Grief Cottage (Godwin) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
(Starred review.) A young boy obsessed with a haunted beach shack searches for meaning amid catastrophic loss in National Book Award–finalist Godwin’s chilling novel.… His choice and its consequences will echo with readers, and Godwin’s forceful prose captivates with the quiet, renewing power of a persistent tide.
Publishers Weekly


Like Henry James's classic, The Turn of the Screw, Grief Cottage is less a paranormal thriller than an exploration of the psyche's creative tactics to survive trauma.… Godwin shows she is still at the top of her craft, using the fragile link between living and spirit to illuminate a young man's coming of age in this keenly observed, powerful novel.
BookPage


(Starred review.) Godwin's riveting and wise story of the slow coalescence of trust and love between a stoic artist and a grieving boy… subtly and insightfully explores different forms of haunting and vulnerability, strength and survival.… Word will spread quickly about Godwin's tender and spellbinding supernatural novel
Booklist


Echoes of the mysterious isolation in Marcus' family's past sound throughout the novel…. Godwin approaches many of her usual melancholic themes from a different angle and raises the question of whether we get what we want or we get what we need.
Kirkus Reviews