I just did not enjoy this book. I found myself skimming to just get it over with. The novel was slow paced. The characters were dull and there was an excess amount of detail that just was not needed.

I won this from the author, Karen Brown, in a Goodreads giveaway, in exchange for an honest review. ( )

I found this to be an incredibly slow read and my attention wandered quite a bit as the story simply failed to hold my attention. Martha Mary is remarkable in that she sees ghosts but otherwise she's just a bland character. This was, quite simply, a story that just didn't work for me. ( )

The Clairvoyants] by Karen Brown
3.5 Stars

From The Book:
On the family homestead by the sea where she grew up, Martha Mary saw ghosts. As a young woman, she hopes to distance herself from those spirits by escaping to an inland college town. There, she is absorbed by a budding romance, relieved by separation from an unstable sister, and disinterested in the flyers seeking information about a young woman who’s disappeared―until one Indian summer afternoon when the missing woman appears beneath Martha’s apartment window, wearing a down coat, her hair coated with ice.

My Views:
This was my first book by this author and I'm still on the fence as to if I just liked it or really liked it. It was a little slow going at times, but it picks up towards the end. In the mean time you have to wade through a lot of atmospheric scenes to get to the plot. Once there the author does a great job of setting the mood and adequately crafting the scene. It gives you that slightly unsettled feeling of knowing you are not alone and you really don't want to look behind you. This is one of the aspects a well told ghost story needs and that is what the books is billed as..."a Gothic ghost story set in modern times." I think I may have expected more to happen sooner than it did. It was the peculiarities and the anticipation in this tale which kept me reading. I do have to say that none of the characters were particularly likable...so if that is a major selling point for you as the reader...this one may not be for you. ( )

4 1/2 stars
fter reading the blurb and having a fascination with paranormal stories, I was definitely coming to The Clairvoyants expecting something different from what I received, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, does it?

There is something dreamlike about the way in which Karen Brown has conveyed this story, a feeling of timelessness. As I was reading, I felt an old-fashioned quality rise, from the use of “old” names like Martha and Delores to the gatherings at Anne’s, where artists and intellectuals met for drinks, and even the drinks were “old” drinks for young people in their late teens and early twenties, martinis, g&ts.

read more: https://saschadarlington.me/2017/02/28/review-of-the-clairvoyants/ ( )

First of all, I was totally drawn in by the beautiful cover. It reminded me a bit of the covers for Mara Dyer, a series I absolutely loved. The blurb kind of reminded me of that too - both a little creepy and paranormal feeling, so I was excited to read this.

The Clairvoyants follows Martha Mary. She sees ghosts. When she tries to escape them, she ends up at a college far away from home, away from her sister, and away from her past. But then Mary Rae appears beneath her window. Mary Rae, a woman who's gone missing. Mary Rae, who may or may not be dead.

A lot of the reviews say that the writing for this was one of this book's strongest suits, and while it definitely did add to the eerie atmosphere at the start, it made the pacing seem slow. At the very start, I liked the tangential style, but after a while it got repetitive and tiring. I felt like the story had a leisurely pace throughout; I was waiting for the story to pick up, but it feels like it never did.

That brings me to the plot. The plot was definitely interesting, and the premise was set up very well. The issue I have is how we travelled through the plot. Because of the writing style, the storyline seemed tedious, and felt like I lost of sight of where the story was headed.

I felt like I had trouble with the characters as well. While I thought Martha's interactions with her sister were extremely interesting, I didn't quite feel the dynamic between her and the love interest, William. The relationship felt rushed and a little empty, and because I didn't quite get to know Will as a character, I didn't feel emotionally vested in his and Martha's relationship. For Martha, there was definitely character development by the end, and I liked that a lot, even if the road getting there was less than satisfactory.

Throughout all this, I actually did really want to know what the ending would be, and I wasn't disappointed at all. What did disappoint me was, like I said, how I got there, and I feel like I would've enjoyed the story more if a different style was used. ( )