The Cliffs is set amongst the amazing shores of rugged Maine. Jane Flanagan spent most of her childhood in Awadapquit, growing up with her sister and her mother in the home her grandmother had left them when she was a child. The home was really more suited to being a summer house, but it was theirs. Her mother's only job was reselling castoffs she picked up at yard sales between alcoholic binges, so it was home.
Jane had educated herself and worked her up to a job at Harvard , but that summer her marriage was falling apart and she found herself coming back to the house. Her mother has just died and she is dealing with the grief and confusion of that and figuring out her life.
Jane's best friend from her childhood is still there , as well as her sister and her nephew.
This is a good story of women, mothers, families, dealing with alcoholism and life.
Thanks to NetGalley, Knopf and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I always look forward to Ms. Courtney's books. However, I do have mixed feelings about this one. The writing is wonderful and it's obviously well researched. Ultimately it's the story of women and the land they inhabited over the generations told from many points of view. I enjoyed the descriptions of sea captains, the Shakers and Spiritualism: the long section on the indigenous people, not so much. Overall, an interesting book of historical fiction and magical realism. Not my favorite but well worth reading.

When I read the description of this book I thought it was really going to be a suspenseful read - Old house in Maine - Ghosts, but unfortunately for me it was not. I felt the story went in too many directions and did not hold my interest. The background story, the history of the Native Americans who lived in Maine was interesting, but I was not prepared for so much history given the description of the book.
Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan is a thought-provoking novel about where we live and those that came before us (or that's what I thought I was reading). The story takes on many different viewpoints and cultural themes from the perspective of a Maine old historic house (built in the mid 1800's) and the land that it is built upon. On the land there is a small cemetery, which makes you feel like you are suddenly going to read a different type of novel. But not too fact because then alcoholism is introduced. And then indigenous people, colonial era, modern day, YIKES. The story follows the inhabitants and some of their trials and experiences. From ghostly encounters of modern day, and then reverting back to the days when the original builder a sea captain built the house, it's secrets slowly (SLOWLY) unraveled.
Please read the overview of the book as I don't want to spend time rehashing it anymore.
There are so many different topics in the book, and it skips around so much that it's hard to follow. As I was reading, I felt the book was one type, say drama, and then it goes off in another direction. Seems like it could use some more editing or rewriting to streamline what the story is actually about. The writing style is very good though.

THE CLIFFS is a long, complex novel about the nature of the existence of females. Jane, the daughter of an alcoholic woman, is determined to change her life so that she will not end up like her mother. The characters and plot begin in contemporary times but meander through unexpected events back to life at the very birth of the nation. Stories about women and children who suffered endlessly created tension, making the novel a page-turner.

I loved the detour into the history of Shaker life and, overall, enjoyed this book with its joys and the anguish so many women endured to survive to the present day.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book, which will be published on July 2, 2024.

I am such a fan of J. Courtney Sullivan's writing, so I was really looking forward to reading this. Thankfully, I was only disappointed that I didn't read this book while on vacation since it was so hard not being able to read it all in one sitting.

I loved The Cliffs and the way it explores how history is preserved, the stories that get told correctly and incorrectly, and how we are constantly struggling to find our way through life. The story primarily focuses on Jane, a historian who recently blew up her personal and professional life after one night of poor decisions. She returns to her hometown in Maine and soon finds herself immersed in her own family's history as she cleans out her deceased mother's home and the local history as she helps a woman convinced her recently remodeled seaside home is haunted. Interspersed in Jane's narrative are also chapters written from the POVs of other women connected to the past and present that add context and richness to the overall story.

I think this might be my favorite Sullivan book yet, and I can't recommend it highly enough. It's a story that has stuck with me, and I can't wait to discuss this one with others after its release.

Surprisingly enough, this is the first J. Courtney Sullivan novel I’ve read. I tend to enjoy novels set in New England, and this mashup of contemporary fiction /women’s fiction / historical fiction/ a touch of mystery was overall an enjoyable read. The old sea captain’s house on the cliffs of Maine made for an intriguing setting, and I for one enjoyed the multiple POVs. I appreciated how Sullivan explored the history (and terrible suffering) of the Indigenous people of Maine in real depth, as well as discussing the Shakers and Spiritualism. In its zeal to educate, the novel does veer into moments of talking AT you rather than talking TO you / moving the story forward, but I still appreciated the comprehensive research and solid writing.


