I loved how haunting this was on every level, but it wasn’t scary. It was my fav style of slow burn with gradually escalating eeriness. 

Energy: Unsettled. Evasive. Resentful.  

Scene: 🇮🇹 🇺🇸 Set in Tuscany, Italy, at Villa Taccola and later in Manhattan, NY

Perspective: We follow an artist working in advertising spending their vacation with their parents, brother & his new boyfriend, sister & brother-in-law, and two nieces at a Villa in Italy that their parents rented. When our main character returns home, we see the impact of the vacation on their life. 

🐩 Tail Wags: How we were shown the full range of family dynamics. Our uncertainty about Ana and the dangers. Caputring the ‘stranded in a foreign place’ unease as things escalate. The ending. 

 

In the first 60% it felt like a literary fiction where we get to know the family and characters. Around 60% it was more suspenseful with a bit of cozy horror (but not entirely cozy horror either). I love both those genres, so it was a fun read for me. 

 

I loved the ending and I didn’t mind what was left to reader interpretation, but I wish I could ask the author what they think happened around some of the plot points.

 

The family felt so real. It wasn’t over-the-top personality disorders; it was more like the clashes and misunderstandings every family has maybe just dialled in a bit differently. Everyone seemed so average until they weren’t anymore. That said, omg, Nicole was SO annoying complaining about her husband and kids, but it really worked for the story. 

 

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🎬 Tale-Telling: Direct, haunting, and a little poetic. 

🤓 Reader Role: Little ghost sitting on Ana’s shoulder, watching everything unfold and getting glimpses into her thoughts and motivations.

🗺️ World-Building: Immersive, cinematic, especially in Italy but even in NYC. I want to watch this as the movie on screen that it made in my mind.

🔥 Fuel: Is the family’s concern for Ana justified? What has happened in her past? Or are they being too hard on her? Is she being too hard on them? Who or what is in the villa? And how far does its power go?

📖 Cred: Paranormal realism with some suspended disbelief unhinged moments. 

🚙 Journey: Watching a movie on a long plane ride.

 

Content Heads-Up: Suicide (graphic, on page). Abortion (off page). Cat death (brief). Alcohol use. Blood, injuries, bruising. Death. Financial insecurity. Narcissism. 

Rep: Gay. Bisexual. Heterosexual. Cisgender. White and ambiguous Americans, peripheral Italian characters.

 

📚 Format: Library Audio