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Homecoming
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Mystery & Thriller (2023)Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of the grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia.
Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and been raced to the hospital.
Nora has always been a vibrant and strong presence: decisive, encouraging, young despite her years. When Jess visits her in the hospital, she is alarmed to find her grandmother frail and confused. It’s even more alarming to hear from Nora's housekeeper that Nora had been distracted in the weeks before her accident and had fallen on the steps to the attic—the one place Jess was forbidden from playing in when she was small.
At loose ends in Nora's house, Jess does some digging of her own. In Nora's bedroom, she discovers a true crime book, chronicling the police investigation into a long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims through the book that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime—a crime that has never been resolved satisfactorily. And for a journalist without a story, a cold case might be the best distraction she can find…
An epic novel that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, and how we protect the lies we tell. It explores the power of motherhood, the corrosive effects of tightly held secrets, and the healing nature of truth. Above all, it is a beguiling and immensely satisfying novel from one of the finest writers working today.
Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and been raced to the hospital.
Nora has always been a vibrant and strong presence: decisive, encouraging, young despite her years. When Jess visits her in the hospital, she is alarmed to find her grandmother frail and confused. It’s even more alarming to hear from Nora's housekeeper that Nora had been distracted in the weeks before her accident and had fallen on the steps to the attic—the one place Jess was forbidden from playing in when she was small.
At loose ends in Nora's house, Jess does some digging of her own. In Nora's bedroom, she discovers a true crime book, chronicling the police investigation into a long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims through the book that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime—a crime that has never been resolved satisfactorily. And for a journalist without a story, a cold case might be the best distraction she can find…
An epic novel that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, and how we protect the lies we tell. It explores the power of motherhood, the corrosive effects of tightly held secrets, and the healing nature of truth. Above all, it is a beguiling and immensely satisfying novel from one of the finest writers working today.
560 pages, ebook
First published April 4, 2023
About the author
Kate Morton
29 books24.5k followersKATE MORTON is an award-winning, New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author. Her seven novels - The House at Riverton, The Forgotten Garden, The Distant Hours, The Secret Keeper, The Lake House, The Clockmaker's Daughter, and Homecoming - are published in over 45 countries, in 38 languages, and have all been number one bestsellers around the world.
Kate Morton was born in South Australia, grew up in the mountains of south-east Queensland, and now lives with her family in London and Australia. She has degrees in dramatic art and English literature, and harboured dreams of joining the Royal Shakespeare Company until she realised that it was words she loved more than performing. Kate still feels a pang of longing each time she goes to the theatre and the house lights dim.
"I fell deeply in love with books as a child and believe that reading is freedom; that to read is to live a thousand lives in one; that fiction is a magical conversation between two people - you and me - in which our minds meet across time and space. I love books that conjure a world around me, bringing their characters and settings to life, so that the real world disappears and all that matters, from beginning to end, is turning one more page."
You can find more information about Kate Morton and her books at https://www.katemorton.com or connect on http://www.facebook.com/KateMortonAuthor or instagram.com/katemortonauthor/
To stay up-to-date on Kate's books and events, join her mailing list here: https://www.katemorton.com/mailing-list/
Kate Morton was born in South Australia, grew up in the mountains of south-east Queensland, and now lives with her family in London and Australia. She has degrees in dramatic art and English literature, and harboured dreams of joining the Royal Shakespeare Company until she realised that it was words she loved more than performing. Kate still feels a pang of longing each time she goes to the theatre and the house lights dim.
"I fell deeply in love with books as a child and believe that reading is freedom; that to read is to live a thousand lives in one; that fiction is a magical conversation between two people - you and me - in which our minds meet across time and space. I love books that conjure a world around me, bringing their characters and settings to life, so that the real world disappears and all that matters, from beginning to end, is turning one more page."
You can find more information about Kate Morton and her books at https://www.katemorton.com or connect on http://www.facebook.com/KateMortonAuthor or instagram.com/katemortonauthor/
To stay up-to-date on Kate's books and events, join her mailing list here: https://www.katemorton.com/mailing-list/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 9,455 reviews
April 13, 2023
3 stars for the first 400 pages, 4 stars for the last 100+.
I generally like books by Kate Morton, but sometimes they drag and this was another example. At more than 500 pages, the story slowly builds the back story of the central death/mystery. Not until the final 100 pages or so did it start to get interesting (if mostly predictable). You may enjoy the long, detailed buildup more than I did.
I generally like books by Kate Morton, but sometimes they drag and this was another example. At more than 500 pages, the story slowly builds the back story of the central death/mystery. Not until the final 100 pages or so did it start to get interesting (if mostly predictable). You may enjoy the long, detailed buildup more than I did.
June 8, 2023
4.5⭐️
“People who grow up in old houses come to understand that buildings have characters. That they have memories and secrets to tell. One must merely learn to listen, and then to comprehend, as with any language.”
Jess Turner-Bridges, a forty-year-old journalist, is called back to Sydney, Australia, from her current home in London when her grandmother Nora is hospitalized after a fall. Nora’s accident occurred while she was searching for something in the attic of her home, Darling House. Nora had raised Jess after Polly, Nora's daughter and Jess’s mother, left for Brisbane when Jess was only ten years old. Jess and Polly have remained in touch, but they are not close. As her grandmother floats in and out of consciousness, she utters a few disjointed phrases that initially do not make much sense to Jess. Jess learns that her grandmother had been agitated over the last few days. As Jess tries to find out what caused her grandmother’s recent distress, a significant childhood memory resurfaces and she begins to piece together what her grandmother was trying to convey in her semi-conscious state.
Her research leads her to discover events in her family’s history on her mother and grandmother’s side dating back over sixty years --a tragedy that occurred in 1959 in the small town of Tambilla in South Australia – that sent shockwaves through the small town. Jess also learns of a true crime book, “As If They Were Asleep” written by Daniel Miller, an American journalist who was living in the vicinity during the time, that documents the details of the Turner family living in Tambilla and the tragedy, the ensuing police investigation and features true accounts shared by the townspeople of Tambilla who knew the Turners as well as Nora herself. As the narrative progresses, Jess discovers that there was much about her family and her grandmother that was deliberately kept secret from her – facts that will shake the very foundation of what she believes to be her reality.
Kate Morton is a masterful storyteller. The author seamlessly weaves dual timelines and multiple perspectives into a well-structured and fluid narrative. The vivid imagery, intriguing plot and superb characterizations render this novel a compelling read. The beautiful prose draws you in from the very first page. Both timelines are well depicted. While we follow Jess in the present day, past events are revealed through flashbacks from 1958-59 from multiple perspectives with segments from Daniel Miller’s true-crime book and his research notes interspersed throughout the novel. We also get a few chapters from Polly’s perspective, giving us a window into her complicated relationships with her mother and her daughter. The author excels in developing the nuanced and complex characters and the storylines of the different women in the story – Isabel, Nora, Jess and Polly – each of these characters stands out and we go through a spectrum of emotions as we follow the events that impact their lives – from sorrow and sympathy to shock, exasperation and outrage and much more.
The story touches upon themes of loss, motherhood, home and how we define family. The author also incorporates the issue of mental health in a very subtle manner. As far as the mystery element of this story is concerned, there are plenty of breadcrumbs strewn throughout the narrative and though I could guess, in part, the direction in which the story was headed, I was genuinely surprised by much of what is revealed as all the threads of the story are brought together toward the end. The pacing is a tad uneven but not so much that it detracts from the overall reading experience. The story does move faster in the second half. However, I should mention that this is a meticulously detailed, lengthy novel (540 + pages) and I thought that a few segments could have been shorter.
Overall, exquisitely written, atmospheric and immersive, Homecoming by Kate Morton is an intricately woven story that I would not hesitate to recommend to historical fiction fans and those who enjoy multigenerational family sagas with an element of suspense. Finally, I just have to mention that cover! It is stunning!
Many thanks to Mariner Books for the ARC of this beautifully written novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
"Home, she’d realised, wasn’t a place or a time or a person, though it could be any or all of those things: home was a feeling, a sense of being complete. The opposite of ‘home’ wasn’t ‘away’, it was ’lonely’. When someone said, ‘I want to go home’, what they really meant was that they didn’t want to feel lonely anymore.”
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(March 11, 2023 : Book Mail! ARC received!🤗Many thanks to Mariner Books !)
“People who grow up in old houses come to understand that buildings have characters. That they have memories and secrets to tell. One must merely learn to listen, and then to comprehend, as with any language.”
