Mr. Splitfoot (Hunt)

Book Reviews
I've dog-eared so many pages in honor of vivid prose that my…copy of Mr. Splitfoot curls up with fattened corners. Hunt renders as ornate and magical the tired landscape of Troy and upstate New York—and I say this as a native of that area, with high regard for its quiddities…Hunt's depiction of the seedy terrain of human relations is just as terrific…The novel moves not just in two time frames, told through two voices, a first-person narrator and a third- , but also…in the fourth dimension, stamping itself upon the reading mind. Hypnotic and glowing, Mr. Splitfoot insists on its own ghostly presence.
Gregory Maguire - New York Times Book Review


Samantha Hunt is one of the most inventive novelists working today, and Mr. Splitfoot features her usual imaginative flair…Ms. Hunt is a graceful, sometimes poetic writer who knows how to build suspense.
John Williams - New York Times


The historical and the fantastical entwine like snakes in Samantha Hunt’s fiction...Turned around and around in these woods, you won’t always know where you are, but there’s a rare pleasure in this blend of romance and phantoms.
Washington Post


Mr. Splitfoot [is] at once an intriguing mystery with clues, suspense, enigmas galore, and an exhilarating, witty, poignant paean to the unexplainable, the unsolvable, the irreducibly mysterious...[Hunt's] epistemological and ethical rigor are complemented by a lovely respect for what remains uncategorizable, unable to be mastered or explained away.
Boston Globe


[A] quirky, mysterious novel...Hunt has conjured an unusual and engaging story...Hunt’s aim is not to be believable, but to play with the unanswerable questions and mysteries that underlie life. The emotional connections between Hunt’s key characters are authentic, as is the unusual world she creates at Love of Christ!, and her writing is lively and funny. At times it felt like both Cora and I were on a wild goose chase, trailing Ruth wherever she went, but I gladly followed, eager to reach the surprising conclusion of this enigmatic journey.
Dallas Morning News


[A] wild ride. If you're all about magical realists like Kelly Link, this is one title you'll need to pick up, because Samantha Hunt's third novel takes the banal and rockets it into the fantastic (and the fantastically wonderful). I don't want to divulge too much about this one because I'd rather you read it yourself, but I will say that if you love dual narrative structures or complicated timelines, this is an especially good pick for your must-read list.
Bustle


(Starred review.) [A]a nod to the mid-19th-century legend of the Fox sisters, mediums who conjured up a devilish spirit they called Mr. Splitfoot in order to separate the gullible from their money. The book deftly straddles the slippery line between fantasy and reality in a story that’s both gripping and wonderfully mystifying.... This spellbinder is storytelling at its best.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) This genre-defying page-turner shows off the talent of the up-and-coming Hunt. The narrative alternates between the present and the past.... The plot is a sort of puzzle, revealing the connections among all people and the constant echoes of the past in the present.... [A] ghost story, but it's also a road-trip narrative, a mystery, and a coming-of-age story, told with lyrical language. —Kate Gray, Boston P.L., MA
Library Journal


You’ll want to savor every fiendish bit of this book...a gothic tale that’s both deliciously creepy and emotionally satisfying, combining supernatural intrigue and thematic weight…. Hunt’s confidence in her story propels the book from page one.... Mr. Splitfoot is about the divide between the natural and the supernatural, between faith and reason, and in the hands of a storyteller like Hunt…the novel becomes something truly special.
BookPage


(Starred review.) Foster children, abandoned houses, and craters left by meteorites weave together a strange and frightening ghost story.... At times, the novel's murky obscurity may be vexing...but the...potent imagery keep the pages turning. A truly fantastic novel in which the blurring of natural and supernatural creates a stirring, visceral conclusion.
Kirkus Reviews