Before reading The Cliffs, I listened to an NPR Book of the Day podcast episode where J. Courtney Sullivan was interviewed about the book. She talked about how an inspiration behind the story was how much the time a woman is born impacts her life, and in the end this is one of the central themes of the story. What drew me in was the setting, an abandoned, potentially haunted home on the ocean in Maine. However, the way several women's stories are woven together, all tied to this piece of land, is what really makes it a compelling story.

There is a secondary storyline of the main character's struggles in her marriage and with sobriety, and honestly I think these almost distracted from what was otherwise a great story. There is a point near the end where I assumed a large scale episode was about to happen, and instead it just cut away to two chapters of backstory.

Overall this was a great read, especially if you dream of Maine in the summer like I do.