Jess Turner-Bridges, a forty-year-old journalist, is called back to Sydney, Australia, from her current home in London when her grandmother Nora is hospitalized after a fall. Nora’s accident occurred while she was searching for something in the attic of her home, Darling House. Nora had raised Jess after Polly, Nora's daughter and Jess’s mother, left for Brisbane when Jess was only ten years old. Jess and Polly have remained in touch, but they are not close. As her grandmother floats in and out of consciousness, she utters a few disjointed phrases that initially do not make much sense to Jess. Jess learns that her grandmother had been agitated over the last few days. As Jess tries to find out what caused her grandmother’s recent distress, a significant childhood memory resurfaces and she begins to piece together what her grandmother was trying to convey in her semi-conscious state.
Her research leads her to discover events in her family’s history on her mother and grandmother’s side dating back over sixty years --a tragedy that occurred in 1959 in the small town of Tambilla in South Australia – that sent shockwaves through the small town. Jess also learns of a true crime book, “As If They Were Asleep” written by Daniel Miller, an American journalist who was living in the vicinity during the time, that documents the details of the Turner family living in Tambilla and the tragedy, the ensuing police investigation and features true accounts shared by the townspeople of Tambilla who knew the Turners as well as Nora herself. As the narrative progresses, Jess discovers that there was much about her family and her grandmother that was deliberately kept secret from her – facts that will shake the very foundation of what she believes to be her reality.
Kate Morton is a masterful storyteller. The author seamlessly weaves dual timelines and multiple perspectives into a well-structured and fluid narrative. The vivid imagery, intriguing plot and superb characterizations render this novel a compelling read. The beautiful prose draws you in from the very first page. Both timelines are well depicted. While we follow Jess in the present day, past events are revealed through flashbacks from 1958-59 from multiple perspectives with segments from Daniel Miller’s true-crime book and his research notes interspersed throughout the novel. We also get a few chapters from Polly’s perspective, giving us a window into her complicated relationships with her mother and her daughter. The author excels in developing the nuanced and complex characters and the storylines of the different women in the story – Isabel, Nora, Jess and Polly – each of these characters stands out and we go through a spectrum of emotions as we follow the events that impact their lives – from sorrow and sympathy to shock, exasperation and outrage and much more.
The story touches upon themes of loss, motherhood, home and how we define family. The author also incorporates the issue of mental health in a very subtle manner. As far as the mystery element of this story is concerned, there are plenty of breadcrumbs strewn throughout the narrative and though I could guess, in part, the direction in which the story was headed, I was genuinely surprised by much of what is revealed as all the threads of the story are brought together toward the end. The pacing is a tad uneven but not so much that it detracts from the overall reading experience. The story does move faster in the second half. However, I should mention that this is a meticulously detailed, lengthy novel (540 + pages) and I thought that a few segments could have been shorter.
Overall, exquisitely written, atmospheric and immersive, Homecoming by Kate Morton is an intricately woven story that I would not hesitate to recommend to historical fiction fans and those who enjoy multigenerational family sagas with an element of suspense. Finally, I just have to mention that cover! It is stunning!
Many thanks to Mariner Books for the ARC of this beautifully written novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
"Home, she’d realised, wasn’t a place or a time or a person, though it could be any or all of those things: home was a feeling, a sense of being complete. The opposite of ‘home’ wasn’t ‘away’, it was ’lonely’. When someone said, ‘I want to go home’, what they really meant was that they didn’t want to feel lonely anymore.”
Connect with me!
My Blog
(March 11, 2023 : Book Mail! ARC received!🤗Many thanks to Mariner Books !)
April 20, 2023
Prepare to take a trip Down Under.
Never been? Neither have I, but after reading Kate Morton’s Homecoming, I can describe the sights, sounds, and shops of Tambilla, nestled in the rolling Adelaide Hills, as if I’ve strolled through the fictional town myself.
Readers can feel the heat, smell the outdoors. We know the curve of the streets, the design of the wallpaper, and what’s on the shelves and counters.
Turns out, this beautiful area of Southern Australia is home to the author. The care and attention to detail shows that it’s a place Morton not only knows well, but deeply loves. Her lush atmospheric writing is sublime.
In addition to her vividly descriptive settings, Morton sure knows how to weave a story. In this case, a gripping narrative that is part multi-generational family saga, part cold case murder mystery.
Told in a dual timeline, Homecoming contains a second book within it — As If They Were Asleep by journalist Daniel Miller — and a large cast of engaging characters.
Morton sets her scenes with precision, allowing you to delight in stories within stories, reveal after reveal.
Her thoroughly immersive plot is a tangled web of secrets, rumors, lies, deceptions, and betrayals that slowly unravels to shocking effect.
Make no mistake, while nothing is as it seems in this outstanding 540-page mystery, Homecoming is not a fast-paced page-turner.
I recommend you pick it up when you have the time and space to really sit with it. It’s not a novel to read in short bursts. This is a captivating, eerie tale that sweeps you up and immerses you in the complex reverberations of what occurs upon opening a Pandora’s Box of familial secrets, sins, and sorrows.
Never been? Neither have I, but after reading Kate Morton’s Homecoming, I can describe the sights, sounds, and shops of Tambilla, nestled in the rolling Adelaide Hills, as if I’ve strolled through the fictional town myself.
Readers can feel the heat, smell the outdoors. We know the curve of the streets, the design of the wallpaper, and what’s on the shelves and counters.
Turns out, this beautiful area of Southern Australia is home to the author. The care and attention to detail shows that it’s a place Morton not only knows well, but deeply loves. Her lush atmospheric writing is sublime.
In addition to her vividly descriptive settings, Morton sure knows how to weave a story. In this case, a gripping narrative that is part multi-generational family saga, part cold case murder mystery.
Told in a dual timeline, Homecoming contains a second book within it — As If They Were Asleep by journalist Daniel Miller — and a large cast of engaging characters.
Morton sets her scenes with precision, allowing you to delight in stories within stories, reveal after reveal.
Her thoroughly immersive plot is a tangled web of secrets, rumors, lies, deceptions, and betrayals that slowly unravels to shocking effect.
Make no mistake, while nothing is as it seems in this outstanding 540-page mystery, Homecoming is not a fast-paced page-turner.
I recommend you pick it up when you have the time and space to really sit with it. It’s not a novel to read in short bursts. This is a captivating, eerie tale that sweeps you up and immerses you in the complex reverberations of what occurs upon opening a Pandora’s Box of familial secrets, sins, and sorrows.
March 21, 2023
I finished this book about a week ago and have writers block every time I sit at the computer to write a review. Normally, I don't think twice about buying/reading a Kate Morton book, they're always so beautiful, inside and out. I know I'll care about the characters and the mysteries keep me guessing. I love her books and re-read many of them.
This time only a few things worked for me. I liked Meg, Percy and their boys. The time spent with Polly was my favourite. There was so much depth to the towns people that the whole book could have been stories about them. The house was a small character in the book, but I wanted more about it. I disliked Jess and Nora immensely and felt the mystery wasn't a mystery at all. I was bored while reading and only finished because of my love for Kate's past work. It has even put me in a reading slump. Maybe my reading has changed since the pandemic, maybe I'm not as forgiving of characters as I age, maybe this story didn't need to be told. Whatever the reason it's not a book for me.
This time only a few things worked for me. I liked Meg, Percy and their boys. The time spent with Polly was my favourite. There was so much depth to the towns people that the whole book could have been stories about them. The house was a small character in the book, but I wanted more about it. I disliked Jess and Nora immensely and felt the mystery wasn't a mystery at all. I was bored while reading and only finished because of my love for Kate's past work. It has even put me in a reading slump. Maybe my reading has changed since the pandemic, maybe I'm not as forgiving of characters as I age, maybe this story didn't need to be told. Whatever the reason it's not a book for me.
July 3, 2023
5 stars!
2023 Favourites List!
Kate Morton is my favourite author. I’ve read and loved all of her books. When a new release is published, it comes with a heavy personal expectation. I am thrilled to report this was just as magical and entrancing as I had hoped and come to expect from this author. There is something about her writing that I connect with more strongly than any other.
I loved everything about this novel. Beautiful, lush prose. Engrossing, mysterious, multi-layered storyline. Old crumbling estate home harbouring deeply buried family secrets. Endearing characters that I got whole-heartedly invested in. Palpable atmosphere. Hidden diaries and doors.
This novel weaves a dual timeline narrative presenting a family saga that interconnects in surprising and unforgettable ways. It includes ‘a book within a book’ concept which I generally love and found this was done extremely well.
Kate Morton books are not for everyone. Stretching over 500 pages each, they are heavily detailed and need to be read at a slower pace. Not something to be picked up and put down quickly here and there. The reader needs to dedicate time to get to know and truly appreciate her characters and intricately woven storylines. It’s a reading experience like no other for me — I can honestly say that spending time between the pages of one of Kate Morton’s books is one of my favourite reading experiences. This book has been added to my All Time Favourites Shelf, like all of her others.
A few of my favourite quotes:
“That the past was not something to be escaped from, but a fundamental part of who one was.”
“This was the magic of books, the curious alchemy that allowed a human mind to turn black ink on white pages into a whole other world.”
