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    The Widow's House
    The Widow's House
    The Widow's House
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Widow's House

    Written by Carol Goodman

    Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    This chilling novel from the bestselling, award-winning author of The Lake of Dead Languages blends the gothic allure of Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca and the crazed undertones of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper with the twisty, contemporary edge of A.S.A. Harrison’s The Silent Wife—a harrowing tale of psychological suspense set in New York’s Hudson Valley.

    When Jess and Clare Martin move from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to their former college town in the Hudson River valley, they are hoping for rejuvenation—of their marriage, their savings, and Jess's writing career.

    They take a caretaker's job at Riven House, a crumbling estate and the home of their old college writing professor. While Clare once had dreams of being a writer, those plans fell by the wayside when Jess made a big, splashy literary debut in their twenties. It's been years, now, since his first novel. The advance has long been spent. Clare's hope is that the pastoral beauty and nostalgia of the Hudson Valley will offer some inspiration.

    But their new life isn't all quaint town libraries and fragrant apple orchards. There is a haunting pall that hangs over Riven House like a funeral veil. Something is just not right. Soon, Clare begins to hear babies crying at night, see strange figures in fog at the edge of their property. Diving into the history of the area, she realizes that Riven House has a dark and anguished past. And whatever this thing is—this menacing force that destroys the inhabitants of the estate—it seems to be after Clare next…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMar 7, 2017
    ISBN9780062660589
    The Widow's House
    Author

    Carol Goodman

    Carol Goodman’s rich and prolific career includes novels such as The Widow’s House and The Night Visitor, winners of the 2018 and 2020 Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in the Hudson Valley, NY.

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    Reviews for The Widow's House

