Set on the picturesque coast of Maine in the small town of Awadapquit, Jane is spending time clearing out her mother’s home after she succumbed to lung cancer. Having an elite college education and then working at Harvard for the last ten years, Jane never imagined she would be back in her small town near her best friend Allison, but addiction had other plans for her future.

As Jane is packing up memories of her childhood, she unpacks all the mental baggage she has been carrying around for years. A nearby Victorian house that was her safe haven in high school is now being stripped of its character by an outsider who wants a summer home and Jane the historian is devastated. She works to figure out why this feels like such a loss to her, and while researching the home finds out far more than she bargained for.

The Cliffs reads like literary fiction, so if you are into fast paced books, this is not it. There is a flashback of sorts to one of the residents of the beloved Victorian home for several chapters in the middle, which fits the narrative, but feels like it could have been done in a letter format rather than a separate first person account. The author also has several smaller storylines connected to the same small town that at times feel like unrelated tangents, but eventually are connected in the end. Though I enjoyed much of Jane’s story, her discoveries at times felt preachy to the audience condemning anyone and everyone related to those in the past who did unspeakable things to the marginalized population in the area. Overall The Cliffs was an interesting read, but not my favorite.

Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf, and the author J. Courtney Sullivan for the advanced copy of the book. The Cliffs is out now! All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. I am familiar with this author and have read and enjoyed a few of her books. I was intrigued by the synopsis and thought I would be reading a book about an old house and its history. I did enjoy the parts about the house and the women who had lived in it in the past, as well as the story of Jane, who used the house as a getaway as a teenager, but there was so much more going on.

The book was told from several points of view, which I generally like, but in this case, they were so different that at times I felt like I was reading a completely different book from the previous chapter. There were times when it read like a history book, others when it read like historical fiction, and still others when it read like a ghost story. It just went off in too many different directions. And the chapters were so long that by the time I got back to a particular character or POV I had forgotten what happened. I think it would have been a much better book if it had stayed centered on the story of the house it's previous occupants. Although it all came together in the end I thought it was too long and drawn out.

A beautifully written story of an old abandoned VIctorian mansion built on the cliffs of the ocean in Maine. What the mansion meant to the main character early in her life and what it means years later, after it is changed, rebuilt, updated by its new owner. The history, the inhabitants of the home is a beautifully built story in itself! Great read.

3.5 stars, rounded up. The Cliffs is the story of a house: an abandoned Victorian mansion built high on the seaside cliffs outside the small coastal town of Awadapquit, Maine. Jane Flanagan discovered the house as a teenager, and it became a refuge from her volatile mother. Now, twenty years later, Jane's mother has died, and she's returned to Awadapquit after potentially losing both her job as a Harvard archivist and her marriage during a drunken episode at a work event. Jane's Victorian mansion refuge has been completely transformed by its new owner, a wealthy summer person named Genevieve. Genevieve is convinced the house is haunted, and she hires Jane to research the house's fraught history, and the legacies left by the women who lived there in the past.

The Cliffs was my first J. Courtney Sullivan book, and it reminded me in some ways of a Jodi Picoult novel, with some of its thematic elements and the way Sullivan incorporates several topics into the narrative. At the same time, though, Sullivan has a distinct voice and perspective that I appreciated. She clearly did a lot of research into a variety of topics, including but not limited to Maine's indigenous population, the Shaker movement, spiritualism and psychic mediums, and colonialism -- all integrated into a story about generational trauma, alcoholism, motherhood, grief and healing, the complexities of women's relationships, and all the ways a person can be haunted.

Yes, there's certainly a lot going on in The Cliffs. As much as I appreciated all of Sullivan's research, I didn't always find that it was well-incorporated into the narrative, so sometimes the book felt like a history lesson or lecture rather than immersive fiction. For me, this sometimes detracted from the book's true strength -- its strong female characters, their healing and growth -- and made it a less poignant reading experience than I think it would have been otherwise.

Despite being somewhat disjointed and meandering, there is still a powerful, important story being told in The Cliffs: a story about history and heritage and healing, about love and loss and legacy, about acknowledging the mistakes of the past in order to move forward. I'm definitely eager to read more of J. Courtney Sullivan's work.

This is a gorgeous family saga to get sucked into. The story was deeply satisfying and I think it will stick with me.