Thank you to the publisher for my giveaway win!
2023 Favourites List!
Kate Morton is my favourite author. I’ve read and loved all of her books. When a new release is published, it comes with a heavy personal expectation. I am thrilled to report this was just as magical and entrancing as I had hoped and come to expect from this author. There is something about her writing that I connect with more strongly than any other.
I loved everything about this novel. Beautiful, lush prose. Engrossing, mysterious, multi-layered storyline. Old crumbling estate home harbouring deeply buried family secrets. Endearing characters that I got whole-heartedly invested in. Palpable atmosphere. Hidden diaries and doors.
This novel weaves a dual timeline narrative presenting a family saga that interconnects in surprising and unforgettable ways. It includes ‘a book within a book’ concept which I generally love and found this was done extremely well.
Kate Morton books are not for everyone. Stretching over 500 pages each, they are heavily detailed and need to be read at a slower pace. Not something to be picked up and put down quickly here and there. The reader needs to dedicate time to get to know and truly appreciate her characters and intricately woven storylines. It’s a reading experience like no other for me — I can honestly say that spending time between the pages of one of Kate Morton’s books is one of my favourite reading experiences. This book has been added to my All Time Favourites Shelf, like all of her others.
A few of my favourite quotes:
“That the past was not something to be escaped from, but a fundamental part of who one was.”
“This was the magic of books, the curious alchemy that allowed a human mind to turn black ink on white pages into a whole other world.”
Thank you to the publisher for my giveaway win!
February 6, 2023
Set aside a chunk of time to get fully immersed in this one! It’ll demand your attention and you’ll want to read slowly.
You’ll be swept up in Morton’s vibrant and detailed descriptions and her exploration of the definition of family and home. In between the rich tapestry of family, you’ll notice Morton has woven threads of loneliness, loss, purpose, identity and motherhood. Not only are the threads masterfully twined, but the dovetailing of the 2018 and 1959 timelines are expertly done.
The first thing I noticed was how the author was immediately able to pull me into the arms of family and immerse me in her story. When I was shocked by the terrible ‘finding’, I felt like because I had ‘virtually’ lived in Tumbilla for ages, I was searching for answers alongside the other townsfolk. I became part of the backdrop. Solving the mystery was paramount because I was part of the community; it had affected me, too.
I also appreciated the story being told backwards; the horrific event at the start and then backtracking to explain the events leading up to it. I found I was reading for clues and explanations that would allow me to fit this horrific puzzle piece into the framework of the story and allow me to connect other threads from the narrative to it.
The examination of the dangers of living a life defined by secrets and the danger of making room for shades of grey in a black-and-white moral outlook were thought-provoking.
I loved the symbol of the wren and thought it was wonderful to have such a love of literature conveyed throughout the book.
“As Jess stepped out of the shop and onto the pavement, she was filled with the lightness of spirit and free-floating sense of possibility that always claimed her when she had a brown paper bag containing new books under her arm.”
Haven’t we all felt that wonder?!
This eagerly anticipated book lived up to my expectations and I felt, in many ways, it was one of her best as she is now writing about a place with which she’s so intimately acquainted.
I was gifted this book by Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.
You’ll be swept up in Morton’s vibrant and detailed descriptions and her exploration of the definition of family and home. In between the rich tapestry of family, you’ll notice Morton has woven threads of loneliness, loss, purpose, identity and motherhood. Not only are the threads masterfully twined, but the dovetailing of the 2018 and 1959 timelines are expertly done.
The first thing I noticed was how the author was immediately able to pull me into the arms of family and immerse me in her story. When I was shocked by the terrible ‘finding’, I felt like because I had ‘virtually’ lived in Tumbilla for ages, I was searching for answers alongside the other townsfolk. I became part of the backdrop. Solving the mystery was paramount because I was part of the community; it had affected me, too.
I also appreciated the story being told backwards; the horrific event at the start and then backtracking to explain the events leading up to it. I found I was reading for clues and explanations that would allow me to fit this horrific puzzle piece into the framework of the story and allow me to connect other threads from the narrative to it.
The examination of the dangers of living a life defined by secrets and the danger of making room for shades of grey in a black-and-white moral outlook were thought-provoking.
I loved the symbol of the wren and thought it was wonderful to have such a love of literature conveyed throughout the book.
“As Jess stepped out of the shop and onto the pavement, she was filled with the lightness of spirit and free-floating sense of possibility that always claimed her when she had a brown paper bag containing new books under her arm.”
Haven’t we all felt that wonder?!
This eagerly anticipated book lived up to my expectations and I felt, in many ways, it was one of her best as she is now writing about a place with which she’s so intimately acquainted.
I was gifted this book by Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.
July 10, 2023
A mystery. A crime. A community of questionable suspects. Welcome to a land down under.
In 1959, a man comes upon a dead woman and her children that shakes a small town in southern Australia.
In 2018, Jess gets a call to come home to Australia as her Grandmother is ailing.
A series of mysteries enveloping 3 generations. A House with its many secrets whispering to be told.
The stunning landscape of the vast lands, red earth, the peculiar animals, the array of fauna and flora. Themes of mother-daughter relationships, postpartum depression, infertility.
I wasn’t sure about the structure of this. 2 timelines worked well but then a novel within made me a bit ambivalent. I did adjust- reluctantly. I can’t say I loved this about it BUT I did love this story.
All with an Aussie vibe and at last, I’ve been Mortinized.
4.5⭐️
In 1959, a man comes upon a dead woman and her children that shakes a small town in southern Australia.
In 2018, Jess gets a call to come home to Australia as her Grandmother is ailing.
A series of mysteries enveloping 3 generations. A House with its many secrets whispering to be told.
The stunning landscape of the vast lands, red earth, the peculiar animals, the array of fauna and flora. Themes of mother-daughter relationships, postpartum depression, infertility.
I wasn’t sure about the structure of this. 2 timelines worked well but then a novel within made me a bit ambivalent. I did adjust- reluctantly. I can’t say I loved this about it BUT I did love this story.
All with an Aussie vibe and at last, I’ve been Mortinized.
4.5⭐️
March 29, 2023
For Morton fans, this will be that comfy read they love.
For others? Wow, does the book-within-a-book device make for some lazy writing. Instead of having Jess do her supposed job as an investigative journalist and do some investigating, giving her everything essentially on a platter via this book (and then the scanned pages and letter) feels incredibly lazy to me. Plus, she goes running back to Sydney when Nora goes into hospital yet spends so little time actually being there for Nora... and her London bestie? Completely drops out of the picture. With a little real effort on the author's part this could easily have been a much better read, one with the Big Reveal not having been telegraphed from the first quarter of the book.
eARC provided by publisher via Edelweiss.
For others? Wow, does the book-within-a-book device make for some lazy writing. Instead of having Jess do her supposed job as an investigative journalist and do some investigating, giving her everything essentially on a platter via this book (and then the scanned pages and letter) feels incredibly lazy to me. Plus, she goes running back to Sydney when Nora goes into hospital yet spends so little time actually being there for Nora... and her London bestie? Completely drops out of the picture. With a little real effort on the author's part this could easily have been a much better read, one with the Big Reveal not having been telegraphed from the first quarter of the book.
eARC provided by publisher via Edelweiss.
May 21, 2023
2.5 I think I’ve outgrown this author.
This book was soooo padded and unnecessarily drawn out. I had the “twist” figured out so early on that getting to it was just an exercise in frustration. There was so much description and filler. The book isn’t “compelling” in the sense that I can’t wait to see what happens next; but more in the “confirm that what I predicted 500 pages ago is correct so I can go lay down” way. :/
The writing style was a bit of a mess too… rapid jumps in time in the same paragraph. One minute we’re in the past, next it’s the present, oh suddenly it’s a dream… it was clunky and confusing. A story doesn’t need to be linear to be good, but there needs to be strong fluidity if it’s skipping around and this book just… wasn’t.
Nora and Jess didn’t really work as main characters for me. I found them both tedious, arrogant, and stubborn. Nora was a total cow to Polly gaslighting and manipulating her to turn down a marriage proposal and letting Nora basically keep her daughter… and why?! She literally stole Polly but cast her aside for Polly’s baby? Nora was horrible: a lying, self-serving, revisionist ogre. Jess also treated Polly like crap and has Nora’s vicious steak in her.
The ending was a long road to a short thought, as above. There were too many “twists” and it started to venture into conspiracy toward the end. Meg was clearly unhinged; she wouldn’t have let that baby go.. she was obsessed with it. But then finding out it was her husband’s love child, come on! And you expect me to believe that all these people were involved and kept it all quiet?
Refusal to communicate is one of the tropes that annoys me the most in fiction and this took “secrets” to implausible (and in Nora’s case, abusive) levels. The obsession with babies and motherhood grew really tiresome after hundreds of pages of waxing romantic about it too. Like we don’t need to hear the same stuff over and over again. Coupled with the clunky foreshadowing about Polly’s parentage, this book beat you over the head with stuff in a totally non-subtle and insulting way.
