A house full of history is bound to have secrets... Ponden Hall is a centuries-old house on the Yorkshire moors, a magical place full of stories. It's also where Trudy Heaton grew up. And where she ran away from... Now, after the devastating loss of her husband, she is returning home with her young son, Will, who refuses to believe his father is dead. While Trudy tries to do her best for her son, she must also attempt to build bridges with her eccentric mother. And then there is the Hall itself: fallen into disrepair but ...
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A house full of history is bound to have secrets... Ponden Hall is a centuries-old house on the Yorkshire moors, a magical place full of stories. It's also where Trudy Heaton grew up. And where she ran away from... Now, after the devastating loss of her husband, she is returning home with her young son, Will, who refuses to believe his father is dead. While Trudy tries to do her best for her son, she must also attempt to build bridges with her eccentric mother. And then there is the Hall itself: fallen into disrepair but generations of lives and loves still echo in its shadows, sometimes even reaching out to the present... A hauntingly beautiful story of love and hope, from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Memory Book and The Summer of Impossible Things ________________________________ What your favourite authors are saying 'A beautiful story...written with such wisdom and kindness' Joanna Cannon 'Spellbinding. Part love story, part gothic mystery, it promises to both thrill and delight the reader' Mike Gayle 'A completely enthralling read. It has so many layers and they all capture your heart' Katie Fforde 'It's so lovely to find an author that you love' Marian Keyes 'This book will keep you wide-eyed and awake until dawn. A rare combination of sensitive and gripping' Carole Matthews
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When Trudy husband is declared missing, her and her son travel back to her childhood home of Ponden Hall - a house with its fair share of secrets, history... and ghosts.
The Girl at the Window is a bit of an odd story that isn't quite sure what it wants to be - is it a love story? A historical mystery? A ghost story? A story about family? There's certainly a lot of themes in here and I'm not really sure any of them are portrayed well enough to be convincing for me. The discovery of the character of Agnes' past and her link to our present day protagonist Trudy as she battles to move on from heartbreak and reconnect with her family was probably the strongest part of the story for me. I'm afraid I found a lot of the other elements - the Emily Bronte link, the ghost story, the character of Marcus and the love story of how she met her husband all sort of overshadowed each other and muddled the plot line. Although I liked the ghost story I didn't really feel like it went far enough and it just felt like a convenient plot device rather than an actual dip into the genre. I didn't really understand why the Bronte sister had to be linked into all of this or why she was collecting and hiding old letters all over the place - I must admit I got a little confused as to why these stories were being hidden in the first place. I was disappointed that the character of Marcus started out interesting in the beginning but became a well-worn cliché by the end. I then felt the ending tried way too hard to wrap everything up in a 'happy ever after' that really wasn't needed - it would have been much more powerful left without what was discovered and all of the 'signs' were so unrealistic it became a bit laughable.
I do think that this is a shame as I did find the writing style to be engaging and although the book is relatively long (longer than it should be!), I did power through it and it kept me hooked. Perhaps it just needed a little ruthless editing to untangle and remove some of its many threads and it would have been a great read.
Overall The Girl at the Window is a book that isn't sure what it wants to be and left me feeling unsure about it as well. Thank you to Penguin Random House and Ebury Publishing - Ebury Press for a chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.