The Children on the Hill

This thriller has a dual timeline. The earliest story is set in 1978 when 13-year-old Vi and her younger brother Eric live with their grandmother on the grounds of a treatment enclave for the mentally ill. Their grandmother, Dr. Helen Hildreth, is a renowned psychiatrist who runs the Vermont center. They are home-schooled by their grandmother. Because they grow up next to the treatment center, the kids frequently see and interact with the patients.Occasionally, Dr. Hildreth will bring home patients to stay with them in the house for some specialized attention. The patient and Dr. Hildreth will spend time together in an office in the basement of the house, where the patients have their memories and cognition tested. Vi and Eric call these people “strays.”One day Dr. Hildreth brings home a girl, Iris, covered in bruises and selectively mute. Dr. Hildreth thinks that contact with Vi, a girl her age, will bring her out of her shell. After a few days, Iris warms to Vi and begins talking. The three children explore the grounds together, and Vi introduces Iris to the “Monster Club.” Vi and Eric have been working on a monster book. The book is a compilation of everything that Vi has gathered about various monsters. Eric draws the illustrations for it. Vi has a camera and attempts to take pictures of mysterious creatures in the woods. She records eerie sounds from the land surrounding them on a tape recorder. It isn’t long before she, Iris, and Eric sneak into the drive-in when it plays monster movies.Vi becomes concerned about Iris’s lack of memory. The girl doesn’t even know her last name or what happened to her parents. Vi decides to help Iris by getting access to her grandmother’s files on her. Without question, Vi knows what she is doing is wrong, even illegal, but her desire to help her friend is too great. Vi, Iris, and Eric concoct a plan to break into the office where the patient files are kept. This botched mission sets off a series of events that ends in tragedy.Years later, what started with the monster book has come full circle. Her name is Lizzy now, having changed her name to escape the past. It’s 2019, and Lizzy is 53 years old. She maintains contact with Eric, who is married with children, but they are not as close as they once were. One thing hasn’t changed, and that is her preoccupation with monsters. Her childhood focus on monsters has turned into a career as a monster hunter. Lizzy has a podcast in which she travels the country looking for monsters, some of whom are human.Lizzy becomes fascinated with a case where young girls go missing after meeting a woman called Rattling Jane, who gives them a pebble. Shortly after the meeting, the girls disappear. Lizzy becomes convinced that the woman who is abducting these girls is the one she thought of as a sister so long ago.I found this book suspenseful, with well-placed clues to keep me turning the pages and driving the plot. Early on, I did have a suspicion that turned out to be correct, so the ending wasn’t as much of a twist as I had hoped. The novel is well-written, and the alternating timelines are deftly handled. This novel is for people interested in the “monsters” among us and those who like exciting thrillers. I wouldn’t consider this a book for tweens; even though, at times, the characters are young teenagers.

I liked the relationship between Violet and Iris, and how they interacted. I was left a little unclear on some things in the end, which is kind of annoying. Other than that, it was well written with good story progression and character development.

I loved The Winter People and enjoyed The Night Sister, but I feel the quality is slipping in her later novels. A creative writing proff once told me a project was "too plot reliant." At the time I thought, "what's wrong with that? It's a plot twist story!" In hindsight, he was so, so right. "The Children on the Hill" is an excellent example of how this emphasis on plot can backfire.I figured out the plot twist a couple chapters in, which might have been OK if the novel had other merits to support it. Night sister did a great job of depicting the 'magic of coming of age in previous era'. I was too busy enjoying Winter People to pick it apart analytically. This novel felt a bit tedious after a while. I didn't particularly care about anyone. The brother's character felt paper thin. The ending also felt tacked on, and even though it backtracks a bit in the epilogue, it just left a bad taste in my mouth. It's not a bad book, but if you're handy with mysteries, it might feel like a bit of a drag. in the end. This may be my last novel by this author.

Jennifer McMahon has done to again, another amazing book from start to finish!

I read Jennifer McMahon's previous book, The Drowning Kind. I enjoyed it up until the ending, which felt tacked on, undeserved, and unfulfilling. I was worried the same thing would happen in this book.Boy, was I wrong. I consume a lot of media — books, movies, and TV — and can see twists coming a mile away. While I suspected one, it wasn't to the magnitude I expected. I got completely blindsided. The ending exceeded my expectations and I'm still coming down from the high.Jennifer has a way with writing suspense, and knows exactly when and how to kick things into high gear. It's like a chase scene in which my eyes are darting from word to word trying to keep up with the pace of the action, hastily turning each page as I remind myself to breathe. And the horror elements, too, really shine through. Jennifer never shies away from the clear inspiration and influence of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein, but still manages to create something that stands on its own.My only complaint with the book is that it gave me deja vu while reading. Sometimes, descriptions or passages would get repeated a few short pages later for no apparent reason. For instance, there are five times in the book in which various characters' eyes are described as glassy. Another example, which I'll edit to avoid spoilers: on page 216, it says, "This was someone she’d known her whole life, who had taught her to read...who’d fed her and bathed her and put cool cloths on her head when she was sick, who sang her a lullaby each night." Then, on page 235, it says, "How could (the same character)..who had taught her to read and sew and bake cookies and name every part of the body..." There are more examples of this. And so, I think the book could've been improved with some more thorough editing. But the last third of the book made it all worth it. Truly incredible. Highly recommend.

I read this book as a buddy read. It was exactly as the blurb says. It has a great atmosphere and did not disappoint. Dual perspective/ time is something I love about this novel - one that was slow burn and one a fast paced suspense. This book will keep you on your toes and up all night!

Truth be told, I hesitated to pick this one up, as I've left the world of monsters way behind. Frankenstein and Dracula were still ok in my early twenties, but then I started to resent everything where the monsters we real, in favor of the stranger things that find their origins in the human brain.So a very big thank you to all the reviewers who gave it a raving 5 stars, which convinced me to dive in.I loved the main character Violet so much, although she probably acts and speaks more like an adult than a 13 year old, but that is really the only fault I can find. Her character is well drawn out, as is Iris and Gram. I also liked the dual timeline and the simultaneous reveal of what happened then and how it influences the present.The big twist is hinted at in several ways through the book and I would have been disappointed if it hadn't turned out the way it had. For me: a perfect read and all the other books of this author go to my TBR for sure.

Very reliable service. Would recommend it to anyone.

Despite the fact that there was a bit less supernatural and fantasy than in other novels from the same author, I still enjoyed this read.I did sort of wish for a bit more detail though. I felt the story lacked elements which didn't let me totally get into the characters lives.

This is the perfect book for Spooky Season. It was dark, creepy and intense and I read it in 2 sittings over the weekend. I am so glad I ordered a hardback copy from the US, as it is not available in Australia yet.The back and forth timelines really increased the tension, having to wait a few more chapters to find out what happened next in that thread of the story. We hear the story of the children in 1978 and in 2019 from Lizzy, a podcaster who chases monsters for her show Monsters Amongst UsThe ending was clever and really surprised me. It took a while for me to get my head around what was happening to begin with but after that I was hooked. The setting of Vermont sounded beautiful and at times terrifying.High recommend. Now to read The Drowning Kind.