I’m glad I read this, having like the author’s earlier books, but I’m glad it’s over. Between this and Clockmaker, I won’t be in a hurry to pick any subsequent books up.
ETA: upon reflection, I am rounding this down rather than up. I have too strong opinions of the book to give it a ‘middling’ three.
This book was soooo padded and unnecessarily drawn out. I had the “twist” figured out so early on that getting to it was just an exercise in frustration. There was so much description and filler. The book isn’t “compelling” in the sense that I can’t wait to see what happens next; but more in the “confirm that what I predicted 500 pages ago is correct so I can go lay down” way. :/
The writing style was a bit of a mess too… rapid jumps in time in the same paragraph. One minute we’re in the past, next it’s the present, oh suddenly it’s a dream… it was clunky and confusing. A story doesn’t need to be linear to be good, but there needs to be strong fluidity if it’s skipping around and this book just… wasn’t.
Nora and Jess didn’t really work as main characters for me. I found them both tedious, arrogant, and stubborn. Nora was a total cow to Polly gaslighting and manipulating her to turn down a marriage proposal and letting Nora basically keep her daughter… and why?! She literally stole Polly but cast her aside for Polly’s baby? Nora was horrible: a lying, self-serving, revisionist ogre. Jess also treated Polly like crap and has Nora’s vicious steak in her.
The ending was a long road to a short thought, as above. There were too many “twists” and it started to venture into conspiracy toward the end. Meg was clearly unhinged; she wouldn’t have let that baby go.. she was obsessed with it. But then finding out it was her husband’s love child, come on! And you expect me to believe that all these people were involved and kept it all quiet?
Refusal to communicate is one of the tropes that annoys me the most in fiction and this took “secrets” to implausible (and in Nora’s case, abusive) levels. The obsession with babies and motherhood grew really tiresome after hundreds of pages of waxing romantic about it too. Like we don’t need to hear the same stuff over and over again. Coupled with the clunky foreshadowing about Polly’s parentage, this book beat you over the head with stuff in a totally non-subtle and insulting way.
I’m glad I read this, having like the author’s earlier books, but I’m glad it’s over. Between this and Clockmaker, I won’t be in a hurry to pick any subsequent books up.
ETA: upon reflection, I am rounding this down rather than up. I have too strong opinions of the book to give it a ‘middling’ three.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 1, 2023
I wanted to love this book with all my heart. But I didn't and I'm sad about it! Right from the beginning I was confused by the way the dates were written, New Years and Christmas Eve. The middle was long, long, long. Too long. Kate Morton's books are usually long, but it just seemed like there was a lot of information that could've been cut out. I didn't enjoy the book inside the book as well as I thought there were too many perspectives because of that. I had a hard time connecting to Jess, the main character. Polly's character really wasn't explored much until towards the end and that was too bad because I found her more interesting. The last 20% of the book definitely got more interesting, it was just a slog at times to get there.
I'd recommend reading this as a slow and steady. Still thankful for receiving the advanced copy from NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada. This novel comes out April 4, 2023.
I'd recommend reading this as a slow and steady. Still thankful for receiving the advanced copy from NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada. This novel comes out April 4, 2023.
June 6, 2023
Kate Morton's 'The Forgotten Garden' is one of my favorite novels. While this one was for me not quite up to the level of that one, I still enjoyed it tremendously. Morton's narrative style is fluid and engaging. I can easily see the scenes that she paints so vividly. A shocking tableau at the beginning creates the propulsive mystery that kept me turning the pages. Pacing lags in the upsweep to the middle of the story but I found myself rushing through the last 200+ pages to find the answers to the central mystery.
Set in Adelaide Hills, South Australia in 1959, Morton is masterful in her descriptions of place and time. Her tone is that of a storyteller who knows the power of her words and sets them in epic spaces.
Meanwhile, tall and slender on the upsweep of hills that surrounded their river-run valley, the blue gums stood silent, streaky skins glinting metallic. They were old and had seen it all before. Long before the houses of stone and timber and iron, before the roads and cars and fences, before the rows of grapevines and apple trees and the cattle in the paddocks. The gums had been there first, weathering the blistering heat and, in turn, the cold wet of winter. This was an ancient place, a land of vast extremes.
This is Morton's "Once upon a time," as she opens her tale with an almost mythic quality, which is something I especially like about her writing.
Morton addresses the storyteller in the form of Nora, Jess's grandmother who raised her from the age of ten. There was a truth observed by all good preachers, leaders, and salesmen: tell a good story, tell it in simple language, tell it often. That's how beliefs and memories were formed. It was how people defined themselves, in a reliance upon the stories about themselves that they were told by others. Nora had been the chief storyteller in Jess's life, which was how she came to know herself as strong, smart, and determined, as Nora's much-loved granddaughter, a true Turner.
A family storyteller can create absolutes, which family members accept or buck against. Either way, the storyteller has a major impact on developing personalities in a family. What happens when the family storyteller is dishonest or lies by omission?
The book cover is fairy tale like with a house beckoning at the end of a wooded drive. There are two birds singing on either side of the cover, little beaks lifted. In Hansel and Gretel, it is a bird (a duck in some stories, a swan in others) that helps them get home. Going home also means figuring out who you are, and in this story, although Jess thinks she knows who she is, she really doesn't. Beautifully written story.
Set in Adelaide Hills, South Australia in 1959, Morton is masterful in her descriptions of place and time. Her tone is that of a storyteller who knows the power of her words and sets them in epic spaces.
Meanwhile, tall and slender on the upsweep of hills that surrounded their river-run valley, the blue gums stood silent, streaky skins glinting metallic. They were old and had seen it all before. Long before the houses of stone and timber and iron, before the roads and cars and fences, before the rows of grapevines and apple trees and the cattle in the paddocks. The gums had been there first, weathering the blistering heat and, in turn, the cold wet of winter. This was an ancient place, a land of vast extremes.
This is Morton's "Once upon a time," as she opens her tale with an almost mythic quality, which is something I especially like about her writing.
Morton addresses the storyteller in the form of Nora, Jess's grandmother who raised her from the age of ten. There was a truth observed by all good preachers, leaders, and salesmen: tell a good story, tell it in simple language, tell it often. That's how beliefs and memories were formed. It was how people defined themselves, in a reliance upon the stories about themselves that they were told by others. Nora had been the chief storyteller in Jess's life, which was how she came to know herself as strong, smart, and determined, as Nora's much-loved granddaughter, a true Turner.
A family storyteller can create absolutes, which family members accept or buck against. Either way, the storyteller has a major impact on developing personalities in a family. What happens when the family storyteller is dishonest or lies by omission?
The book cover is fairy tale like with a house beckoning at the end of a wooded drive. There are two birds singing on either side of the cover, little beaks lifted. In Hansel and Gretel, it is a bird (a duck in some stories, a swan in others) that helps them get home. Going home also means figuring out who you are, and in this story, although Jess thinks she knows who she is, she really doesn't. Beautifully written story.
April 5, 2023
Homecoming is a slow-burn generational mystery set in Australia.
A family tragedy on Christmas Eve of 1959 in Adelaide, Australia, remains mostly unsolved sixty years later.
Jessica, a struggling journalist, returns to Australia after receiving a call that her grandmother Nora suffered a fall. Jess is surprised to find Norma, a typically energetic and bright woman, confused and small, in her hospital bed.
While staying at her grandmother’s home, Jess discovers a true-crime book linking the decades-old Christmas Eve tragedy to her family. Jess begins to investigate what happened all those years ago.
This historical mystery has multiple POVs, two timelines and contains a book within a book. It looks at mother-daughter relationships, identity, and belonging. It also considers mental health during a period when these conversations were not openly discussed.
There are several threads to this mystery. Some are glaringly obvious from the beginning, but others might be a surprise. I did not see one of the final reveals at all, but the breadcrumbs were there.
I love reading books set in Australia, and Morton brought the 1960s setting to life. The descriptions of the landscape are vivid, and the heat is palpable.
The only problem I had with this book was the length. Usually, I love chunky books; they give the reader lots of time to get invested in the story and characters. But with this one, at times, it felt like a slog.
If you enjoy dual timelines with a bit of mystery, you may also enjoy Homecoming.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
https://booksandwheels.com
A family tragedy on Christmas Eve of 1959 in Adelaide, Australia, remains mostly unsolved sixty years later.
Jessica, a struggling journalist, returns to Australia after receiving a call that her grandmother Nora suffered a fall. Jess is surprised to find Norma, a typically energetic and bright woman, confused and small, in her hospital bed.
While staying at her grandmother’s home, Jess discovers a true-crime book linking the decades-old Christmas Eve tragedy to her family. Jess begins to investigate what happened all those years ago.
