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A review by chrissie_whitley
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
5.0
I'm so glad I took the time to reread this one...this is one book by Morton that I had read before I joined Goodreads and before I started writing reviews. I remembered only the vaguest notion of the plot. The narrator was a young lady's maid for a wealthier young woman, becoming her confidante of sorts...and that it was tragic. That's basically it, and yet, Morton has constructed so much more here. This was right on par with her other exquisite book, [b:The Distant Hours|6746018|The Distant Hours|Kate Morton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1358273860l/6746018._SY75_.jpg|41374289], both of which I have given five stars.
The utter tragedy of the ending, with an abruptness so final, is brilliant—allowing the weeping moments for the reader to occur as the book's back cover closes. The careful sequencing and timing in which Morton delivers the tale of Hannah, Emmeline, and Grace (the two sisters and the lady's maid, respectively), is really cinematic and masterful. The key pieces of Morton's stories that become a little heavier in her later books—the secrets discovered, the familial connections revealed, the beginnings of a few characters continuing towards happiness—are delivered quietly and gently in The House at Riverton.
In true Morton style, her characters, and the house that becomes a character, are what holds the threads of the book together. She writes such brilliant life into each of them—vivid and fully-formed, there is no effort in knowing they have a life in moments not featured on the page. And what adds to an intricately woven story here is the tie to the present time is also the tie to the past—Grace.
It's funny to see the recommendation of "for fans of Downton Abbey," not because it's untrue—it's very much like the atmosphere in the Downton Abbeyseries—but because this came first. It's a more focused and haunting story—no shiny ending wrapped in a pretty bow here. It also reminded me of [b:Fall of Giants|7315573|Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy, #1)|Ken Follett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1470384630l/7315573._SY75_.jpg|8842841], published in 2010. But it also has whispers of books that did come before it. [b:Atonement|6867|Atonement|Ian McEwan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320449708l/6867._SY75_.jpg|2307233]. [b:Howards End|3102|Howards End|E.M. Forster|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385160500l/3102._SY75_.jpg|1902726]. [b:A Room with a View|3087|A Room with a View|E.M. Forster|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388781285l/3087._SY75_.jpg|4574872]. [b:The Remains of the Day|28921|The Remains of the Day|Kazuo Ishiguro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327128714l/28921._SY75_.jpg|3333111]. It's all of them and it's none of them exactly. But that makes it familiar and knowable. Ghosts of other stories, other lives, hiding in the spaces between—that goes a long way to give it some grounding in the weight of the past. The House at Riverton held the possibility that it could have happened.
The utter tragedy of the ending, with an abruptness so final, is brilliant—allowing the weeping moments for the reader to occur as the book's back cover closes. The careful sequencing and timing in which Morton delivers the tale of Hannah, Emmeline, and Grace (the two sisters and the lady's maid, respectively), is really cinematic and masterful. The key pieces of Morton's stories that become a little heavier in her later books—the secrets discovered, the familial connections revealed, the beginnings of a few characters continuing towards happiness—are delivered quietly and gently in The House at Riverton.
In true Morton style, her characters, and the house that becomes a character, are what holds the threads of the book together. She writes such brilliant life into each of them—vivid and fully-formed, there is no effort in knowing they have a life in moments not featured on the page. And what adds to an intricately woven story here is the tie to the present time is also the tie to the past—Grace.
It's funny to see the recommendation of "for fans of Downton Abbey," not because it's untrue—it's very much like the atmosphere in the Downton Abbeyseries—but because this came first. It's a more focused and haunting story—no shiny ending wrapped in a pretty bow here. It also reminded me of [b:Fall of Giants|7315573|Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy, #1)|Ken Follett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1470384630l/7315573._SY75_.jpg|8842841], published in 2010. But it also has whispers of books that did come before it. [b:Atonement|6867|Atonement|Ian McEwan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320449708l/6867._SY75_.jpg|2307233]. [b:Howards End|3102|Howards End|E.M. Forster|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385160500l/3102._SY75_.jpg|1902726]. [b:A Room with a View|3087|A Room with a View|E.M. Forster|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388781285l/3087._SY75_.jpg|4574872]. [b:The Remains of the Day|28921|The Remains of the Day|Kazuo Ishiguro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327128714l/28921._SY75_.jpg|3333111]. It's all of them and it's none of them exactly. But that makes it familiar and knowable. Ghosts of other stories, other lives, hiding in the spaces between—that goes a long way to give it some grounding in the weight of the past. The House at Riverton held the possibility that it could have happened.