I really just needed Sullivan to focus on something! Instead, she introduced a lot of characters - all with their own point of view - and a mystery...but just never really fleshed out any of the characters or storylines. Sullivan ultimately felt all over the place and I quickly got bogged down. It felt like I had to give a lot of effort to even want to pick this one up.

I really liked the beginning of this book, a Victorian House that holds secrets and the woman who finds solace there. But the house is bought and renovated taking away all the charm. When Jane returns, she meets the new owner, who has a son who sees the house's ghosts. Here is where the book takes a turn and becomes more of a history lesson than a novel. While it was interesting at times, at others, it was meandering and preachy, drawing us away from the charm of the initial story. Jane was not likable, but I liked her interaction with the paranormal.

The Cliffs tells the stories of several families over many years who all have a connection to a small town in Maine. In current day, Jane is an alcoholic returning home to clear out her deceased mother’s home. While there, she explores the history of the town, a special house, and her own family. This would be a great read for someone who enjoys historical fiction.

THE CLIFFS by J. Courtney Sullivan is a family drama tied to generational traumas, motherhood, and the ghosts we leave behind. Out on July 2nd, this @reesesbookclub pick was generously made available to me by @aaknopf through @netgalley and #partner @prhaudio.

I don't read a synopsis usually before reading and I sort of wish I had with this one. I was expecting an atmospheric suspense with a creepy house and in that setting of, once again, Maine! It took me a while to figure out that this was a more layered family drama that covered Indigenous culture, the beauty and value of place, generational struggles, and the strength of women. Once I reset myself, I found it to be a good story that I enjoyed.

For fans of historical family drama, I would certainly recommend this story. I think it would also be a great book choice for discussions.

3.5 Stars

The Cliffs tells the history of a house set high on a rocky point overlooking the ocean in Maine. Jane is a researcher who has had a fascination with the house and its location for years. She is hired by a wealthy woman from Boston who purchased the house and thinks it may have ghosts from the past. The story goes back in time to uncover the history, the mysteries, and the past owners who have been connected to the house over the years. Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for an advanced copy. The Cliffs is available now.

The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan contains both historical and contemporary story lines centered on a purple house on a cliff in Maine. The primary topic is the rights of Indigenous peoples and preservation of graves and artifacts. Other topics include difficult subjects that touch the lives of the contemporary women in the story: alcoholism, marriage, motherhood, and wealth. An especially interesting story line involves Spiritualism. The Cliffs is highly recommended for discussion groups.

As a long time fan of J. Courtney Sullivan, the arrival of a new novel is always a cause for celebration. The Cliffs is a big, sprawling novel touching on complex contemporary themes such as addiction and cultural appropriation, and important historical themes relating to spiritualism, the treatment of Native Americans, and religion. I dove into the book happily and enjoyed the story of the primary character of of Jane thoroughly. I was less keen reading the other perspectives, and although fascinating and narratively important, they served to take me out of the main story. The book as a whole is smart, compelling, and a worthy addition to Sullivan's novels. Highly recommend. Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this one early!

I didn’t know much about this book before I hit ‘PLAY’ and was treated to a somewhat-wandering-ultimately satisfying family drama with secrets, & suspense set in Maine. There is alot going on and it covers a lot of ground, so I needed to really pay attention. The underlying themes of legacy, generational trauma and Indigenous histories were eye-opening. The writing was engrossing, the interwoven stories enticing and the scenery vivid.

I am heading to New England this week and am tempted to make a detour to Maine.

AUDIO: The narration was top notch!

I thought I would enjoy this book as it sounded good. It turned out, to me, to be less of a story and more of a history lesson on the indigenous of Maine. The characters were not inviting, rather tedious and boring without solid personalities. They felt secondary to the history information.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

i love J. Courtney Sullivan’s writing style and complicated family sagas (my favorite is still Maine). This book has such an interesting premise - tracing the history of the inhabitants of house on the edge of a cliff in southern Maine - and then diving even further into the indigenous people who lived there before. I didn’t love the main character - I wanted to, but I just couldn’t move past the feeling of pity mostly. The book tackles probably too many heavier, deeper topics (alcoholism, indigenous people/repatriation, the Shaker community, gender inequality, et al) and gets a little bogged down in descriptions and the number of characters and storylines. I enjoyed the book, but it took me a little while to get through it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC - I recommend it!

It started off strong but about one third of the way through I was struggling to keep going. It became so boring that I had to keep putting down. I finally fished.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The description had me hooked - I love thinking about old houses and the people that lived there. I had a college project that had us do that and I followed the history & people of the house from 1694 to after the Civil War. But this book wasn't what I expected - I liked the way it looked at the land we live on, those who came before us, and our legacy but this book was too long and very disjointed.

Thanks to Knopf for my advanced copy.

With her troubled home life, Jane discovers an abandoned lavender house looking out onto the cliffs of Maine and escapes to it often for reading and general respite from her volatile mother. 20 years later Jane returns to Maine after her marriage has failed and finds that the long abandoned house has been bought, gutted and remodeled to the point where the house’s character has been completely removed. However the new owner can’t shake the feeling that the house may be haunted, possible because of something she did while gutting the house of its spirit (figuratively and literally). She asks Jane to uncover its history which leads to discoveries of the history of the land, house and themselves.

