In the lineage of Peter Straub’s Julia, Scott Thomas’ Violet is the disturbing tale of a woman haunted by her long-abandoned imaginary friend.

For many children, the summer of 1988 was filled with sunshine and laughter. But for ten-year-old Kris Barlow, it was her chance to say goodbye to her dying mother. 

Three decades later, loss returns—her husband killed in a car accident. And so, Kris goes home to the place where she first knew pain—to that summer house overlooking the crystal waters of Lost Lake. It’s there that Kris and her eight-year-old daughter will make a stand against grief. 

But a shadow has fallen over the quiet lake town of Pacington, Kansas. Beneath its surface, an evil has grown—and inside that home where Kris Barlow last saw her mother, an old friend awaits her return.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for this creepy and engrossing read! The spooky season is drawing near, and although I can’t feel the chill in the air just yet, this novel brought a chill to my bones that only October can bring. I’ve been needing a truly scary book to read, and I found my match! Imaginary friends, a distant and sleepy town, and a sadness that permeates every written word draws you closer and closer to these characters and the mystery that longs to drag them down into the depths of River’s End.

We are introduced to Kris, who is no stranger to tragedy. Her mother was taken from her by cancer at a young age, and now that she is grown, she has found herself in that weightless void of despair once again after the gruesome death of her husband. She wants to take her daughter away and hopes that some time in her childhood summer home will alleviate her grief. She has so many happy memories there, despite the fact that her mother died within its walls. Once they get to the house, however, it has drastically changed since the last time she saw it. It has been left to rot, and the house smells of decay and disuse.

Kris does not let this deter her, and in a moment of genius decides that cleaning up the house with Sadie will clean their minds as well. From that night forward, Sadie shows signs of improvements. She’s talking more, eating, and even singing. Kris is elated until her own grief starts to swallow her sanity. She starts to remember snapshots of herself as a child, Krissy was what she was called then, and she slowly sees that maybe she wasn’t happy at all, and that maybe there is a darkness to this house that is begging for her attention through Sadie. 

Kris falls down a rabbit hole of unsolved murders of young girls, and struggles to piece this information together with the memories she is uncovering. Sadie’s condition deteriorates before her eyes, and when she starts to question things that Kris never told her, the false illusion of hope falls away almost instantly. There may have been someone that she left behind in her childhood that has been trying to replace her all this time, just as Kris replaced them with a normal life. I don’t want to spoil anything, but rest assured, you will feel phantom fingers on your cheek and a disembodied breath on your neck for an immeasurable amount of time after reading this tale. I’ve even been left with an uneasiness that will follow every time I hear Blackbird by the Beatles. Scott has created a truly terrifying tale, and I’m ready for Halloween.

5/5 stars