This historical mystery has multiple POVs, two timelines and contains a book within a book. It looks at mother-daughter relationships, identity, and belonging. It also considers mental health during a period when these conversations were not openly discussed.
There are several threads to this mystery. Some are glaringly obvious from the beginning, but others might be a surprise. I did not see one of the final reveals at all, but the breadcrumbs were there.
I love reading books set in Australia, and Morton brought the 1960s setting to life. The descriptions of the landscape are vivid, and the heat is palpable.
The only problem I had with this book was the length. Usually, I love chunky books; they give the reader lots of time to get invested in the story and characters. But with this one, at times, it felt like a slog.
If you enjoy dual timelines with a bit of mystery, you may also enjoy Homecoming.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
https://booksandwheels.com
Want to read
September 23, 2022Wow. Well, this one goes straight to my 2023 most anticipated books list 😍
November 16, 2022
When you close a book and the first word you utter is Wow. This was book that life interrupted me reading but I never stopped thinking about it. From the relationships, to the setting, to the story within the story and the characters who are both intricate and complex, Kate Morton blends history and thriller together seamlessly. The cover was beyond beautiful and the story between the pages was transporting. Completely swept away
June 19, 2023
4.5 stars; a wonderful read by one of my favorite authors. Though not my favorite of Kate Morton's - I still love The Secret Keeper, The Forgotten Garden, and The House at Riverton more - I was nonetheless transported by Kate's lyrical prose, her surprising plot developments, and her enchanting way of creating a story world.
April 9, 2023
Jess is summoned to Sydney, where her grandmother Nora, who pretty much raised her, has had a fall and been taken to the hospital. After arriving at her grandmother's home, Jess discovers a true crime book In Nora's bedroom, chronicling the police investigation into a long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. As Jess skims through the book she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime.
I've now read all of Kate Morton's novels and I think this is possibly my new favourite. Despite a slow start where I got bogged down in the description of trees and bushes and flowers with names I was unfamiliar with, I was totally absorbed in the story after about 25%. The story is narrated in the present (2018) by Jess and in the past (1959) by various characters including Nora. The book also contains a story within a story as Daniel Miller's (fictional) true crime story "As If They Were Asleep" is contained in its entirety. There are many characters and many different threads but in my opinion it's all sewn together beautifully. Anyone who is familiar with this area of Australia will appreciate the descriptive narrative and probably won't need to resort to Google as much as I did. The book is pretty lengthy but the last half seemed to fly by. There were some shocking revelations near the end and I was totally satisfied with the ending. Highly recommended to fans of epic historical fiction. 4.5 Stars rounded up!
Kate Morton does such a fantastic job of describing the people and the area, mixing reality with fiction, that I'm ready to book a trip, especially at Christmas so I could see the Lobethal Lights! If only I could afford it!
My thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada via Netgalley for approving my request to read an advance copy of this excellent novel. All opinions expressed are my own.
Publication Date: April 4, 2023
I've now read all of Kate Morton's novels and I think this is possibly my new favourite. Despite a slow start where I got bogged down in the description of trees and bushes and flowers with names I was unfamiliar with, I was totally absorbed in the story after about 25%. The story is narrated in the present (2018) by Jess and in the past (1959) by various characters including Nora. The book also contains a story within a story as Daniel Miller's (fictional) true crime story "As If They Were Asleep" is contained in its entirety. There are many characters and many different threads but in my opinion it's all sewn together beautifully. Anyone who is familiar with this area of Australia will appreciate the descriptive narrative and probably won't need to resort to Google as much as I did. The book is pretty lengthy but the last half seemed to fly by. There were some shocking revelations near the end and I was totally satisfied with the ending. Highly recommended to fans of epic historical fiction. 4.5 Stars rounded up!
Kate Morton does such a fantastic job of describing the people and the area, mixing reality with fiction, that I'm ready to book a trip, especially at Christmas so I could see the Lobethal Lights! If only I could afford it!
My thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada via Netgalley for approving my request to read an advance copy of this excellent novel. All opinions expressed are my own.
Publication Date: April 4, 2023
February 12, 2023
4.5 stars
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an egalley.
Kate Morton is one of my favorite authors and so upon receiving an ARC, there was just no way that I was going to wait for one more second to give it a read.
A dual timeline set in Australia in 1969 and 2018, this is the story of three women and their tie to a shocking true crime of the past. At present, Jessica is a journalist called back from London to take care of her ailing grandmother, Nora. Upon visiting the hospital and speaking to those who see Nora on a daily basis, Jessica knows that there is something that has deeply shaken her grandmother. Curious to learn more, Jessica begins searching her grandmother's home but as the secrets begin to unravel, will Jessica be able to truly understand the stories of the past?
I was sucked into this narrative right from the start and I was grateful for a quiet house so NOBODY would interrupt my reading. I loved the mystery of the past and I was constantly trying to guess where this story was headed. I enjoyed that instead of straightforward flashbacks, we learn all the details of the past through a true crime book. If I had one little quibble, I did feel around the 80% mark that the book was getting a bit long.
That aside, this was one of my eagerly anticipated novels of 2023 and it didn't disappoint.
Expected Publication Date 04/04/23
Goodreads Review Published 12/02/23
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an egalley.
Kate Morton is one of my favorite authors and so upon receiving an ARC, there was just no way that I was going to wait for one more second to give it a read.
A dual timeline set in Australia in 1969 and 2018, this is the story of three women and their tie to a shocking true crime of the past. At present, Jessica is a journalist called back from London to take care of her ailing grandmother, Nora. Upon visiting the hospital and speaking to those who see Nora on a daily basis, Jessica knows that there is something that has deeply shaken her grandmother. Curious to learn more, Jessica begins searching her grandmother's home but as the secrets begin to unravel, will Jessica be able to truly understand the stories of the past?
I was sucked into this narrative right from the start and I was grateful for a quiet house so NOBODY would interrupt my reading. I loved the mystery of the past and I was constantly trying to guess where this story was headed. I enjoyed that instead of straightforward flashbacks, we learn all the details of the past through a true crime book. If I had one little quibble, I did feel around the 80% mark that the book was getting a bit long.
That aside, this was one of my eagerly anticipated novels of 2023 and it didn't disappoint.
Expected Publication Date 04/04/23
Goodreads Review Published 12/02/23
April 26, 2024
Jess is an Australian who has been living and working in London for twenty years. She’s a journalist but has recently been struggling to hold down a regular job. Jess has also broken up with her boyfriend and consequently can’t really afford the cost of living alone in this city, in the house they once shared. But then she receives a call to advise her that her grandmother has had a fall, back in Sydney. Could an excursion down under give her a chance to clear her head, and perhaps she could even write an article about her trip that she might earn some money from?
Once in Australia, Jess starts to unpick a mystery concerning the genesis of her grandmother’s accident and stumbles across a lot of hitherto unknown history surrounding her family, and perhaps even a link to her virtual estrangement from her own mother. It’s a complex tale of connections and relationships in a small community, and at its centre is a tragic event that happened on Christmas Eve in 1959.
I listened to an audio version of this book read by actress Claire Foy. She does a great job of alternating between a fairly posh English accent (possibly her own) and a very passable set (to my ears at least) of Aussie accents. It’s a tale that builds slowly and includes fantastic descriptions of Australian settings. But readers/listeners will have to be patient as it all takes quite some time to come to the boil. But when it does, it provides as satisfying an unravelling of the facts as I’ve come across in quite some time.
In truth, this is not really the kind of story that normally takes my fancy: requiring more concentration than I ordinarily have to spare, as inputs arrive from a variety of sources regarding a large cast of characters. However, here it’s all so well executed that any nagging doubts I might have had were shuffled to the back of my mind as I became drawn ever deeper into this intriguing tale. It’s my first experience of a novel by this writer, but on this evidence it’s unlikely to be my last.
My thanks to Bolinda Audio for supplying a copy of this audiobook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Once in Australia, Jess starts to unpick a mystery concerning the genesis of her grandmother’s accident and stumbles across a lot of hitherto unknown history surrounding her family, and perhaps even a link to her virtual estrangement from her own mother. It’s a complex tale of connections and relationships in a small community, and at its centre is a tragic event that happened on Christmas Eve in 1959.
I listened to an audio version of this book read by actress Claire Foy. She does a great job of alternating between a fairly posh English accent (possibly her own) and a very passable set (to my ears at least) of Aussie accents. It’s a tale that builds slowly and includes fantastic descriptions of Australian settings. But readers/listeners will have to be patient as it all takes quite some time to come to the boil. But when it does, it provides as satisfying an unravelling of the facts as I’ve come across in quite some time.
