“Nobody warned you about this stuff. Nobody said, Watch out for the echoes. Watch out for the ghosts.”
The Miltons own an island. Among the well-to-do families of New York, this very fact sets them apart and almost above the others. Their wealth goes back to before the Great Depression and they somehow managed to do well during that period as well. Now, the grandchildren decades later have to face what to do with the island – keep up with the repairs for the sake of the past, their memories and their children or sell it and let the island go. One grandchild in particular, Evie, feels there is something she must know before she can let the island go – something about the mother who rarely revealed her true self to Evie.
A friend recommended The Guest Book to me and I had to wait several weeks before it was available to check out as an ebook from my local library. I honestly didn’t know very much about the plot before I read it, but the summary looked interesting. It is a fairly long book.
As Evie comes to finally discover some of the family secrets that have been kept, she starts to realize that the present is more important than the past. It is an interesting theme, though, that some people can seem to sense that there is something about their family’s past that needs to be uncovered. Yet, in the end no one ever really knows their parent or grandparent completely as is shown by no one every really knowing why Ogden and Kitty Milton bought the island in the first place – to move on after the accidental death of their firstborn son. No one in the family ever knows he even existed. In the end, “We vanish.”
The Guest Book is a novel that goes in-depth into characters across several generations and weaves a tale of a family whose ties were stronger than the pull of true love. It’s not a light read, but it’s for readers who love a long novel that has twists and turns and delves into family secrets. It gave me a lot to ponder in the end.
What are your thoughts on family secrets? Keep them or share them? Share your thoughts below!