I received a free ARC ebook of The Cliffs from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Love this book. Set in a small southern Maine town, Sullivan immerses readers in the history and beauty that is Awadapquit aka "where the beautiful cliffs meet the sea." (Sullivan surely modeled Awadapquit after my current hometown Ogunquit, "the beautiful place by the sea.") The sense of place that she establishes and its role in the lives of generations of residents is truly astounding. Centered on a seaside cliff, a house incorporates the loves, the loneliness, and the joys of its female occupants and others who love the cliff. Her protagonist, Jane, is a flawed but lovely woman and readers will want her to successfully wade out of the mess she has made out of her life.

Sullivan deftly and beautifully incorporates the indigenous history of the Cliffs with characters who are beautifully rendered. She presents spiritualism, Shakers, and an homage to libraries in this wonderful novel. Additionally, her explanation of epigenetics, generational trauma, is the best I have ever read. (Epigenetics appears in Tommy Orange's Wandering Stars and many other novels.)

Sullivan has written a novel I will think about for years to come.

This book was fantastic! It's not my usual choice but I was hooked immediately. I loved the story of multiple generations and different types of people that all centered around a house and geographical location. The story of Jane made you feel so many emotions, with laughter and thought-provoking circumstances throughout. Not only that, but it was historically so interesting!

This book had a lot going on in it.  It was a story about Jane and her family's history of alcoholism and how it affected everyone,  It was sad how it had affected Jane and her sister, Holly. 
 It was also a story about a purple house on the cliffs and the history of the families that had lived there.  That led to the Shakers and to indigenous tribes that had lived in Maine and what had happened to their people.
It was an interesting story but I felt there was too much going on at times in the book which overpowered the story.  I really wanted to give this book a 3 1/2 star rating but that was not an option. I received an advance copy of this book and I willingly chose to write an honest review.

We’ve heard “if walls could talk” but what about “if the land could talk?”

Our main character is Jane and her personal life is in disarray. Her marriage is in trouble, she’s grieving the death of her mother, her relationship with her sister is strained, and she relies on alcohol to navigate daily life. When she desperately moves back to her childhood home to clean out her mother’s house, Jane connects with an old friend about strange things happening at a local house… the house Jane used to frequent as a trespassing teen… the house on The Cliffs. This book looks at the history of this house and the history of the land on which it was built.

This book was a big undertaking! Sullivan’s love for Maine shines through and she has a clear goal of elevating stories of indigenous people and the erasure that has occurred over generations.

It might be too meandering or preachy for some, but Sullivan is one my of favorite authors and I appreciated her storytelling and willingness to step outside of her typical style for a purpose that felt very important to her. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an early review copy.

This book was a little uneven — at some points, I was riveted and couldn’t put it down. (I particularly liked stories of Jane’s childhood and struggles with addiction.) And I applaud the author’s desire to tell stories not often given air time, like Eliza’s and the Abenaki people’s. But those sections were so long and not integrated into the plot of the book as to feel like a boring (and somewhat scoldy) history lecture (from a white woman). It broke up the flow of the book and did a disservice to the important content.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review. There are a lot of characters in this book, several time periods and many moving pieces. I found it difficult to follow at times. Three stars.

The Cliffs is the newest novel written by J. Courtney Sullivan. This one is set in Maine on the grounds of an old property with quite a history. Jane has loved this house since she stumbled upon it as a teenager. Now, after a 20-year absence, she is back in town and can't believe the transformation the house has gone under due to the vision of its current owner. Jane begins digging into the history of the house and what she uncovers has ramifications for all involved who have loved this dwelling. Read and enjoy!

i LOVED the cliffs! the historical elements, the architecture, the characters - what a doozy! while this did take some time for me to get into, im glad i powered through!

THE CLIFFS by J. Courtney Sullivan

A story of a house, over centuries and decades, and the stories lived there. It is a story of women, history, generational trauma, place, and secrets. It’s a highly ambitious novel, covering a lot of different storylines, but it’s tethered by the house on a cliff overlooking the sea, which serves as a vessel for many women’s lives and their most heartbreaking moments. Swipe for synopsis!

My experience reading this book was complicated, but I think it might be one of my favorite books of the year. It started a bit slow, but I found myself thinking about it and wanting to get home to keep reading. Then I hit the 30-40% mark and couldn’t put it down. How Sullivan weaves together the various characters is so interesting. The tiniest little threads are ultimately pulled together in surprising ways.