In truth, this is not really the kind of story that normally takes my fancy: requiring more concentration than I ordinarily have to spare, as inputs arrive from a variety of sources regarding a large cast of characters. However, here it’s all so well executed that any nagging doubts I might have had were shuffled to the back of my mind as I became drawn ever deeper into this intriguing tale. It’s my first experience of a novel by this writer, but on this evidence it’s unlikely to be my last.
My thanks to Bolinda Audio for supplying a copy of this audiobook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
January 19, 2024
★2.75 stars, rounded up
✎𓂃 “Home, she realized, wasn’t a place or a time or a person, though it could be any and all of those things; home was a feeling, a sense of being complete.”
Homecoming by Kate Morton is a story of what home truly means. It is a story depicting the power of motherhood, truth, and love.
Christmas in the Adelaide Hills of 1959 witnessed a terrible tragedy–the murder of the Turner family mother and children–and has since haunted the town in which it took place. Vividly detailed in the book As if They Were Asleep, Jess comes to find how this shocking tragedy relates to her own family, and more specifically, the part her grandmother Nora played in it. As a journalist with a personal stake in the matter, racing against time as her near 90-year-old grandmother fights for her life, the story sends her on a spiral and upends everything she knows is true in her life.
✎𓂃 “‘What is the truth anyway?’ Jess had once been asked by a curious friend. ‘It’s what happened.’ ‘According to whom?’”
☆My Thoughts:
I have been so torn as to how I’d rate this book. If you’ve been here with me since the beginning, you’d know that two of the chapters in Homecoming clocked at 56min and 1hr, 31min on my Kindle. For the life of me I can’t remember the last time I read a chapter that long, and maybe for good reason, as I cannot stand long chapters. It might have been an Outlander book, and PLEASE slap me over the head if I ever pick up another one of those 🫣
These long chapters would have been fine if the rest of the book was speeding by for me. Unfortunately, it took until about the last 100 pages for this book to actually grab my attention. The first 400 pages dragged for an ungodly amount of time, I wish I had just skimmed or dnf’d! Morton, while her writing is some of the most beautiful I’ve read in a while, over-describes to a fault. I felt every one single thought took so many unnecessary tangential directions, which made me lose attention extremely quickly.
What was also interesting but distracting, is that much of this book had another book inserted–a book within a book, the inception of books. This is partly why those two chapters were so long, they had 4 or 5 chapters of the other book in the one chapter of the overall book. While As if They Were Asleep plays such an important and pivotal role in the story, this inserted book annoyed the crap outta me, especially as it wasn’t written that differently than Morton’s words.
Had this been condensed by 200 or so pages, it would've rated so much higher, because the last 100 pages were 5-star level. I had guessed one of the big twists, but how it came to be stumped me, and surprised the hell out of me when revealed. It's heartbreaking how lies can drive a person to commit unspeakable actions, hiding the truth from the ones they love most. The last pages were also when I finally felt connected to any of the characters, Jess and Polly specifically. I wish the ending, while beautiful, had answered a few more of my questions pertaining to their next steps and conversations that needed to be had.
But after struggle-busing through this book, I wasn’t mad when it was over 😅👋🏼
☆Quotes:
✎𓂃“The opposite of ‘home’ wasn’t ‘away,’ it was ‘lonely.’ When someone said, ‘I want to go home,’ what they really meant was that they didn’t want to feel lonely anymore.”
✎𓂃“People who grow up in old houses come to understand that buildings have characters. That they have memories and secrets to tell. One must merely learn to listen, and then to comprehend, as with any language.”
✎𓂃“As she listened to her mother and aunt, she had decided she was never going to have a child of her own. ‘I can’t imagine anything more hateful than being tied down by a mewling, puking, helpless creature.’”
⤷ LOL not me feeling validated about not wanting to have children of my own 🤣
✎𓂃“Stress can make even the most loving mother lose control.”
✎𓂃“Life doesn’t always work out the way we plan, but it does work out in the end.”
✎𓂃“Just remember, no matter what happens, I’ll be here, and you can always, always come home.”
✎𓂃 “Home, she realized, wasn’t a place or a time or a person, though it could be any and all of those things; home was a feeling, a sense of being complete.”
Homecoming by Kate Morton is a story of what home truly means. It is a story depicting the power of motherhood, truth, and love.
Christmas in the Adelaide Hills of 1959 witnessed a terrible tragedy–the murder of the Turner family mother and children–and has since haunted the town in which it took place. Vividly detailed in the book As if They Were Asleep, Jess comes to find how this shocking tragedy relates to her own family, and more specifically, the part her grandmother Nora played in it. As a journalist with a personal stake in the matter, racing against time as her near 90-year-old grandmother fights for her life, the story sends her on a spiral and upends everything she knows is true in her life.
✎𓂃 “‘What is the truth anyway?’ Jess had once been asked by a curious friend. ‘It’s what happened.’ ‘According to whom?’”
☆My Thoughts:
I have been so torn as to how I’d rate this book. If you’ve been here with me since the beginning, you’d know that two of the chapters in Homecoming clocked at 56min and 1hr, 31min on my Kindle. For the life of me I can’t remember the last time I read a chapter that long, and maybe for good reason, as I cannot stand long chapters. It might have been an Outlander book, and PLEASE slap me over the head if I ever pick up another one of those 🫣
These long chapters would have been fine if the rest of the book was speeding by for me. Unfortunately, it took until about the last 100 pages for this book to actually grab my attention. The first 400 pages dragged for an ungodly amount of time, I wish I had just skimmed or dnf’d! Morton, while her writing is some of the most beautiful I’ve read in a while, over-describes to a fault. I felt every one single thought took so many unnecessary tangential directions, which made me lose attention extremely quickly.
What was also interesting but distracting, is that much of this book had another book inserted–a book within a book, the inception of books. This is partly why those two chapters were so long, they had 4 or 5 chapters of the other book in the one chapter of the overall book. While As if They Were Asleep plays such an important and pivotal role in the story, this inserted book annoyed the crap outta me, especially as it wasn’t written that differently than Morton’s words.
Had this been condensed by 200 or so pages, it would've rated so much higher, because the last 100 pages were 5-star level. I had guessed one of the big twists, but how it came to be stumped me, and surprised the hell out of me when revealed. It's heartbreaking how lies can drive a person to commit unspeakable actions, hiding the truth from the ones they love most. The last pages were also when I finally felt connected to any of the characters, Jess and Polly specifically. I wish the ending, while beautiful, had answered a few more of my questions pertaining to their next steps and conversations that needed to be had.
But after struggle-busing through this book, I wasn’t mad when it was over 😅👋🏼
☆Quotes:
✎𓂃“The opposite of ‘home’ wasn’t ‘away,’ it was ‘lonely.’ When someone said, ‘I want to go home,’ what they really meant was that they didn’t want to feel lonely anymore.”
✎𓂃“People who grow up in old houses come to understand that buildings have characters. That they have memories and secrets to tell. One must merely learn to listen, and then to comprehend, as with any language.”
✎𓂃“As she listened to her mother and aunt, she had decided she was never going to have a child of her own. ‘I can’t imagine anything more hateful than being tied down by a mewling, puking, helpless creature.’”
⤷ LOL not me feeling validated about not wanting to have children of my own 🤣
✎𓂃“Stress can make even the most loving mother lose control.”
✎𓂃“Life doesn’t always work out the way we plan, but it does work out in the end.”
✎𓂃“Just remember, no matter what happens, I’ll be here, and you can always, always come home.”
May 8, 2024
Is it over yet? 😴 No? 😲 Here’s another couple hundred pages 🤨 This book felt unnecessarily long and I can’t say the mystery was enough to justify it 🥸
May 11, 2023
I truly can not fathom how so many people have rated this book 5 stars. Perhaps part of the issue I took with this book is that I was under the impression that it was a murder mystery, when at its heart it seemed to be more about mother daughter relationships. If you think, well I’m more interested in familial relationships than murder mysteries, you will still be let down. This book doesn’t deliver on either side.
The most glaringly obvious issue with this book is that it does a very stark and middling impression of Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood”. A good part of the book is our main character Jess moving from one room to the next reading a true crime book about the murders of her family members. I do not take issue with a book having excerpts from another book included, but entire chapters were devoted to the fictional book in a way that made me wonder what book I was truly reading. If the author wanted to simply badly rewrite In Cold Blood, she could’ve done so elsewhere. The similarities are so barely changed from the inspiration that I will just list them here:
-an entire family murdered
-in 1959
-in a large, sprawling house/estate
-within a small town
-in a rural area
-where nothing like this has happened before or since
-the mother has dealt with mental health issues
-the teen daughter is dating a young local boy who lives nearby
-the father is often away on business
-the mother is obsessed with miniatures
-the mother gives a miniature object to a young local girl the day before the murders
-the book is written by a journalist
-in the style of “New Journalism” where the author applies fiction methods of storytelling to hard fact to write a more robust story
-the book is a best seller
I literally picked up In Cold Blood to read after Homecoming because I wanted to read an actually well written murder mystery and had been meaning to read it for a while. I was only 30 pages in when I was floored by the glaringly obvious similarities/rip offs of the true story. Please just read In Cold Blood instead, I promise it will be more worth your time.
