The Dredge by Brendan Flaherty

An author with a future ~ Great debut novel!

What I liked:
* The dark theme of the story
* That I was drawn into the story quickly and felt a part of the story
* The psychological aspect of childhood trauma and its impact so many years later
* The small-town vibe and how the various characters interacted
* That though dark, there seemed to be hope at the end of the book, at least for some of the characters
* The plot, pacing, setting, and writing
* The thread of family – good and bad
* That this is a book that will stay with me awhile
* Reading a new to me author that I would gladly read again
* All of it except…

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like
* Thinking about abuse and how it damages and how that damage is sometimes carried into future generations

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more by this author? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars

I’m not the first to say something like this, but I have a credo: “I review terrible books, so you don’t have to read them.” To that end, let’s turn to Exhibit A: Brendan Flaherty’s debut novel, The Dredge. It’s a book that’s so bad, it’s not even so bad that it’s good. It’s flat-out terrible. However, I’m a nice enough guy and understand that you attract more bees with honey, so I also can foresee some good coming out of reading a book such as this one. (More on that later.) Still, be prepared for a book that isn’t entertaining. This would normally be a popcorn and potato chip kind of read (the snacks that you might much on while reading this) but the book is so bland that you’ll probably be hungry for something better after consuming all of those empty calories. (Am I talking about the book, though, or the food you’d be eating while perusing this? Both?) I’m not sure where to begin to pinpoint the deficiencies of this work, so let’s just jump into the plot synopsis, shall we?

The Dredge is a novel that jumps from character to character and then back and forth in time, sometimes within the same chapter. As I understand it, it’s about two brothers — Cale and Ambrose Casey — who grew up in the 1990s in rural Connecticut. While coming of age, their father dies in a mysterious single-vehicle car crash. And they are picked on by the neighbouring Rowe family — whose household has 13-year-old Lily Rowe, a girl who Cale finds attractive even as she makes fun of him — who has an abusive father at its head. One day, Cale and Ambrose spiral out of control and do something that (as the publicity materials point out) is somewhere between “self-defense” and “family preservation,” and bury the secret in a pond. Flash forward 30 years and Cale has changed his name and is selling real estate in Hawaii. Ambrose, meanwhile, has stayed in Connecticut and runs a construction firm. Both men’s lives get upended when said pond from their youth is about to be excavated to make way for a new retail development. What will they do to protect their guilt? All in all, this plot summary makes the book seem to be not so bad. However, it’s all in the execution, which is where the book finds its faults.

But I said up front that I’d talk about the good things about this book. So I can say that the cover art is striking. (However, never judge a book solely on its cover.) Someone has thought highly of the book to splurge on nice packaging. And the book is short, mercifully so. I read it in two sittings and takes about three and a half hours to get through. If you’re the type of person who doesn’t read a lot of books out of sheer business or, well, illiteracy, that may be an important factor in deciding to read this. And the book’s release date is apt as the book deals with the messy transition from winter to spring as the book is set in March 2022 in the present section of the read. So, there. These are my recommendations for reading a book that I would ultimately caution you away from. And, oh, how I can! First, this novel is hardly convincing in its portrayal of domestic abuse. The Rowe household is depicted as dysfunctional, yes, but if I were a young girl and my dad was making sexual googly eyes at me and had no other redeeming qualities, I’d be more than just a mean daughter as depicted in this work. I’d probably be either homicidal or suicidal. (I mean, I’m only guessing. However, the entire character seems to be off.) Secondly, the dialogue and overall literary quality of the work is stilted. For instance, author Flaherty uses the word “peopled” as a substitute for “people had” and doesn’t do this in a stylish or literary way — it just comes across as lazy writing. What comes out of his characters’ mouths additionally feels unrealistic and is akin to creating caricatures of people. For instance, a character might joke about another character digging a grave while wearing nice clothing, and the other character will retort something that doesn’t jibe with what the first character has said at all — they may, as an approximate example, joke about the weather or something unrelated in turn.

I could probably go on but suffice it to say — and I can’t find a polite way to say this — that The Dredge is the work of a rank amateur, the kind of first novel writers write when it comes to trying to find their voice and develp an idea that isn’t hackneyed or cloying. This is a mystery that isn’t mysterious and a thriller that doesn’t thrill in the least. I was surprised that the publisher has categorized this novel as being “literary fiction” on NetGalley because this is far from being the polished and poetic manuscript that would merit such a distinction. The Dredge is a failure on most accounts. Namely, it’s silly and boring. It needs to flesh out certain characters’ motivations more. And it needs less of one character trying to explain his actions 30 years ago to a two-year-old toddler. (Yes, this does happen in the book.) Don’t say that I didn’t try to warn you, but if you like your reads to be short and unchallenging then The Dredge may offer something to you. Otherwise, pass me the bowl of popcorn, and let me look for thrills and spills from better, more accomplished writers to tell you about.

