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Arcadia Falls Carol Goodman Books

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Arcadia Falls Carol Goodman Books

Meg Rosenthal is recently widowed with a sixteen year old daughter. No longer able to afford her home in Great Neck, she accepts a teaching position at Arcadia, a private school in upstate New York. Arcadia used to be an artists' retreat started by Vera Beecher and Lily Eberhardt, now both deceased. Meg is doing her PhD thesis on the fairly tales written by these women, so it seems like a perfect situation for her. But one of the students dies the first night there and Meg worries about the influence on her daughter, Sally, who has not recovered from the death of her father. She also uncovers a journal belonging to Lily and discovers some secrets that others might not want known.

my review: I have been a huge fan of Carol Goodman since I read her first novel, The Lake of Dead Languages, followed by The Seduction Of Water, The Drowning Tree, and Ghost Orchid. But then I was not impressed with The Sonnet Lover or The Night Villa. But I am happy to say that she has impressed me again with her latest.

She really is an amazing writer and infuses her mysteries with literature and art. The way she describes the fairy tales and art in this story makes me wish they were real, something I feel every time I read her books.

"It's the crystal path that the lost girl takes after she meets the white witch," Sally says, her voice clear as crystal itself. They're the first words untinged by bitterness or regret I've heard her say in months. " See the trees look like girls in torn dresses because of the way the bark's peeling...

She creates a Gothic type atmosphere with pagan rituals and isolated locations. She also creates a interesting back story that is revealed in bits and pieces and kept me captivated. I read the book in one day and felt very satisfied after finishing. There were a few plot twists, some I suspected, some I did not.

I really can not stress enough I how believe Goodman to be a very underrated writer and I can not recommend her work enough!

my rating 4.5/5


Tags : Amazon.com: Arcadia Falls (9780345497536): Carol Goodman: Books,Carol Goodman,Arcadia Falls,Ballantine Books,0345497538,Psychological,Life change events;Fiction.,Mothers and daughters;Fiction.,Mystery fiction.,AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY FICTION,American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +,FICTION Psychological,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction General,Fiction-Psychological,GENERAL,General Adult,Life change events,Mothers and daughters,New York,United States

Arcadia Falls Carol Goodman Books Reviews

Goodman writes in metaphors. I love the way she puts words together. I love her way of tying a mythical story with the main c characters. Her writing style is very similar to the way to the way my mother talked (she is no longer living). So, generally, I will seek out and read a Goodman novel, because on some level it feels like being able to go back and have a conversation with my mother. That said, this is not one of Goodman's best efforts. It feels like recycled bits cobbled from other books. I would highly recommend reading "The Seduction of Water" and skipping this one. But if this is your first Goodman novel, you will enjoy it.
I am a fan Of Ms. Goodman's but I have to say this latest book falls very short of her previous works. I am a huge gothic, romance, mystery reader from way back, starting with the great writers Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney, Barbara Michaels. So I have been reading gothic for years, and I have to admit, there are not too many authors in this genre who live up to my expectations. I thought Ms. Goodman would. She wrote the mood well, really well, but that is really all the book was. The mood. I loved the descriptions of the scenery, it set the "mood" great. But the rest? I started it and kept thinking did she really write this? The characters were cardboard, the story done before. I don't know, it just was not up to par. I kept reading it thinking it would get better, I would start caring, I would get scared, (I know, as I got older I moved on to books that can really frighten, but I never lost my love of gothic romance), but none of those things ever happened. It was written well, but scenery and mood do not make a book.
Sorry Ms. Goodman, I will read your next one I am sure, I will not give up on you, but for all those people looking for a book in this genre, wait for the paperback.
Even though Carol Goodman has been over this ground before in previous books, this is worth the read. Visiting a small private school in upstate NY, near a rushing river (here, not the Hudson, but it might as well be), in Goodman's company is like having a sleep over with your best friend, telling ghost stories. You know it will work out OK for the lead characters, but there will be some scary stuff on the way. Goodman's leads often have a lost love (widowed, as here, or divorced or split from long-time loves.) They are also always placed in a new setting, strangers in very strange lands. They are well-read, being academics, and they have a cast of young student characters around them, along with mysterious adult colleagues and various hangers-on.

In some ways I wonder if Goodman wouldn't have been even more successful if she had created a series character who could have experienced all of her books her main characters are all quite similar. I don't mean that as a criticism. Her books' common themes and characters make them feel like a series, and that can be very comforting -- after all we all like Poirot, Holmes, Miss Marple, etc. I gave this one a 4 rather than a 5 only because the tumultuous finale is a bit over-the-top with its mixed up birth records and coincidences.
Meg Rosenthal is recently widowed with a sixteen year old daughter. No longer able to afford her home in Great Neck, she accepts a teaching position at Arcadia, a private school in upstate New York. Arcadia used to be an artists' retreat started by Vera Beecher and Lily Eberhardt, now both deceased. Meg is doing her PhD thesis on the fairly tales written by these women, so it seems like a perfect situation for her. But one of the students dies the first night there and Meg worries about the influence on her daughter, Sally, who has not recovered from the death of her father. She also uncovers a journal belonging to Lily and discovers some secrets that others might not want known.

my review I have been a huge fan of Carol Goodman since I read her first novel, The Lake of Dead Languages, followed by The Seduction Of Water, The Drowning Tree, and Ghost Orchid. But then I was not impressed with The Sonnet Lover or The Night Villa. But I am happy to say that she has impressed me again with her latest.

She really is an amazing writer and infuses her mysteries with literature and art. The way she describes the fairy tales and art in this story makes me wish they were real, something I feel every time I read her books.

"It's the crystal path that the lost girl takes after she meets the white witch," Sally says, her voice clear as crystal itself. They're the first words untinged by bitterness or regret I've heard her say in months. " See the trees look like girls in torn dresses because of the way the bark's peeling...

She creates a Gothic type atmosphere with pagan rituals and isolated locations. She also creates a interesting back story that is revealed in bits and pieces and kept me captivated. I read the book in one day and felt very satisfied after finishing. There were a few plot twists, some I suspected, some I did not.

I really can not stress enough I how believe Goodman to be a very underrated writer and I can not recommend her work enough!

my rating 4.5/5