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Homeplace Beth Massie 9780425216897 Books

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Homeplace Beth Massie 9780425216897 Books

I have just had the pleasure of reading Beth Massie's recent novel HOMEPLACE. The voice is distinct and southern. The location is an isolated little town called Adams, and an even more isolated farm called Homeplace. Our protagonist, Charlene, has come back to claim the old place as a sort of artist's retreat in an attempt to jump start her painting career and revitalize her life.

Her memories of the place aren't pleasant ones, and right from the start, the present lives up to the darkness promised by the past. Homeplace is dilapidated, filthy, lacks proper appliances, and - by the way - seems to be haunted.

Throughout this novel, the thing that is driven home is what a different world it is out in the middle of nowhere, cut off from cities, officials, and the world. People think and act differently. Things that would not matter to a city dweller are of great importance, and things that would matter in the city bring dull stares.

As Charlene delves into the secrets of her family, and their ancestral home, those around her warn her away. The old woman who visits the Alexander graveyard to keep it clean, the old men of the village, none have a good word for Homeplace, or the family that inhabited it. The rumors are dark, and ugly - the involve a locked building called "The Children's House" and an old well covered over and all but forgotten. They involve a diary filled with the horrors of a woman's past, and the rumors of life beyond the grave.

Animals go crazy. People die. Charlene finds herself in a war with her past, her ancestors, her neighbors, and possibly falling in love with her new friend Andrew, a lawyer who has also returned to his roots in Adams, not to paint, but to write a novel. He practices law on the side, but - though not to the extent that Charlene is - he is treated as an outsider. Someone who doesn't know how things are.

He finds out, as does Charlene, and the ending will both chill and surprise you. This is a wonderful southern gothic thriller with all the necessary ingredients to entertain readers and send shivers dancing up and down their spines.

Highly recommended.


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Homeplace Beth Massie 9780425216897 Books Reviews

Beth Massie is known for writing a wide variety of types of fiction--from cutting-edge horror to historical drama to young adult adventure tales. In general, Ms. Massie's horror fiction tends to be very dark and frequently centers around characters with severe warpage of the mind. It's almost a surprise to find that HOMEPLACE is about as traditional as traditional gets--at least when you're talking about haunted houses, ghostly goings-on, long-dead witches, and small-town settings filled with small-town characters.

Very slight spoilage follows.

Her life in something of a meaningless rut, artist Charlene Myers retreats to her ancestral home, known as Homeplace, deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, to restore herself. She has vague memories of unpleasantness there as a child, but once she settles in, that old perception takes on a new and disturbing vividness--particularly when she finds that a number of the locals believe that Homeplace was once home to a rather nasty witch and that Charlene must surely be following in those old witchy footsteps. A young lawyer named Andrew Marshall, himself a relatively recent transplant to the small town, befriends her and offers her emotional support as she experiences one inexplicable event after another--at least until Charlene herself begins to behave in such bizarre fashion that even he must doubt her sanity. Finally, however, the supernatural power in the old witch house sweeps up the both of them, and neither knows the means to either combat or escape it.

I've always been a little put off by characters who talk to themselves. It's usually a cheap and too-obvious means for the author to explain the character's motivation or propel one scene to another. Charlene talks to herself quite a bit, and at first, it hit that sensitive annoyance nerve I have right behind my left ear; fortunately, it doesn't take long to realize that it's part of her psychological makeup, a symptom of her emotional and physical isolation. Charlene is a somewhat damaged character, but not so far gone that you either pity her or write her off as hopeless. She has occasional moments of sullenness that make one want to smack her around a bit, but most often, she redeems herself by facing the issues confronting her with reasonable pragmatism.

Andrew is a closet novelist, and not a very good one. There are numerous excerpts of his writing, which in abstract ways reflect his thoughts on the goings-on around him. The snippets are a little overdone at times, and I think Ms. Massie included them just to convince us readers that, yes, he really is trying to write, rather than expect us to take her word for it. I might have striven to find a happy medium, but it's really a small matter. As a character, he is both believable and sympathetic (despite his being a lawyer), and his perceptions of Charlene help to define her character as much as his own.