A story about a small town and deep family secrets. Two brothers that share a dark secret they'd like to keep hidden and a new family from somewhere else that comes to the town and brings their darkness with them. Two families trying desperately to keep their secrets hidden as the local fishing hole is scheduled to be dredged and everything unleashed from their dark pasts.

Told from many different POVs, you have to keep up with which one you're reading from, but an engrossing story that kept me turning every page wanting to see how this played out for everyone. Mistakes have been made and horrors suffered by kids that should never happen, but a very well told story about protecting your family at all costs.

I enjoyed every aspect of this book and thought it was very well told!

The Dredge is a compelling, absorbing tale that transports you to Macoun, Connecticut, and into the lives of members of both the Rowe and Casey families as the past suddenly collides with the present when a developer decides to dredge Gibbs Pond and more than one person is on edge and threatened by the long-buried secrets it may finally bring to light.

The writing is tight and intense. The characters are vulnerable, impulsive, and scarred. And the plot, using a back-and-forth style, intertwines and unravels seamlessly into an engrossing tale full of lies, deception, abuse, desperation, manipulation, familial drama, troubled pasts, unusual friendships, troubling behaviors, violence, and murder.

Overall, The Dredge is a dark, atmospheric, promising debut by Flaherty that kept me enthralled from the very first page and left me entertained, satisfied, and eager to read whatever his deliciously sinister mind manages to come up with next.

What a beautifully written gut punch of a tragic story of two families that wasn't what I expected and was so much more. Ambrose, Cale and Lily all have secrets that are about to come roaring back out into the light with the dredging of a pond. Ambrose and Cale, brothers, are both burdened and shadowed by guilt about something they did as teens- and you won't know what that is until deep into the novel. Lily also has hidden secrets. Her dysfunctional family is the root, the cause, of the trauma all of them have experienced. It's very character driven and it's subtle until it's not. Great atmospherics. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This is not long and I found myself reading it in a gulp because I wanted to know what happened and what would happen. A terrific debut- I'm looking forward to more from Flaherty.

Two estranged brothers must confront the violence of the past when they find out a pond where they played as children will be dredged. After some traumatic teenaged years in rural Connecticut, Cale and Ambrose Casey had nothing left to say to each other. Cale ran off to Hawaii to sell luxury real estate. Ambrose stayed behind and built up his construction company. Neither thought they’d be in touch again and were glad for it—until they learned of a real estate developer’s plan to drain and expand Gibbs Pond. Nearly 30 years before, the Casey brothers buried a secret in that pond, which fell somewhere between self-defense and family preservation. Lily Rowe, the contractor in charge of the dredging, can also trace her roots—and her trauma—to the banks of Gibbs Pond. After a childhood that saw her and her brother yanked across the country by her abusive father, it was here where she finally stayed put, even if they didn’t. But as ambitious as Lily is, and as much as she wants answers of her own, her family also has secrets to protect. Now, the haunted lives of Cale, Ambrose, and Lily collide once more as they reunite to unearth the devastation of the past.
This is a story of family secrets. The plot was good and well developed and the two main characters of Cale and Lily were nicely drawn too. All in all, the book was very well written with good dialogue that kept me reading until the end of the book. This is a debut novel but I am looking forward to his next novel as I found this book a very easy read. If you like novels about family secrets then you would love this book.

A mystery tale, The Dredge (2024) by debut author, Brendan Flaherty is a reckoning of retrospective choices and actions. Two brothers, Cale and Ambrose Casey grew up in rural Connecticut, but went their separate ways after traumatic experiences in their teenage years. Cale went to Hawaii and sells luxury real estate in Honolulu, whilst Ambrose stayed local, building his own construction company. The dredging of a local pond causes the brothers to meet and face the consequences of thirty years earlier. A content warning is necessitated for potentially triggering some readers, given the psychological issues, childhood abuse and a graphic account of animal cruelty. Although it has an interesting premise, the initially jerky switch in time periods is confusing and a barrier to settling into the story’s flow. This novel is on the short size, which impacts the quality of the character study and the sensitivity of their portrayal. Neither the mystery element nor the literature aspect quite hit the target, with an average two and a half stars rating. With thanks to Grove Atlantic and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without inducement.