The mother-daughter relationship just didn’t go ANYWHERE. We find out that Nora has been incredibly manipulative and quietly terrible to Polly (and the entire town) her whole life, but Jess is never in a position where this comes to light for her. We are left on the note that Nora was still loving and a great person even though the facts of her actions tell us otherwise. She was a true villain and digging into that would’ve been interesting and satisfying but the author seemed to believe Nora’s own narrative and didn’t get there. We have the entire story of why Polly left Jess in the first place (aka Nora’s manipulation) but at the end of the book Jess is none the wiser and still thinks her mom left her just because. It was incredibly frustrating to have that information as a reader and for the main character to just not find out.
The twist of who killed the family is very convoluted, barely makes sense, and is completely unsatisfying.
The switching of perspectives, especially at the very end where we get Polly’s side, is sloppy and seems to come just because the author couldn’t figure out a better/more cohesive way for us to get this information. But again it would’ve been much more satisfying to get it as Jess herself figured it out or is told by Polly instead of the author just telling us on the side.
Finally, the characters might seem fleshed out because the book is 544 pages, but upon thinking about it for more than a minute you will find that they are all very one dimensional.
If you’ve read this far, you know my suggestion is to skip this book 🤷🏻♀️
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 3, 2024
Kate Morton is one of those authors I can go to without any fear of being disappointed. She writers books that you scarcely bear to set aside for a moment. She makes you stay up far past your bedtime, and she causes you to leave the pile of dishes in the sink until they require soaking before they can be washed. She is sometimes just what you need.
Homecoming is a kind of mystery–It is 1959 in Adelaide Hills, Australia, where a mother and her three children are found dead after a picnic by a pond on their property. There is no sign of foul play; no indication of what has happened to them. It is as if they are all simply asleep. A fourth child, an infant, is missing, believed to be carried off by wild dogs.
In a parallel story, in 2018 a young journalist, Jess Turner-Bridges, is returning home to Australia from England. Her grandmother, Nora, the sister-in-law and aunt of the dead woman and children is in the hospital, in rather serious condition. She has taken a fall, after receiving a letter from Adelaide Hills that has upset her.
Of course, the two stories are about to collide, as Jess becomes aware of the past and tries to put together the pieces of a very fragmented story. Morton carefully drops clues, some of which I readily deciphered and some of which eluded me until almost the end. At no time could I have walked away without knowing what happened, because, as is usually the case, I was caught up completely in the earlier story, the tragedy unfolding, and the people involved.
There are feelings you instinctively have about some of these characters and moments in which what you have been told is turned completely on its head. I could not help thinking that life is so different than it appears at times, it matters which prism you are viewing it through. So many of these characters are in search of self.
Once, in a different lifetime, she’d been known for having nerves of steel. Now, she was as likely to be overtaken with a sudden surge of alarm from nowhere. A sense that she was standing alone on the surface of life and it felt as fragile as glass.
Can you know who you are if everything you have ever been told about yourself is a lie?
I love the intelligence that Kate Morton brings to her novels. Her references to other writers and great books don’t seem out of place or contrived. She links her character together through shared tastes in reading materials, and I like that, because I think it holds a truth that I can understand.
This was the magic of books, the curious alchemy that allowed a human mind to turn black ink on white pages into a whole other world.
She gives her places personality, so that you experience the houses, Halcyon and Darling House, almost as additional characters.
Darling House seemed to know itself unoccupied. It was the opposite of a haunted house; without Nora it was a house without a spirit.
Finally, she sprinkles her books with observations about humanity that often reflect things I have sometimes wished to express. If you have ever been lonely, you will recognize the accuracy of this statement:
She had come to the conclusion that being lonely wasn’t the same thing as being alone. Polly had been alone for decades. She didn’t mind it. Even as a young girl, she hadn’t been the sort to crave company. But loneliness was different. One could be lonely in a crowded room.
There are many reasons to read Kate Morton’s books, not the least of which is that they are absolutely captivating and will transport you to another place and time, as if someone were sprinkling fairy dust over your head.
Homecoming is a kind of mystery–It is 1959 in Adelaide Hills, Australia, where a mother and her three children are found dead after a picnic by a pond on their property. There is no sign of foul play; no indication of what has happened to them. It is as if they are all simply asleep. A fourth child, an infant, is missing, believed to be carried off by wild dogs.
In a parallel story, in 2018 a young journalist, Jess Turner-Bridges, is returning home to Australia from England. Her grandmother, Nora, the sister-in-law and aunt of the dead woman and children is in the hospital, in rather serious condition. She has taken a fall, after receiving a letter from Adelaide Hills that has upset her.
Of course, the two stories are about to collide, as Jess becomes aware of the past and tries to put together the pieces of a very fragmented story. Morton carefully drops clues, some of which I readily deciphered and some of which eluded me until almost the end. At no time could I have walked away without knowing what happened, because, as is usually the case, I was caught up completely in the earlier story, the tragedy unfolding, and the people involved.
There are feelings you instinctively have about some of these characters and moments in which what you have been told is turned completely on its head. I could not help thinking that life is so different than it appears at times, it matters which prism you are viewing it through. So many of these characters are in search of self.
Once, in a different lifetime, she’d been known for having nerves of steel. Now, she was as likely to be overtaken with a sudden surge of alarm from nowhere. A sense that she was standing alone on the surface of life and it felt as fragile as glass.
Can you know who you are if everything you have ever been told about yourself is a lie?
I love the intelligence that Kate Morton brings to her novels. Her references to other writers and great books don’t seem out of place or contrived. She links her character together through shared tastes in reading materials, and I like that, because I think it holds a truth that I can understand.
This was the magic of books, the curious alchemy that allowed a human mind to turn black ink on white pages into a whole other world.
She gives her places personality, so that you experience the houses, Halcyon and Darling House, almost as additional characters.
Darling House seemed to know itself unoccupied. It was the opposite of a haunted house; without Nora it was a house without a spirit.
Finally, she sprinkles her books with observations about humanity that often reflect things I have sometimes wished to express. If you have ever been lonely, you will recognize the accuracy of this statement:
She had come to the conclusion that being lonely wasn’t the same thing as being alone. Polly had been alone for decades. She didn’t mind it. Even as a young girl, she hadn’t been the sort to crave company. But loneliness was different. One could be lonely in a crowded room.
There are many reasons to read Kate Morton’s books, not the least of which is that they are absolutely captivating and will transport you to another place and time, as if someone were sprinkling fairy dust over your head.
July 19, 2023
There is a good story within this book, unfortunately I found the presentation severely lacking. The story is primarily split between 1959, where a family tragedy occurred in the Adelaide Hills, to the near present day.
Unfortunately Ms Morton chose to use several narrators and a very confused novel within a novel, based on fact, by a visiting American journalist of the events surrounding the tragedy. The first part of this novel within the novel jumps around between then present, past and future to the point of me feeling like a pinball. There were other details that did not work at all for me, like how Nora continued to live and prosper in her family home in Vacluse in Sydney, when her parents recently died in and in debt, for one. The birth of Nora's baby was severely lacking in any reality whatsoever. There were many other incongruities for me.
The fact also that the story takes nearly 500 pages to be told, did not add to any luster for me. I did enjoy the story and reveals, some of which I picked out early, some not. The story of place, the two impressive family homes were described well and were both characters in the story. Just too sloppy for me in the end. 3.5 stars, library ebook.
Unfortunately Ms Morton chose to use several narrators and a very confused novel within a novel, based on fact, by a visiting American journalist of the events surrounding the tragedy. The first part of this novel within the novel jumps around between then present, past and future to the point of me feeling like a pinball. There were other details that did not work at all for me, like how Nora continued to live and prosper in her family home in Vacluse in Sydney, when her parents recently died in and in debt, for one. The birth of Nora's baby was severely lacking in any reality whatsoever. There were many other incongruities for me.
The fact also that the story takes nearly 500 pages to be told, did not add to any luster for me. I did enjoy the story and reveals, some of which I picked out early, some not. The story of place, the two impressive family homes were described well and were both characters in the story. Just too sloppy for me in the end. 3.5 stars, library ebook.
June 26, 2023
Wonderful book! But long. Homecoming by Kate Morton Is a dual timeline story from 1959 -Tambilla, Australia. A murder of 4 adults and 1 baby. An unemployed journalist goes back to Australia to visit her ailing grandmother. she lands a job to cover this story. She is shocked to find her grandmothers involvement In the end all of the questions are unraveled. A lovely mystery into a long ago event. Very researched. Well written.