🗓️ Release date: July 2, 2024

📚 Thanks so much to NetGalley and Knopf for my review copy!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
A decent historical fiction with some mystery thrown in as well.
I think the only thing that keeps me from giving this one a higher rating is that I didn't love the multiple POV's. That made the book a bit complicated and harder to follow.

Thank you Net Galley for the advanced reader copy. I love a solid historical fiction book that uses the setting of house to tell the stories of the people who lived there through time, and this one did not disappoint. The house is on a cliff in Maine, and tells the stories of the indigenous people, Shakers, sea captains, up to present day. The main character of the story is quite a mess, but her love of history brings the stories to life, and ultimately lead to her working through her demons and settling down in life. There are interesting family dynamics and generational patterns explored as well. Good historical fiction read.

A fantastic read that made me gasp and google. The Cliffs delivers so much: it felt like literary fiction with a tiny hint of magical realism, layered in between tumultuous relationships and a character’s journey through alcoholism, with a big side of history lessons and a dash of mystery. There are such subtle but powerful reveals throughout the story as you piece together the puzzle of how everyone is connected through the centuries and one house. The chapters are long and they have a tendency to move slowly then snap back and inch forward again, but if you can be patient through the set-up, the reward of the story is worth it.

I genuinely enjoyed the history aspect of this book, and went down some google rabbit holes to learn more when I found myself thinking Did this really happen? I am thoroughly impressed at the amount of research that went into writing this book (made clear in Sullivan’s acknowledgements), and the labor of love that was invested in telling such a special story. I am no where near qualified to say this but I feel the deeper and more sensitive story of indigenous people was well done: it was consistently at the forefront of the plot, with good attention paid to setting the record straight that American history starts with Native Americans and cannot be told without recognizing the sordid ways settlers pushed them out of their homes and wrote a population out of history.

One small piece that left me thinking was the observation that due to how our communication methods have changed with technology, we are failing to save and archive history in the present because we don’t write anything down. Although we are more honest in our writings now than someone may have been in their diary one hundred years ago, we are ‘losing’ this candor to the ether because it’s not well documented.

I really enjoyed The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan! Here we are introduced to a beautiful cliffside town in Maine. Through the main character Jane's eyes, we learn about the generations of women in her family and in the town. A little bit mystery, a little bit historical fiction, this book has it all. I left this book wanting to learn more about local Native American culture. An excellent read!

Couldn’t finish the book. Too confusing from the different points of view. Tried to give it a chance but it didn’t capture my attention.

Jane Flanagan has grown up along the Maine coast, she has found refuge in a long abandoned Victorian house. Many days of her teen years are spent in this sprawling mansion. She returns to her hometown after a scandal at a fundraiser for the archives she has worked at for many years. The house has been purchased and is being gutted and turned into a show house for a family. Jane meets the new owner as she has left the house with her son and taken a suite at Jane's friends hotel. She has left the house because her son is hearing noises and a ghost is suspected. The book explores the relationships that Jane has had with her family, her friends, her coworkers and now with the owner of the house as well as a medium. Another great J. Courtney Sullivan book that will be seen on many beaches and pools this summer & summers to come

Did you know Awadapquit means "where the beautiful cliffs meet the sea." If you didn't you would hear that 25 more times in this meandering novel that spans three generations and reaches back into the Indigenous people's era. Too much alcohol, too all over the place and too confusing to follow. I did not enjoy the novel even though I finished it. I had hoped it would get better. Needless to say it did not.

I've really enjoyed J. Courtney Sullivan's other books and will read her again in the future, but this one was a bit of a miss for me. I really enjoyed the main story line, but I found all the switching of POVs to be jarring and some of the themes it addressed came across as a bit didactic. It does deal with various aspects of history and preservation that are fascinating.

I requested The Cliffs on NetGalley because her previous book (Friends and Strangers) was a stand-out read for me in the summer of 2020, which is saying something considering that I (like a lot of people) found myself reading a lot that summer as "social distancing" was a new thing in our collective vocabularies.

First, let me say that if you also enjoyed Friends and Strangers that her newest book reads very differently. Both books are well written, but other than that they are quite different from one another. It is difficult to classify The Cliffs as far as genre. It's part ghost story, part historical fiction, and part literary fiction with flawed, well-developed characters. I love a book where the characters aren't cookie cutter!

