Yikes.
1/5 - Not My Type of Story/Misleading
Swanborough's story about this weird family in the Welsh valley was interesting. Four generations of females live under one roof, the same roof that countless other generations have lived in. The idea of generational wealth was very evident at the beginning.
With the youngest generations having mental illnesses due to trauma, the story mostly followed the matriarch - Lizzie after her 100th birthday when everything seemed to start going downhill.
After a man was found murdered and a religious person called the youngest a witch, it all went spiraling. Unfortunately, it was hard to read as most of the plot seemed too far-fetched. The witch portion of calling a young girl this in modernized times was uncanny.
The subtitle of this story was very misleading. I enjoy aspects of the supernatural and the only mention of the ghosts was what was seen or a character could feel their judgment. The small dog mentioned was of the same caliber - mentioned only a few times in the story. If the author had taken out the ghosts and dogs, it would have been the same story.
Now, to connect the title to the story. In the last chapter, the title makes sense. The gifts mentioned were again, minimal. However, if this family did have gifts connected to the supernatural and nature in general, it needed to be incorporated more.
The story continued for several chapters and scenes when it did not have to - it could have been wrapped up a lot sooner and quicker instead of pushing it out.
The aspect of a religious man gone wild and a child trying to find her place in the world was humorous and a wonderful change of pace in the plotline, but it was just so few scenes in this book that truly made it worth reading.
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