Rating: 
Summary: Interesting
Review: This book was a story of relationships within a ghost story. I found it to be compelling and found myself to be disappointed when it ended.
Rating: 
Summary: Predictable With a Dull Romance
Review: This book was entertaining enough and since it did keep me interested, I gave it a medium rating. The book is well written and the double plot device used by the author is clever. However, what kept me riveted to the book was Claris' story and not Hannah's. Half the book is a romantic treatise of the great love between Hannah and Conary - quite boring. There are three chapters dedicated to the clamming episode which could have been shortened. Hannah's story was not so much a ghost story as a love story and I was bored during most of the sections dedicated to her. I bought the book to read about ghosts, not romance. Additionally, I wearied of the detailed descriptions of Maine and sailing. The ending was predictable and, as many other reviewers noted, it was easily figured out in the first 50 pages. This is not a suspenseful novel at all. However, the section concerning the Haskells were well-written and kept my interest. I just wish that Ms. Gutcheon would have focused on this family instead of the sappy love story.
Rating:
Summary: I know a good book when I read one!
Review: Started this book and couldn't put it down. It has a surprise ending which is always fun when you can't outguess what is going to happen next. Very entertaining and fun reading if you like ghost stories.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: I really liked this novel. I found it "Haunting" and Romantic at the same time, something I thought was very unique. To those who were confused, read the chapter where the minister comes to visit Hannah in the hospital. He gives his explanation for the ghost haunting Hannah and Connary. Another tip: Keep in mind who is related to who. It's subtle, but it's there if you look.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic Mood Piece
Review: You don't just pick this book up and get what you might expect from a typical ghost story, or a love story, or a history lesson. You pick this book up, in the right frame of mind, and settle down for a tale...like the Tale of Sleepy Hollow...or the Turn of the Screw, or The Haunting of Hill House.There is an eerie mood to this book but not so much that you cannot empathathize with the narrator, who, when we meet her, is so old she knows that if she doesn't tell her story now, it will be lost forever. Most of the time, in the book, she is her young, wild self, madly in love with the local bad boy, back in the twenties, in a difficult summer in her life. The starkly depicted yet beautiful coast of Maine is the perfect setting for their affair of the heart and soul. One second you are becalmed, one second you are crashed against the rocks. Years earlier, another affair began and ended in murder and tragedy. These two love stories are entwined. Our present narrator, Hannah, learns all she can of the awful town tragedy that is still recalled by some, but was never solved to anyone's satisfaction. Yes, I got the chills when the ghost appeared; perhaps you need to want to believe? For fun? To think that there may be something more? Who knows? I also felt the passion and the happiness that Hannah had with her "bad boy", Conary. Descriptions of the "clamming day" and the day they took the Packard were full of depth. Were there things lacking in this novel, as so many reviewers have felt? I really liked it, so I don't think so. You read into it what you want to read. The ending must be left up in the air, for the reader to come to conclusions by thinking backwards, the way the book moves backwards, through time...
Rating:
Summary: Confused in MN
Review: I, too, felt confused at the end of the book. I had many unanswered questions. If you haven't read the book yet, please stop here! Was the ghost CLaris and why was she haunting Hannah and Connary? What was the point of the book ending with Bowdoin hearing the violin music? Why was Claris' son buried on the mainland? Wouldn't someone have told Danial about the grave? Gossip runs rampant through small towns. And how come no one ever saw Hannah and Connary together all that time? One minute Edith is obsessed with Hannah's relationship with him and the next minute she is running all over the countryside with him. Somebody please tell me what I am missing! The book was a fast read and I have to say I stayed up late to finish it. I loved the ghost story spin but there just seemed to be some major holes in the story for me.
Rating: 
Summary: This is not a 4.5 star book...
Review: I think the four-and-a-half star rating on this book is a bit high. The book jacket describes this story as "chilling" and promises to "keep you guessing until the last page." I didn't find either to be true. Half the would-be suspense is removed when the entire plot is plainly outlined in the first ten pages by the narrating character. The ending to the "mystery" in the parallel story in the past is telegraphed right from the beginning. I'm normally terrible at figuring out mysteries and I guessed the whole thing by page 50. The writing is adequate but very stark, to the point where you cannot really sympathise with the characters, not even the one who is telling the story in the first person. The descriptions of the Maine coast are accurate and poetic, but they only make the rest of the story and characters seem even flimsier in comparison. If this is what passes as good LitFic these days I'll stick with my genre reading (SF, horror, and fantasy) and my Dickens.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best reads of the summer
Review: A beautifully written, haunting novel that kept me turning pages long after midnight. I found the "confusing" aspects that others have described in reviews here to be part of its appeal. This is a book you need to think about, chapter by chapter -- and this connected me more strongly to the story. It is sophisticated, as good ghost stories should be, and fascinating. If you like your mysteries to be truly "mysterious," you'll enjoy this heart-rending novel. If you're the sort that needs every loose end tied up neatly in a bow, you'd prefer something else!
Rating:
Summary: CONFUSING AND DISAPPOINTING
Review: I have read the other reviews of this book and I am clearly in the minority since I found it unsatisfying and confusing. I assume the ghost is Claris (though this is never made clear) but can't see why she wants to harm Hannah & Conary. The author implies that the ghost "wants" something but never tells us what. The ending is especially unsatisfying. What happens after Conary dies - does the ghost continue to haunt Hannah or is it satisfied and if so, in what way? I thought the character development was extremely weak and the story full of cliches. The description of the ghost as a dark specter with burning eyes made me groan it's so overdone. The landscapes fared better and I could visualize the places in the novel. I kept reading how "chilling" and scary this book was but I found it to be neither and the "romantic" scenes (the fair, clamming on the island) were boring. Maybe I missed something, but like Hannah I just can't figure out what the ghost wants and how it relates to Hannah & Conary. I feel like the author (or the printer) left out a chapter or two. Pam Funk
Rating:
Summary: Confused....
Review: Am I the only one perplexed? What did I miss? I liked the story and the writing style but I didn't get the connections or the ending. Who was related to who? And who was the ghost...Claris? What did the 'ghost' want and why?
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