July 26, 2023
Two words to describe this long-awaited book: mixed feelings! 3.75 stars
I enjoyed Homecoming even if it wasn't as compelling as Kate Morton's previous novels. The French edition has 633 pages (!!) and I never considered not finishing it, so it definitely held my attention. I'm also glad to say I didn't predict every twist!
Morton writes beautifully, but I would have cut some parts (repetitive descriptions and details about the life of absolutely every character). The book has some flaws, especially about one thing: I wish the relationship between two of the characters got a more satisfying closure. I was waiting for this moment so I ended up disappointed.
Final thoughts: very good book, but it didn't make me feel emotions as intense as The Forgotten Garden, The Secret Keeper, The Lake House and The Distant Hours.
Original post: I am SO happy right now! Can't believe it's already been 5 years since Kate Morton published her last novel... But I don't have to wait anymore since I just received an ARC of her next book! 🤩🎉
Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the ARC
I enjoyed Homecoming even if it wasn't as compelling as Kate Morton's previous novels. The French edition has 633 pages (!!) and I never considered not finishing it, so it definitely held my attention. I'm also glad to say I didn't predict every twist!
Morton writes beautifully, but I would have cut some parts (repetitive descriptions and details about the life of absolutely every character). The book has some flaws, especially about one thing: I wish the relationship between two of the characters got a more satisfying closure. I was waiting for this moment so I ended up disappointed.
Final thoughts: very good book, but it didn't make me feel emotions as intense as The Forgotten Garden, The Secret Keeper, The Lake House and The Distant Hours.
Original post: I am SO happy right now! Can't believe it's already been 5 years since Kate Morton published her last novel... But I don't have to wait anymore since I just received an ARC of her next book! 🤩🎉
Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the ARC
June 16, 2023
4.5 stars
Christmas Eve, 1959 in a small town called Tambilla in Australia local man encounters a horrific scene. It becomes a shocking murder mystery that goes unsolved.
2018, Jess a journalist from London, is called to care for her ailing grandmother Nora. Nora is in and out of consciousness, she is very upset and says things that make no sense.
This story is set in two time lines, 1959 and 2018. As Jess unravels her grandmother’s past, she discovers a true crime book that portrays the police investigation of what happened in 1959. Jess finds a connection to her own family in this book.
This is a beautifully written book. The two time lines are interwoven together. It is a compelling generational family saga. It is deeply layered with extensive characterization. It is a very long book and should read slowly. You need to invest the time to enjoy. It is very a thought provoking tale of family relationships.
Christmas Eve, 1959 in a small town called Tambilla in Australia local man encounters a horrific scene. It becomes a shocking murder mystery that goes unsolved.
2018, Jess a journalist from London, is called to care for her ailing grandmother Nora. Nora is in and out of consciousness, she is very upset and says things that make no sense.
This story is set in two time lines, 1959 and 2018. As Jess unravels her grandmother’s past, she discovers a true crime book that portrays the police investigation of what happened in 1959. Jess finds a connection to her own family in this book.
This is a beautifully written book. The two time lines are interwoven together. It is a compelling generational family saga. It is deeply layered with extensive characterization. It is a very long book and should read slowly. You need to invest the time to enjoy. It is very a thought provoking tale of family relationships.
July 17, 2023
Kate Morton is one of the few writers whose books I jump into without reading the synopsis; without wondering if it is good or not. Because I know it is going to be excellent.
If you like historical fiction, where there is dual timelines, family secrets, digging up the past and finding answers that will blow your mind and make you dizzy in a good way, then read this author's books.
Thank the lords, this one was in third person point of view; refreshing after all the other nowadays books of first person, reading like a teenager's diary: I did this and I did that and I said this and I and I and I and I.
If you like historical fiction, where there is dual timelines, family secrets, digging up the past and finding answers that will blow your mind and make you dizzy in a good way, then read this author's books.
Thank the lords, this one was in third person point of view; refreshing after all the other nowadays books of first person, reading like a teenager's diary: I did this and I did that and I said this and I and I and I and I.
June 12, 2023
Magic, once again, in Kate Morton's Homecoming, a historical fiction novel with two timelines and a connection between the past and the present. At first, I was concerned that the book wouldn't pull me in as much as previous ones, like The Forgotten Garden, but by twenty percent in, I was hooked. Family surnames are shared across the timelines with one or two characters somewhat in common, but generally, it's unclear who the new family is and how they connect to the strange death scene in the past. A man stumbles upon a family who has died white sitting at a lake on their property in the 1950s, and it's always been an unsolved crime that left a certain person tainted even tho she was by all rights a beloved person in her time. Could she have actually killed those people? In the present, a young woman's grandmother has an accident after reading a mysterious letter from a lawyer, and now her granddaughter must figure out what happened in the past to cause such strife in the present.
Morton delivers on such beauty and intensity in this story, and the shocks keep coming as we learn all the pieces of what happened in Australia on Christmas Eve nearly 70 years ago. I thought I figured it out multiple times, and the ending completely pushes you over the edge, not so much because it's a shocker as it was an emotional upheaval to understand the lengths someone went to to fix a problem, hide a secret, and unintentionally rescue herself/himself from pain. Wow! I was all in for this journey, even with a few plot holes. Overlooked because the writing is brilliant, and the way in which you leave your body and jump into the book while reading every scene is pure magic.
Morton delivers on such beauty and intensity in this story, and the shocks keep coming as we learn all the pieces of what happened in Australia on Christmas Eve nearly 70 years ago. I thought I figured it out multiple times, and the ending completely pushes you over the edge, not so much because it's a shocker as it was an emotional upheaval to understand the lengths someone went to to fix a problem, hide a secret, and unintentionally rescue herself/himself from pain. Wow! I was all in for this journey, even with a few plot holes. Overlooked because the writing is brilliant, and the way in which you leave your body and jump into the book while reading every scene is pure magic.
April 30, 2023
This is my first Kate Morton book and it won’t be the last, wow it captured me fully from the start and it was so hard to put down, yes it is a big book but the story needed that, the story of three woman, family secrets that have been kept for sixty years, a crime or a tragedy a family lost and a long time before all the questions are answered, a must read but don’t plan on doing anything else while reading.
The Adelaide Hills Christmas Eve 1959 and local Percy Summers discovers something that will haunt him forever, the police are called and everyone living in the small town of Tambilla try to understand what has happened, it is so baffling, inexplicable that something like this could happen in this quiet town.
London 2018 and Jess has been living and working as a journalist for twenty years, but is now unemployed and single when she gets a call to say that her beloved grandmother Nora has had a fall in her house in Vaucluse and that it might be a good idea if she returns home, Nora was on her way to the attic, a place that Jess had been told never to go to when she was a little girl growing up in this house, why was Nora on her way to the attic?
Jess’s mother Polly lives in Brisbane and they are not close since Jess was bought up by Nora, Jess is here alone in Sydney and starts to investigate why her grandmother wanted to get up to the attic what she finds after internet searches is a true crime book written by Daniel Miller on an unsolved family tragedy that left a mother and three children dead and a baby missing and that these people were related to Nora, Jess and Polly and Jess is not going to give up until she gets the answers.
A compelling story that will open family secrets and not just in the Turner family, it looks into what people will do to protect the people you love, it is such a fabulous story so well told so articulate, the characters are fabulous, the emotions are running through the pages, it made me feel all of the emotions as I read this book, I got so invested in this one it was hard to let go when I needed to put it down, and it is one that I will not forget.
I do highly recommend this one, it is one not to be missed if you love a good mystery, with strong characters and one that is told so well.
The Adelaide Hills Christmas Eve 1959 and local Percy Summers discovers something that will haunt him forever, the police are called and everyone living in the small town of Tambilla try to understand what has happened, it is so baffling, inexplicable that something like this could happen in this quiet town.
London 2018 and Jess has been living and working as a journalist for twenty years, but is now unemployed and single when she gets a call to say that her beloved grandmother Nora has had a fall in her house in Vaucluse and that it might be a good idea if she returns home, Nora was on her way to the attic, a place that Jess had been told never to go to when she was a little girl growing up in this house, why was Nora on her way to the attic?
Jess’s mother Polly lives in Brisbane and they are not close since Jess was bought up by Nora, Jess is here alone in Sydney and starts to investigate why her grandmother wanted to get up to the attic what she finds after internet searches is a true crime book written by Daniel Miller on an unsolved family tragedy that left a mother and three children dead and a baby missing and that these people were related to Nora, Jess and Polly and Jess is not going to give up until she gets the answers.
A compelling story that will open family secrets and not just in the Turner family, it looks into what people will do to protect the people you love, it is such a fabulous story so well told so articulate, the characters are fabulous, the emotions are running through the pages, it made me feel all of the emotions as I read this book, I got so invested in this one it was hard to let go when I needed to put it down, and it is one that I will not forget.
I do highly recommend this one, it is one not to be missed if you love a good mystery, with strong characters and one that is told so well.
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