The Cliffs is a sprawling book that covers a longer time period while also focusing heavily on the main character, Jane. We get a lot of Jane's backstory as well as a more birds-eye view of the 2 generations that preceded her. In addition, a portion of the book is told from some characters that go much further back in history. On top of that, we get a history of the Shaker movement as well as a thoughtful look at the issues surrounding American history, the treatment of Indigenous people, and the present-day issues that confront museums and historians. An esoteric house that Jane has felt a strange attraction to since her teen years is the constant through line of the story. If that seems like a wild hodge-podge...well, it is, and yet J. Courtney Sullivan pulls it off!

The historical parts of the book were some of the most interesting to me. Clearly the author has done a great deal of research and the historical pieces here are what really make this book unique.

The part that was hardest to read was about Jane's train wreck of a life. She is an alcoholic and from the beginning of the book the reader thinks she has hit rock bottom. Oh, no, dear reader, it gets worse. I was rooting for Jane to get herself together but for a large chunk of the book she is in denial about her issues with alcohol. I also found the part about what happened to D in the story to be so sad and I think readers who are sensitive to mentions of children dying should be cautious with this book.

The redeeming grace here is the ending. I won't give away any spoilers, but I will say I thought it was really well done. It felt like a "real" real life ending, where things don't always end perfectly but often end up better than we deserve.

Overall, I really, really enjoyed this book. 4.5 stars.

On the coast of Maine, just outside the hamlet of Awadapquit, an abandoned lavender Victorian home, its belongings seemingly intact, stands sentinel on the jutting cliffs overlooking the sea. The home and its story captures the imagination of teenager Jane Flanagan, and becomes her refuge as she both grieves her beloved grandmother and copes with an alcoholic mother. She fantasizes someday claiming ownership of the property and becoming the caretaker of the house's secrets. Crucial to the story is a small burial plot near the edge of the property.
Jane leaves home and her fascination with things past leads her to a career as an archivist at Harvard's Scheslinger Library. She returns to her hometown to deal with the aftermath of her mother's death, at the same time she faces both a marital and professional crisis complicated by her own fraught relationship with alcohol.
She is startled to learn "her house" on the cliffs has been purchased, and rather insensitively renovated by a couple and their young son. The woman, Genevieve, hires Jane to explore the home's history due in part to her son claiming to have had a number of unsettling encounters with a spirit in the house. This sets in motion any number of startling revelations which keep the reader anxious for a resolution to the truths - spiritual, historical, personal- that Jane uncovers through her research. The process enables Jane to rediscover her own sense of worth and purpose, as long held family secrets are intertwined with the house as well.
Sullivan is a master of family saga and evocative settings, and this book is no exception. This novel has at it's core a history to tell. She not only focuses on one family's history, but on the history of this property, its various owners and guardians. She takes on a number of timely topics from the rights of indigenous people, the meaning of spiritualism, friendship, loss, grief and forgiveness, as well as, a powerful female perspective. Beautifully told and researched. The book gives new meaning to," If the wall could talk, the tales the would tell!"

A gothic story of family, friends and what a home means, The Cliffs will take residence in your heart long after you finish.

Jane has always loved the purple house up on the bluffs - a place to escape her own house as a kid. When she returns home to deal with the death of her mother, she finds that the house has been sold. The new owner is transforming it and Jane is hired to unlock the history of the house. What she finds will change life for everyone involved.

Told through multiple points of view, plenty of interesting historical information, The Cliffs is a slow burner for anyone who likes a historical and gothic story.
#knopf #knopfpantheonvinatgeanchor #jcourtneysullivan #thecliffs

Five stars! This is J. Courtney Sullivan’s best book to date. This story contained many different elements that made it such a fascinating and unique read, such as the rich history of the Native Americans who lived in Maine centuries ago, to the modern day story of the protagonist. This story even contained a haunted house, in addition to mysticism and spiritualism.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for an unbiased review. This book is out July 16th - you don’t want to miss it!

"The Cliffs," by J. Courtney Sullivan felt chaotic. While it may appeal to a niche audience, I think most people will find it confusing both in its story and its message.

The book starts off intriguing. An old, abandoned house, a ghost, and an element of mystery. But then it went all over the place. Suddenly the reader is being lectured about Native American history and The Shakers, while also being told the story of a woman dealing with alcoholism in the midst of all the history lessons.

I really didn't like how the book was structured. There was too much going on, and I'm not sure there was a cohesive story to be found in all the mess. At times it felt like a mystery, and then it suddenly felt like I was reading from a textbook.

I have read a couple of other books by Sullivan and enjoyed them. But "The Cliffs" missed the mark for me.