"We make our allegories by choosing what part of the story to remember."

The Sea of Lost Girls
by Carol Goodman

It looks like many of my GR friends enjoyed this one more than myself. I will say something that may seem odd, given I did not rate it all that high. I ADORED the writing. It is descriptive and really beautiful. The Sea of Lost Girls takes place in Maine and, man does she nail the atmosphere. I will look for other works by this writer.

But this story just lost me. Tess gets a call in the middle of the night from her son. He is in a sort of crazed state and asks her to pick him up. Tess, whose son, it turns out, has been having behavioral issues, has always put him before anyone including her husband, her friends and her life. So she goes. And does not really question him about what has happened.

The next day it is announced that Lila, his girlfriend, has ben found dead. She appears to have fallen (or been pushed) off the cliffs above the ocean.

I have read stories like this before and sometimes I enjoy then and sometimes I do not. What made it hard with this one is that by the time I'd read 20 percent of the book, it had already filled up with so many characters, that I was completely confused and could not remember who was who. It was so fast. I guess in a way that is good because that means lots of suspects but I did not feel I got to know to many of the characters and so many in such a short time left me a little bleary eyed.

There is so much more to the book like ancient witchcraft and folklore and missing girls but honestly it was so much so quickly that it sort of felt like five books in one.And besides all that, Tess has a past and it is a pretty murky one so we are constantly going back to her past as well.

It felt way more Gothic than mystery or domestic Noir or YA but out of all those Genres, Gothic is the one I am most picky about.

I really liked the writing as I said and the Historical Allegories which is why I chose the quote I did. I also like the main plot. But the energy for me was off. Just to many people cramming the book, to many plots running together and to much going on at the same time.

SPOILERS:

The ending was such a let down is so many ways. Two almost deaths at sea for Tess, another person confesses to something they never did and dies for nothing and then Tess decides she can never be happy so why try. I wanted less characters and more story with the four main characters, including Luther. I just wasn't a major fan of this one. ( )

https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2022/05/202260-sea-of-lost-girls-carol-goodman.ht... ( )

Marvelous. Mysteries layered on mysteries that you wont be able to put down ( )

This would have been given 5 stars. However this mom went to all stops to get her kid out of trouble. Protect him from real life. And just plain put her hand up his arse and control him like a puppet. Reminded me to much of the millennial. Sometimes a kid has got to fall on their butts to get back up on there own ( )

The Sea of Lost Girls by Carol Goodman is a 2020 William Morrow publication.

Twisty, atmospheric suspense-

After surviving a painful past, Tess married a professor at prestigious boarding school, where she also teaches. Her troubled teenage son, Rudy, seems to be enjoying a period of stability until his girlfriend, Lila is found dead.

Rudy instantly becomes a prime suspect. However, the police are also interested in speaking with Tess's husband, believing he might also have a motive to kill Lila.

If that weren't bad enough, it would appear this is not the first time a female student has died at Haywood.

Tess soon finds herself walking a tightrope, trying to keep her past buried, and protect her son and husband, and staying one step ahead of law enforcement and their probing questions.

Tess is soon caught up in a vicious cat and mouse game as the walls start closing in on her.

This is a taut novel of suspense with some nice twists that kept me invested in the story. There were a few minor lags here and there, but for the most part the story maintains a brooding sense of foreboding from start to finish.

Tess is a great narrator, a terrific character whose strengths win out over her fear and vulnerabilities.

Overall, this was an addicting novel I had a hard time putting down. Now that I have my first Carol Goodman novel under my belt, I am looking forward to reading more of her books!

4 stars ( )