In classic fashion, Charlene goes up against the evil that inhabits Homeplace, and the showdown is part HIGH NOON, part IT, and the stakes are high for all involved. After a relatively slow pace since page 1, the supernatural big gundown comes on fast and hard, almost jarringly so. From there, events again play out a bit slower as we move toward the end. On the whole, it all works, showing that Ms. Massie is well-versed in plot-pacing and generating atmosphere. Given the events of the story as a whole, the resolution gives us exactly what we might expect. No silly contrivances, no boogies suddenly jumping out of shadows to clue us in that it's not really over. In that regard, it's a successful means of wrapping up the drama.

I enjoyed HOMEPLACE a lot, in large part because the setting Ms. Massie builds is so close to places I've known and cared about in Virginia. (She and I have trodden a lot of the same ground over many years.) The characters are people we might meet on the street, some of whom we would like and some we wouldn't. In the time it took to read the novel, I enjoyed myself quite a bit. Definitely time well spent.
Elizabeth Massie's writing has always emphasized the human element. This is what a great writer must do in order to tell a story effectively and to make the reader not only care about the characters, but also feel what they are feeling. This is a rare talent in writers today and one that makes Massie's books must-reads, no matter the title. (and there are many, luckily)

The moment I opened the cover to Homeplace and entered Massie's novel, I was enveloped in a genuine world. I caught a whiff of the Blue Ridge forests and fields, felt the snap in the air... I had all five (maybe six?) of my senses fired up and ready to encounter the eerie and disturbing things at Homeplace that raised the hairs on the back of my neck.

Massie combines humor, pathos, and excitement with a large dollop of lurking, insidious terror. It's startling that one can be brought from one extreme of emotion to its opposite so rapidly by her skilful prose.

If you enjoy Homeplace, I recommend visiting [...] to see a short, very cinematic "book trailer" narrated by Massie that sets up "Homeplace" nicely, and I presume, visits the actual location where the story was set. You can also explore the broad range of work she has created and have the opportunity to order some wonderful reading...many available here on .
I have just had the pleasure of reading Beth Massie's recent novel HOMEPLACE. The voice is distinct and southern. The location is an isolated little town called Adams, and an even more isolated farm called Homeplace. Our protagonist, Charlene, has come back to claim the old place as a sort of artist's retreat in an attempt to jump start her painting career and revitalize her life.

Her memories of the place aren't pleasant ones, and right from the start, the present lives up to the darkness promised by the past. Homeplace is dilapidated, filthy, lacks proper appliances, and - by the way - seems to be haunted.

Throughout this novel, the thing that is driven home is what a different world it is out in the middle of nowhere, cut off from cities, officials, and the world. People think and act differently. Things that would not matter to a city dweller are of great importance, and things that would matter in the city bring dull stares.

As Charlene delves into the secrets of her family, and their ancestral home, those around her warn her away. The old woman who visits the Alexander graveyard to keep it clean, the old men of the village, none have a good word for Homeplace, or the family that inhabited it. The rumors are dark, and ugly - the involve a locked building called "The Children's House" and an old well covered over and all but forgotten. They involve a diary filled with the horrors of a woman's past, and the rumors of life beyond the grave.

Animals go crazy. People die. Charlene finds herself in a war with her past, her ancestors, her neighbors, and possibly falling in love with her new friend Andrew, a lawyer who has also returned to his roots in Adams, not to paint, but to write a novel. He practices law on the side, but - though not to the extent that Charlene is - he is treated as an outsider. Someone who doesn't know how things are.

He finds out, as does Charlene, and the ending will both chill and surprise you. This is a wonderful southern gothic thriller with all the necessary ingredients to entertain readers and send shivers dancing up and down their spines.

Highly recommended.