About the BookOn her twenty-first birthday, Maggie Owen receives an unusual birthday gift: a house. That same day, the house’s owner, her aunt, dies. For three years, Maggie has been fleeing her childhood demons: the deaths of her parents, estrangement from her terminally-ill aunt, and a betrayal by her best friend. But now her career on the road, following natural disasters in temporary insurance claims offices, ends abruptly as Maggie returns home to face her past. But why does the house hold a mysterious spell over her? Why does she have the persistent feeling that her aunt is haunting her? Why did her aunt lie to her about the circumstances of her parents’ deaths? Who is the ghost child that may be hanging around the house? And what’s with the guy next door who seems so hostile toward her? FOLLOWING DISASTERS is tightly woven ghost story that raises questions about legacies and their influence on our choices.
My Review
It's fascinating to see how the relationships women have with one another, inevitably end up affecting the relationships they have with the men in their lives.
And what makes this book even more intriguing is that these relationships span different eras in time. We meet Maggie and her college friend, Erin, in the 1980s while getting to know Maggie's mother, Sarah, and her Aunt Beth, through flashbacks occurring from the 1950s onward. Yet, the same dynamic plays out between the two sets of women—the perks of physical beauty compared to inner beauty.
Erin is the girl who can get any guy she wants, much like Maggie's mother, who's described in her day as quite the head turner. While Maggie seems to take after her plain-looking aunt, preferring not to be noticed, content to be quiet and withdrawn. However, their reticence doesn't do them any favors since both are betrayed by their more attractive counterparts. When Maggie's boyfriend and Aunt Beth's husband fall victim to the temptation of the flesh, the two of them are left to pick up the pieces of their shattered trust.
When Aunt Beth dies, she leaves Maggie her house, providing her with the means to make a fresh start. But as Maggie begins the process of sorting through her aunt's things, she feels old wounds reopening, refusing to be healed. She questions whether she is doomed to live an exact replica of the life her aunt lived, now that she's trapped under the same roof. Can she forgive those who wronged her or will she live the remainder of her days mired in jealousy and regret?
The kicker is: maybe Aunt Beth provided Maggie with a way out of her pain after all. Her aunt is well aware of the pitfalls she, herself, stumbled into, and as the house begins to reveal its secrets, it's clear that she doesn't want Maggie to have to suffer through what she went through. She wants more for her than that.
And it all becomes apparent when Maggie meets her new next-door neighbor.
Joe.
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Following Disasters can be purchased at:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Prices/Formats: $9.99 ebook, $16.00 paperback
Genre: Gothic, Horror, Ghosts
Pages: 234
Release: October 1, 2016
Publisher: Outpost19
ISBN: 9781944853037
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About the AuthorFollowing Disasters is Nancy McCabe's first novel. She has also published four books of creative nonfiction, including Meeting Sophie: A Memoir or Adoption; Crossing the Blue Willow Bridge: A Journey to My Daughter's Birthplace in China; and From Little Houses to Little Women: Revisiting a Literary Childhood. She is a regular blogger for Ploughshares and has published work in Newsweek, Writers' Digest, Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast, Fourth Genre, and other magazines and anthologies. Her work has received a Pushcart and six times made notable lists in Houghton Mifflin Best American anthologies.
Links to connect with Nancy:
Web Site
YouTube
Goodreads
Blog
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