Book Review: "Homecoming" - A Family Secret Comes Back to Haunt

Homecoming by Kate Morton

Rating: 4.5/5

Genre(s): Historical Fiction, Mystery, Adult Fiction, Contemporary

Synopsis: Jess is a struggling freelance writer living in England, but when she gets the news her grandmother has fallen and is in the hospital, she rushes home to Australia to be by her side. It is here where she uncovers a dark family secret and a tragedy that has haunted her family for over 50 years. With a journalist’s spirit, Jess dives into the past, unraveling a mystery that she never expected to find in the first place.

Review: A hauntingly beautiful story about family, love, secrets, and a 60-year-old mystery that comes back to haunt a family of three generations. Gorgeous prose interwoven between past and present, each narrative revealing secrets that lead up to all of the plot twists and climactic reveals in the last 200 pages. Jess, Nora, and Polly are our modern-day main characters, and each one is uniquely carved out even though two of them aren’t the main perspective. Morton does an excellent job of balancing the past and the present and not revealing too much too soon, a strategy that she has nailed in every other novel I have read from her as well.

One thing that makes me nervous with books in general is when there is an abundance of characters. Especially in this novel, it can become overwhelming to keep track of all of the family members and side characters from the past as well as those who are introduced in the present. But Morton’s prose doesn’t betray her characters, and she is able to give even the smallest of side characters the ability to be a well-rounded and fleshed-out character. There are few characters in this longer novel who come across as flat.

The novel is a bit long, and the pacing can get slightly slow in places. But, overall, that didn’t detract from my reading experience. Morton’s prose and her creation of this family mystery kept me hooked from beginning to end.

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This Book Review was originally posted on Instagram on July 5, 2023.