Burden Falls

Burden Falls

YA chiller
Romeo and Juliet. Hayfields and McCoys. Feuding families whose
enmity lasts longer that anyone can remember what stirred up all the
bad blood in the first place. If that story line captivates you you
owe it to yourself to read Kat Ellis' Burden Falls. The
author of Harrow Lake has also created yet another location where
anything is possible and probably not something any halfway rational
person would want to experience.
Like other locales we've visited recently, Burden Falls is
special. In addition to its living inhabitants it boasts one spectral
dweller--Dead-Eyed Sadie, an unfortunate girl who was allegedly not
only brutally murdered but had her eyes carved out of her head.
Locals believe that she hasn't moved on to any kind of after life.
A year earlier Ava Thorn had been the sole survivor of a car
crash that had killed her beloved parents. Now she has to move out of
the manor that her hamily has dwelt in for generations. It's not only
been sold, but been sold to Madoc Miller, the man who crashed his car
into her family's that fatal night. Now she has to not only deal with
the Miller kids, Dominick and Freya, in school (no love lost there)
but know they live in the only place she shared or could ever share
with her mother and father.
By the way, the Thorn and Miller families have been enemies for
as far back as the living can remember and then some.
Dead bodies start turning up. A missing girl washes up on the
river bank. Freya's body turns up at the pavilion on her estate,
gaping holes where the eyes should be. Then someone really close to
Ava with whom she had a falling out becomes the third victim. Plenty
of folks think Dead-Eyed Sadie has come out to play. The police,
however, consider Ava to be the prime suspect.
Ava has to find out who the real murderer is to prove her
innocence. Dominick is on a similar mission because he has no
confidence whatsoever in the police being able to do their job. Could
they become unlikely allies or even, shades of old Bill Shakespeare,
star crossed lovers?
Only one way to find out, ya know.
Burden Falls will satisfy even the most hard core chiller
affecianado. I read the grand finale in what felt like a trance--
dreading what might evolve, but unable to put the book down. It felt
like I was experiencing the narrative as it unfolded rather than
reading it from a safe distance.
On a purrrsonal note, Eugene and I went to camp Saturday morning and
came back Sunday. The weather was purrrfect for stopping at yard
sales and flea markets on the way up and for sitting out writing and
reading nearly til it got too dark to see. Eugene grilled hot dogs
for supper. We watched a funny movie and had beer happy hour. I got
back in time for zoom church. But I cut. I had so much to do to get
ready for the school week which is ready to start. Soon I'll be on
the bus to school. The only thing different about this week is that
my birthday is Tuesday. I can't find my usual excitement because it
will be a birthday without a celebration. I'll head out early, do
homework in Fogler Library, hopefully be able to donate blood,
volunteer at canteen, bus home for my zoom class, and read before bed
if I have the energy left. I know I'll get gifts. Mostly money for
grad school. But I hate the thought of not celebrating. You only
turn 70 once.
I'll help her celebrate. I iz a party animal, (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to Eugene.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway


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