The Diviner's Tale by Bradford Morrow (ARC)

Title: The Diviner's Tale (ARC)

Author: Bradford Morrow

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Publish Date: Jan 20, 2011

Rating: 2 

Her wavy hair was brushed neatly, elegantly, over he shoulders, as if she were going to a party. She was hanged with a rope about her neck, not swaying in any breeze, but as dead still as a plumb stone. Her face bore an unaccountably serene, unforgiving half-smile.

Walking a lonely forested valley on a spring morning in upstate New York, having been hired by a developer to dowse the land, Cassandra Brooks comes upon the shocking vision of a young girl hanged from a tree. When she returns with authorities to the site, the body has vanished, leaving in question Cassandra’s credibility if not her sanity. The next day, on a return visit with the sheriff to have another look, a dazed, mute missing girl emerges from the woods, alive and the very picture of Cassandra’s hanged girl.

I wish I could give this a higher rate; the premise is good, the idea is interesting and there's a lot of things that can be explored. Basically it should've been better but it's not. The author spent too much pages describing about anything else rather than the main story. I practically knows everything about Cassandra's life, even those that unrelated to the story at all (such as flower!). While on the other hand, the 'hanged' girl only explained briefly in few pages and Cassandra showed no interest toward her at all. It makes her seems like a self-centered person.

The characters aren't interesting enough. Cassandra is gloomy and boring, the boys are angelic in impossible way for boys in their ages, the story pretty much focus on what's on Cassandra mind and her mind is bleak. The summary made me think that it will be an intense mystery but somehow the mystery was overshadowed with Cassandra constant contemplation about her past life. Even though she's an adult and has two sons, I keep thinking I read a mind of an insecure teenage girl who just too absorbed with her own problems.

This is supposed to be mystery book, with intense scenes and haunting events that lurked in my mind even after I'm done reading it. But it's not, the ending is predictable and I fall asleep in the middle of reading it.

Lynossa

The Diviner's Tale by Bradford Morrow (ARC)