Sullivan’s writing is beautiful and she has a keen understanding of relationships of all types. What starts as what seems a lively ghost story veers into an in-depth exploration of increasingly damaging choices, repatriation of bodies to lands and peoples, grief, marriage, Indigenous history, and substance abuse issues. It should feel overwhelming, but Sullivan’s deft execution of the story and her development of the characters are anchoring.

Overall, I think this may be hit or miss for people but it was a home run for me.

3.5⭐

A long book that meanders along. A house on a cliff ties different women together. Jane is an Archivist that has been asked to go on personal leave due to an incident. During this time she goes back to her hometown. Her mother has just died and she needs to get the house ready to sell. While there, she meets Genevieve, who bought the house on the cliff. Genevieve asks her to do the history of the house for her.

Woman literature with mystery, historical fiction and drama is what you will find when you read 'The Cliffs'. I enjoyed the story, though it is a long book. My problem with it was it kind of meanders around from one thing to the next. All the main women in the book have been involved somehow with the house. I feel the house is the main character more than Jane was, but that's just my opinion.

Tentative publishing date July 2, 2024

Thanks to Netgalley, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor Publishers, and J. Courtney Sullivan for the E-ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#netgalley #knopf #kbopfpatheonvintageanchor #jcourtneysullivan #thecliffs #arc #readmytbr #readaway2024

An ambitious book about generations of women, and generational trauma. I liked the main story; however, I thought Sullivan tried to tackle too many issues. Still, I flew through it.

Thank you to the publisher for an early release copy of The Cliffs. I really enjoyed this book - the characters were interesting and the story was well plotted. There were multiple story lines and timelines and Sullivan did a good job of keeping them straight. It is a story where not everything is as it seems and not everything gets tied up in a bow at the end which I can appreciate. I recommend this highly.

Such an interesting book. Learned a great deal about the early Shakers, their beliefs and how they lived. Also, learned about the indigenous native Americans who lived in what would become Maine/New Hampshire. The modern day people were fully developed and I cared about them. This was the first time I read a book by this author and was surprised and gratified by how much I liked it. A good choice.

Review of The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan 07-13-24

The Cliffs by J. Courtney is a beautifully written tale of family, alcoholism, indigenous people/reparation, ghosts and the old house on the Cliffs. Jane loses her prestigious archivist career at Harvard, her mother and her husband. This is a historical ghost story with present day humans trying to survive life on the stunning coast of Maine. Newcomer to the area, Geneveive buys the old house on the cliff which brings painful and important memories to Jane as she tries to rebuild her life. With multiple timelines, Sullivan brings to life the history of those who first lived and died on the Cliffs and the home and the families who built and transformed it.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Knopf for the eARC and the opportunity to read and review The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan.
#NetGalley, #Knopf, #JCourtneySullivan, #HistoricalFiction, #Gothic, #Indigenous Repatriation, #Family, #Alcoholism, #Mystery
5 Stars- Pub.Date: 07-02-24

New from J. Courtney Sullivan is The Cliffs, a story centering on a family in Maine. This is not suspenseful or a thriller but more of a drama with a lot of history. The author is a great writer. I enjoy her work immensely. Fans of J. Courtney will not be disappointed.

The setting of Maine, chef’s kiss! A beautiful place.

On a secluded bluff overlooking the ocean sits a Victorian house, lavender with gingerbread trim, a home that contains a century’s worth of secrets. By the time Jane Flanagan discovers the house as a teenager, it has long been abandoned. The place is an irresistible mystery to Jane. There are still clothes in the closets, marbles rolling across the floors, and dishes in the cupboards, even though no one has set foot there in decades. The house becomes a hideaway for Jane, a place to escape her volatile mother.

Twenty years later, now a Harvard archivist, she returns home to Maine following a terrible mistake that threatens both her career and her marriage. Jane is horrified to find the Victorian is now barely recognizable. The new owner, Genevieve, a summer person from Beacon Hill, has gutted it, transforming the house into a glossy white monstrosity straight out of a shelter magazine. Strangely, Genevieve is convinced that the house is haunted — perhaps the product of something troubling Genevieve herself has done. She hires Jane to research the history of the place and the women who lived there. The story Jane uncovers — of lovers lost at sea, romantic longing, shattering loss, artistic awakening, historical artifacts stolen and sold, and the long shadow of colonialism — is even older than Maine itself.