I have been reading @JCourtSullivan ‘s work for years and so I was very excited when I saw that she had a new one.. This book was such a wonderful story, I always enjoy a ghost (and growing up in an old Victorian myself, this one totally spoke to me) and I found that aspect of the story had me turning the pages. However, the emotional part of the novel, Jane’s story, her relationship with her lifelong best friend (have one of those) and her struggle with alcohol was really the essence of the book is what I will keep with me as I think back on the novel. This multi-dimensional story was exactly what I was looking for when I picked it up and was just such an enjoyable and emotional read. I cannot wait to see what Sullivan writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC

4.25 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I immediately wanted to read this book when I saw it was about a Victorian haunted house. I was so here for it and I really enjoyed the story. It had many layers and pieces and I was curious how everything was going to end. It’s told through multiple perspectives, but the main one is from Jane, who is going through a rough patch with her husband, so she comes to her mother’s house, who had recently passed away. There she learns that a woman bought a renovated an old Victorian house that Jane loved as a child. But now the house seems to be haunted and Jane is sucked into figuring out what happened at the house to cause a haunting. To me, this books is like a haunted beach read. Enjoyed it and will check out the author’s other books.

The Cliffs was a mixed bag for me.

I loved:
The coastal Maine setting was rendered with beautiful detail. I loved the strong sense of place.
Each main character battles internal demons, and each person's struggle and progress are well written.

I didn't love:
The expository tone of the historical digressions (into local indigenous cultures and The Shakers). I enjoyed learning about these cultures, but the writing felt lectury.
There are several points of view, and I struggled with how the story moves between them. By the time I finished the book, I wasn't sure what the primary story even was.

Trigger warning: There is a lot of alcoholism in this book - several characters and lots of life-altering consequences.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me an electronic ARC in exchange for a review.

A Victorian house, painted lavender with gingerbread trim, sits abandoned on a cliff in Maine, overlooking the ocean. When Jane discovers the property as a teenager, she’s drawn to its mystery and finds comfort in it as an escape from her home life.

20 years later, when Jane returns to Maine following a mistake that threatens her marriage and career, she is disappointed to learn the house’s new owner, Genevieve, has remodeled. The house is now white, not lavender, and very little of its charm remains. Genevieve is convinced the house is haunted and she hires Jane to research its history.

There are several interconnected stories in The Cliffs, all tying back to women who spent time in the Victorian home. While I didn’t always agree with Jane’s decisions, I was rooting for her and enjoyed her story the most. I liked that the house was such an integral part of the story and in a way, a character itself.

J. Courtney Sullivan is my favorite author and liked how The Cliffs combined history, a little mystery, family drama, and contemporary life.

A departure from the author’s earlier novels, the book is a complex weave of characters, time periods, and a mystery. The main character, Jane, has an alcoholic single mother, and whenever she can, she escapes to a purple house on a cliff near her home in Awadquit, Maine. As Jane’s story unfolds, with her career successes but personal setbacks, other women are introduced including the original owners of the purple house. The current owner’s son is sure he saw a ghost, which begins chapters on spiritualism, mediums and reincarnation. The history of the house includes a time period where the Wabanaki Indians lived there, as the importance of preserving history as well as honoring indigenous people are an additional theme. I liked the book but it requires a lot of concentration to appreciate the various characters, themes and events. Recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I went into this story expecting a ghost story and ended up with a profound work of hist0rical fiction. Historical fiction is not my thing but I was captivated by this book and had trouble putting it down. It expertly weaved past and present together to create a great story. The book centers primarily on Jane, who is back in her hometown after her mother's death and being down on her luck in general She finds that the mansion on the cliffs that she always loved as a child is now inhabited by a city dweller named Genevieve who doesn't seem to care about the history at all, but ends up hiring Jane (an archivist) to dig up sone history because she thinks the house is haunted. You also end up getting some chapters told from the POV of various other characters inspersed with Jane's chapters that further give background to the history.

I was captivated by Jane's story and always disappointed when another POV was introduced, but then I found myself also captivated by them and having to pull myself out when the next chapter shifted back to Jane. I thought the history (over multiple generations) was very interesting (albeit often sad) and I loved the way the past and present were tied together. Reading about psychic and mediums is also not normally in my wheelhouse but I was also fascinated by that subject matter in this particular story, as it was just really well done. I did occasionally want to strangle Jane, who made poor choices and seemed fixed on self-destruction, but I also found her a likable character. I thought the ending of the book tied things up nicely; maybe a bit too clean, but I always kind of like that.

Overall, this was a really interesting book that I am so glad I picked up without realizing what it was about. I found it to be very memorable. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is an interesting read, but for me not a captivating read. The basic storyline itself about the historical history of this house on a cliff and how multiple generations tie to it is intriguing. This is not a fast read, this story takes time, patience and your ability to catalog and weave a large amount of history together. While I love learning new historical facts in books (even fiction ones), the amount of history in this one was overwhelming and very disjointed. It does all come together in the end, I just felt exhausted getting there.

Overall, it is a good book, not a great book I couldn't out down. It's worth the read from a historical aspect and if you have the patience to hold on to get to the how, it is interesting how the different generations and families tie together.

My thanks to J. Courtney Sullivan, Knopf, and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book review for The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan

Thank you @netgalley for the early release copy. This is also a Reese Book Club pick.

This book takes you into a look into the past for this house on the cliff's in a small town in Maine. Is the house haunted? We have a lot of spiritual references and ideas in this one.
Jane loved the house as a child and now that she has come home to clean out her mother's house, she is hired by the current owner of the house to research it's history. During the renovation of the house, Genevieve our new owner, feels that her son is speaking to a ghost.
Jane goes down the path of ghosts, lost loves, stolen artifacts and lots more. She also has to look deep into her own past to find some of the "ghosts" that haunt her.
It's a pretty fast paced book, with a lot of historical references. The descriptions of the house and coastline will have you wanting to visit.

This comes out August 15, so make sure to order you a copy!

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