This story revolves around two families in small town Connecticut. Caleb and Ambrose Casey two boys and men who come from what many consider a good solid family they are third generation in Macoun. They are the type of boys who spend much of their time in the woods learning about life and their family history. Ray and Lily Rowe come from at best a dysfunctional family with a father who is a drunkard and abuser and is rarely around and there is always trouble when he is and a mother who has a reputation around town. So, it is no surprise to see that Ray has some issues he is dealing with.
This story takes some turns which lead to tragedy when there is confrontation and accusations which leads both families to have secrets to hide and they hope to stay hidden. This story moves back and forth from their time of teenagers and when they are adults. With a new proposed project coming to fruition in Macoun those secrets maybe exposed. This is a quick read overall and a good story, my only issue is there were times that the story felt a little rushed.

The Dredge is a story of the gnarly, painful, ichorous tendrils that manifest from the mistakes of our past that pull us from moving forward. The title is a supremely fitting metaphor for these characters lives as they reach the precipice of the cliff they have been desperately trying to steer clear of. This is not a redemption story as all of these characters are so far past that, that now it is just about how to keep from completely coming undone.
I thought this book was very well written. The characters and their little slice of this world were incredibly created that it painted the majestic and ugly image. Everything good in you wants to look away, leaving these people with their dignity. But like with any tragedy, that horrible part of your human curiosity, keeps you looking. The writing style left so much for your imagination to play with as the story prodded at the surface. It was quite the read.
Really recommend people read this book. 3.75 stars.

I would really like to thank NetGalley, the author and publisher for allowing me ARC access. All opinions and comments are my own.

Publication date March 5, 2024.

This story focuses on the experiences of two male MCs, brothers who are estranged because of a problematic set of family dynamics, but who share a dark secret.

That secret is quite literally now in danger of surfacing when a pond in their hometown is scheduled to be dredged - part of a plan for a development project.

Ambrose and Cale Casey are miles apart. Not just in perspective and personality, but also because one chose to leave and become a real estate developer in Hawaii, while the other stayed in the town where they grew up.

The contractor in charge of the dredging, Lily Rowe, has her own issues with the water body in question, and a past connection with the Casey brothers.

This is actually quite a heavy story, dealing with topics like mental health, child abuse and personal darkness. It is not a thriller. More of a character-driven novel about three quite troubled protagonists. Brendan Flaherty has done a good job of portraying how childhood trauma and generational legacies impact the current lives of these characters. It gets 3.5 stars.

“Some families are haunted. The stuff of the past, the traumas and the ghosts—they just go on and on,” thinks Caleb “Cale” Casey, a successful real-estate broker in Hawaii who has been estranged for almost 30 years from his brother Ambrose, who runs a construction company back in their small Connecticut hometown. Both are tormented by a terrible secret that they buried as teenagers in Gibbs Pond. When a real-estate developer announces plans to dredge the pond in preparation for further development, Cale reluctantly returns home. Unbeknownst to the brothers, Lily Rowe, the contractor in charge of the dredging, also suffers from a dark family history, a childhood of abuse and neglect, shared with her troubled sibling Ray, that led to a shocking act of violence. How these well-drawn traumatized characters and their secrets collide in the present day, permanently changing the course of their lives, is the theme of Flaherty’s beautifully written debut. His Connecticut is not the monied suburbia of Rick Moody and John Cheever, but a rural working-class community more reminiscent of Daniel Woodrell’s Ozark mountain towns. After a strong buildup, the conclusion felt a bit anticlimactic. Still, this sad novel about the corrosive effects of family trauma and pain will linger in readers’ minds.

As the novel begins, Macoun is a Connecticut town with possibilities of becoming a haven for wealthy people looking to move out of cities during the Covid-19 pandemic—or at least so thinks the big local developer. The developer has the chance to snap up a large landholding on Gibbs Pond, but it will need to be dredged to restore its depth and clarity. That brings the past back to life for three people.

Lily Rowe is the workhorse at the developer’s company and lives very near to Gibbs Pond, as does Ambrose Casey. Years earlier, when Ambrose and his brother Cale were kids, their father tried to help out the Rowe family. Abe Rowe was an abusive drunk, his wife was often out of it herself, and Lily and her brother Roy were troubled—especially Roy, who seemed to be growing up to be violent himself. Clashes between members of the two families turned deadly, and now Cale has left and been living in Hawaii for a couple of decades, trying to blot out everything about his childhood in Macoun. But after the news of the proposed dredge, he must return, confronting memories that he’s tried so hard to put behind him.

