramatic view of life drives her to do strange and overwhelming things.

Now that Mop is getting close to the truth, she begins to question her aunty's motives...
What did Aunty Liv mean when she said there's a hospital bed in the barn? Why does her aunt keep the barn's front doors locked and its back barred? Who is the crazy woman in the barn?

I loved how the descriptions of every thought and emotion are extremely intense and filled with horror. Shannon's writing is perfectly unpredictable and tremendously addictive.

In The Vines by Shannon Kirk is a gothic thriller. The minute I hear “gothic thriller” I immediately feel chills up my spine because I think of darkened hallways and chilly staircases, creepy maids, and butlers, dusty bookcases, and empty rooms.

I am super excited to read this one!

Here’s what you need to know:

Mary Olivia Pentecost, known as Mop, was born into one of the wealthiest families in the country—and one of the most guarded. Now, two years after her mother’s mysterious death, Mop is seeking closure on the disquieting tragedy by returning to the New England seaside estate of her cloistered Aunty Liv—once her closest relative and confidante.

But behind the walls of the isolated estate, the shadows of the past are darker than Mop imagined. The puzzles of the family history are not to be shared, but unearthed. With each revelation comes a new, foreboding threat—and for Mop, the grave suspicion that to discover Aunty Liv’s secrets is to become a prisoner of them.

How well do we know the people we love? How well do we want to know them? The answers are as twisted as a tangle of vines in this throat-clutching novel of psychological suspense.



Throat clutching suspense? Sounds like something I am going to be staying up late to read!

This was a good book. I have not heard of the author before but was very into the writing style the story line was a little confusing and caught myself having to go back and check to make sure I was understanding the story right.

As much as I wanted to like this book, I just couldn't get into it. The premise sounded interesting, but ok couldn't get into it right from the start.

I honestly wasnt sure if I liked this book at first. I was halfway through and just kind of tired of all the descriptions, constant questions, and flashbacks. Very back and forth. But it really picks up in the second half, and I think that is what redeemed it for me. Theres still that thick, descriptive gothic-type writing, and flashbacks but the plot had so many twists and turns I found myself gasping out loud as I read.
I didnt really connect to the characters until near the end, in the midst of all the action.
I really really enjoyed the ending as well.
Id recommend this to a friend if they were interested in gothic thrillers.

This was a great book. It was dark and full of suspense. And the cover is so pretty!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Absolutely great book. This isn't the same old same kind of thriller novel. I was guessing about who people we're, what they did, why the did it. My mind was just getting blown around every turn. So so so good. I would recommend this book for anyone who is a murder mystery lover like me, that's gotten sick of the same story line being retold again and again.

An excellent psychological suspense novel in which the suspense just keeps coming . . . . and coming. Wow

Mop (Mary Elizabeth Pentecost) has returned to the New England ocean side compound owned by her aunt Liv. She’s seeking answers about the unexplained death of her mother two years earlier. But she finds more questions than answers as her family’s dark secrets roil beneath the surface of their picture perfect lives. Kirk presents a modern Gothic masterpiece. If you loved Victoria Holt or Phyllis Whitney, you’ll love this 21st century equivalent