    4/5

    156 ratings18 reviews

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    • 3/5
      It was ok but left me confused at the end
    • 5/5
      I’ve been reading Carol Goodman since I first Kaye’s eyes on “The Lake of Dead Languages” over ten years ago. This book packed in some really good twists and left me at the edge of my seat and also in disbelief at how cruel some of the characters truly were. I’ll definitely add this to my read again list. Give it a try!
    • 4/5
      Wow. From ghost story/psychic phenomena to total gaslighting/survival story back to psychic phenomena. Not sure what to think.
    • 2/5
      I was bored by this book and the 2 dimensional perfect woman narrator at it's core. It all sorry of meandered around and wasn't in there last bit chilling or atmospheric.
    • 4/5
      Good book, kept me interested the whole time. Enjoyed listening to it.
    • 5/5
      I manage to listen to this in under 48 hours so I must have liked it, ha!
    • 3/5
      I really liked this book up until about the last quarter of it. The plot twist was disappointing and the main character was unreliable. If the ending had been better this would have been a great book. Just my opinion though and I know, as an audiobook addict ?, that reviews actually mean very little.
    • 5/5
      a very enjoyable read that had plenty of twists and turns up to the end. thoroughly enjoyed every page.
    • 5/5
      I wish I would have written this book. Amazing.
    • 4/5
      The Widow's House has it all. There’s a crumbling estate, family secrets, haunting ghosts, a vulnerable heroine, a couple of murders, and lots and lots of atmosphere.Sound confusing — like it may be too much? Fear not, Ms. Goodman weaves all these elements together into an enthralling and well-crafted Gothic tale.Ms. Goodman is a master at plotting and building tension as she take the reader through her twists and turns.The ending of the tale will haunt you with this lingering thought — “was any of this real”? A perfect read for Halloween. See my complete review at BookBarmy(dot)com
    • 2/5
      Jess is a selfish douchebag. A cartoon of a villain.Whats-her-name is mental. whackjob.too many words repeated - figure, laptoptoo many of the same words used in back to back sentences, or in the same sentence. bleah.story is a bit jumbled in terms of revelations and explaining the past through the present.community so stratified - rich mansion people, townies and river folknarrator sometimes mispronounces Concord as Concorde. oy. also idyll - it's not idol.oy so melodramatic. so histrionic. pretty dumb.enough with the blood imagery already - all the stupid woman ever sees is ghosts and blood on everything.oh no. is Claire dreaming/hallucinating this whole thing? oy vey.everyone is always grimacing and taking deep breaths. ugh.can't pronounce petite four. I'm really starting to hate this affected narrator.Sigh. revolvers don't have safeties.Dunston calls her Clairey? OMFGWell I like the way it ended with Claire psychically causing everything through her inherited ability, but damn if it wasn’t torture to get there.
    • 3/5
      Experiencing marital and financial problems Jess and Clair Martin decide to leave behind city life and move into a cottage on the property of their former college literature professor. There are lots of things that go bump in the night and danger lurking all around.As the marriage falls apart, so too does the fragile string to reality. While I liked the book, there were too many occurrences of weirdness for me to believe the tale.
    • 4/5
      Because they are experiencing financial and marital troubles, Jess and Clare decide to make a change and move back to the town in the Hudson River Valley where Clare grew up and she met Jess in college. Fortunately, they luck into a position as caretakers for their former professor's decrepit old mansion. Unfortunately, it's pretty thoroughly haunted--or so it appears to Clare.This was an enjoyable suspense novel, albeit a bit slow in the middle but with some surprising twists toward the end. By making allusions to the Charlotte Perkins Gilman story "The Yellow Wallpaper," it casts aspersions on Clare's reliability as a narrator and whether we as readers can trust her depiction of events. We never do get definitive answers, but I liked this aspect of the novel. Since all of the main characters are writers, there is commentary on imagination and storytelling. The octagonal house was nicely gothic, with its foggy lake and old barn, and the book had a wonderful sense of place. All in all, a good ghost story that may have been a more appropriate read in autumn.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this Modern Gothic from Carol Goodman. It's creepy and twisty, and it keeps you guessing as to what's really going on. The main characters are Jess and Clare Martin, who met in an "invitation only" writing class in college. Jess had one novel published in his early twenties, but that was years ago, and now they're broke. The couple ends up back in their small college town as caretakers of their old writing professor's crumbling estate. It seems like the perfect place to rekindle Jess' writing career - possibly Clare's too - but the house has a dark history, and its ghosts don't want to keep quiet.I liked the eerie atmosphere and uneasy feeling the story conveyed, and the mystery of the house's tragic past was intriguing. Loved how it all wrapped up in the end! I was quite surprised at the outcome. I'm glad I spotted this one at the library and will definitely add Carol Goodman's other books to my wishlist.
    • 3/5
      Writers Clare and Jeff Martin move from the city to the Hudson Valley hoping that a change of scenery will rejuvenate Jeff’s one-hit-wonder writing career. They land a gig working as a caretaker at the crumbling mansion of Jeff’s old college professor. Uh oh. Caretakers of crumbling mansions usually have a rough time of it in fiction. Clare starts seeing the ghost of a town resident with a tragic past. Is it real, or is Clare crazy?This was atmospheric as all get-out, set after all in the land of Sleepy Hollow. It was suspenseful in parts, but either I’m getting old and cynical or this book trotted out a few too many supernatural-suspense clichés. For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I can’t get into why the ending wasn’t satisfying to me. But it wasn’t.
    • 4/5
      This is a great story with some very interesting characters. The paranormal aspect of the novel really peaked my interest. There were so many strange happenings in this novel that I questioned. Was this really happening or was this a figment of Clare's imagination. By the end of the story, I still did not know. That makes for an awesome ending. I listened to this one and the reader was quite engaging as well.
    • 4/5
      Jesse and Clare met in a selection only Writer's class taught by an enigmatic Professor. Although this Professor thought Clare had more talent than Jesse, it is Jesse who publishes a book and Clare who ends up as a copy editor in order to support her talented husband. The years have not been kind financially, Jesse unable to complete a second book, so they decide to sell everything they have and find a place where Jesse feels he can write. They will end up at the Octagon shaped house, called Riven by the townspeople, based on the supposition of the house being haunted after all the tragedy it had seen.Was so in the mood for a ghost story and this fit the bill nicely. There is much mystery, not only about the house but in Clare's background as well. The pace is very quick, something always happening, but what exactly is going on? Is this house haunted or could there be another explanation? At times I thought I knew but then the author would mysteriously throw in another curve and I would once again be left wondering. The characters are not exactly likable, but that didn't matter. To be honest not sure this actually deserves a four for the rating, sometimes I felt too much was happening, but it definitely kept me guessing . So for the enjoyment it provided, for the imaginative, twisty storytelling, that is what I decided to give this entertaining read.ARC from William Morrow.
    • 4/5
      The Widow's House by Carol Goodman4 StarsFrom the Book:When Jess and Clare Martin move from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to their former college town in the Hudson River valley, they are hoping for rejuvenation—of their marriage, their savings, and Jess's writing career.They take a caretaker's job at Riven House, a crumbling estate and the home of their old college writing professor. While Clare once had dreams of being a writer, those plans fell by the wayside when Jess made a big, splashy literary debut in their twenties. It's been years, now, since his first novel. The advance has long been spent. Clare's hope is that the pastoral beauty and nostalgia of the Hudson Valley will offer some inspiration.But their new life isn't all quaint town libraries and fragrant apple orchards. There is a haunting pall that hangs over Riven House like a funeral veil. Something is just not right. Soon, Clare begins to hear babies crying at night, see strange figures in fog at the edge of their property. Diving into the history of the area, she realizes that Riven House has a dark and anguished past. And whatever this thing is—this menacing force that destroys the inhabitants of the estate—it seems to be after Clare next.My Thoughts:It was not exactly the ghost story that I was expecting but overall not a disappointing read either. Enough specters appear to keep the ghost story enthusiasts happy. Surprises along the way gave the story a nice suspense building pace while at the same time providing a dark and edgy atmosphere. It was an easy read and I would recommend this book to anyone that loves a mystery mixed with a few goose bumps..