I liked the idea of this book more than the execution. Characterization is a little light, but more problematic is the overwrought flashback plot. If I told you who did what to whom, you might almost be tempted to laugh at how wildly tangled and implausible it all is. It’s just too much. Flaherty’s writing has promise, and I hope to see another book with more time spent on character development and a plot that’s less outlandish.

Trigger warning: There is an episode of animal cruelty. While it serves the plot, the same point could have been reached by a different route.

I wasn’t able to read this as my ARC was messed up and it became headache inducing to keep trying. It sounds good and I’ll look for it when it’s out.

My rating: 4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ really enjoyable, great writing had the stressy depressy vibes from the get go!!

The Casey brothers are estranged and have been for 3 decades, so much water under the bridge and secrets they wish they could forget.

Time does not heal all wounds because now Ambrose and Cale must confront the violence of their past as they find out the pond where some unthinkable things happened is going be dredged…

Lily Rowe, the contractor in charge of the dredge has a host of her own demons that are connected to the Casey brothers, what she doesn’t know is that dredging that pond is going to bring up more than she bargained for.

Ok, debut novel done right!!! I really loved this, not quite 5 stars but it really packed a punch and in under 300 pages as well which is really a good sign of good writing. I really love that sparse prose, the nuanced meanings and ability to trust your reader is going to understand where you are headed with a story without spelling it out in a million words or more for them like a dear diary entry.

Brendan Flaherty has done a great job of all those things, he managed to develop some stories and characters that had really done it tough without using all the pages of the world to do it. I liked the heavy vibe of this book. You can feel it from the opening pages that its going to really pinch your heartstrings. What I also like is that this was a little bit different its told from mostly the brother’s perspectives and how they deal with their emotions, trauma (or not) and have built a life on top of their lies and regrets.

We do get to hear from Lily as well but she is secondary and I think its nice to have some well developed MMC’s who are trying to figure it out without taking down everyone around them. By no means are they they good guys…but I think in a story like this everyone is the good guy and the bad guy (well except for the actual bad bad guys)…. Its a story of we all have faults and how do we handle ourselves as kids and into adulthood. Its a story of loss and love and perhaps how things don’t always work out how you hoped they would, how your hero isn’t as invincible as you would have liked and dreams just sometimes do not come true.

This is not a thriller, I am not sure if it’s marketed that way but its not, its stressy and depressy and its character driven. You get multiple POV and multiple timelines but for those that like these clearly spelt out they are not… but for me I found them very easy to decipher… it was not necessary for headings of who was who because it was clear to me. But if you need that then perhaps this isn’t for you.

Overall I don’t have any complaints, I would liken this novel to Beneath Cruel Waters, similar vibes (very different story) but also that grit and grimy on the land and sad AF storyline. I really loved that book and its no surprise that I enjoyed this so much. I think if you like a character driven, emotion fuelled novel then give this a try it isn’t very long and it is very well done in my humble opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atlantic Monthly Press and the author for an ARC of this debut novel in exchange for my honest review.

“The Dredge” is a mystery about the far-reaching, multi-generational effects of child abuse and how long-kept secrets can fester in the psyches of the secret keepers. It’s well-written with believable dialogue and clear prose that includes the occasional literary flair. The story did not have as much tension as I would have liked, and I sometimes found it confusing because of multiple characters and abrupt transitions between timelines. Nevertheless, it is a quick read with well-described settings and some interesting characters.

My thanks to NetGalley, author Brendan Flaherty, and publisher Grove Atlantic for providing me with a complimentary ARC. The foregoing is my independent opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book.

This is an impressive, wonderfully written debut with memorable characters. It's so descriptive, you can absolutely see the houses, the woods, the town like you're watching it on film. It's a quick read that you'll savor. The dual timelines give you a rich background on each character and why they did what they did. This one will stay with me. Well done, Brendan Flaherty.

Well written, a well dwveloped plot and good character development. Kept me h9oked throughout. Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

I liked the idea of the story, but would prefer more of something missing. Maybe a first person pov. It is well written, but not my style.

A very underwhelming book for me. The book is called the Dredge but only in the last 75% of the book talk of a dredge actually happened. I thought they would try everything to stop the Dredge from happening but it was more about what led up the crimes. Personally, I don't like when a book is a bit too close to reality. This book in particular mentioned the covid pandemic a few times. I read books to escape stuff like that.

Brendan Flaherty’s debut mystery novel worked well overall. I was hooked from the first page and enjoyed getting to know the brothers in this world. Everything worked well overall and was glad it was written perfectly.