The Visitor - Sara Sartagne

Author: Sara Sartagne

Genre: Historical Fiction, Paranormal, Dual Timeline

Rating: 3.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A highly interesting story that began slowly and steadily, gained excellent momentum but fell short at the end. If you are not like me and don’t ask too many ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ while reading, you will enjoy the book much better.

Story:

2019. Stacie Hayward is a trainee teacher who is the odd one out in a family of high academic achievers. She is also the odd one because she has the unusual ability of seeing ghosts. When a visiting American professor Nate is invited to stay at their house, Stacie’s ghosts disappear from her house. But at an external venue, she is visited by the ghost of a young girl who cautions her about being careful. What danger lies in Stacie’s future?

1619. Sarah Bartlett, a young healer is a small English village, is left all alone after the death of her parents and siblings. She does her best to heal the villagers with her home-brewed concoctions and local herbs. However, rather than being appreciated for her talent, she is suspected of witchcraft. The only person who might be able to save her is the new parson of the village, Parson Dillington. Will Sarah be able to escape her dire fate?

The story is written in the 1st person perspective of Stacie and the 3rd person perspective of Sarah.

I confess, I had to read the first chapter thrice to make sense of what was going on. I had forgotten the synopsis of the book, so when Stacie casually mentioned a Victorian lady, a ginger cat, and a young curly-haired child within a few paragraphs of each other and with no context, I felt lost. I came back to Goodreads and read the summary. Only then did I understand that she was referring to the ghosts she could see. So hurdle number 1: a bit of background at the start about the nature of the “people” would have helped.

Once I got my head around the ghostly entities, the story blossomed nicely. It moved ahead at a steady pace, and kept the proceedings interesting enough. As it inched towards the midway mark, I was captivated by the ongoings and couldn’t keep the book aside. Upto this point, the book was a solid 4.5 star read for me.

And then I reached the 65% mark from where the book not just slipped but skidded. 😒

This point onwards, the momentum was there but the storyline went beyond every logical possibility. I don’t want to reveal any spoilers, but there were too many coincidences, and the big reveal of the supposed danger to Stacie was so convoluted that I had to pause and recalculate why exactly Stacie was in that situation. Even once I got the connection sorted out, I couldn’t help feel that this was a mountain made out of a molehill. Furthermore, there were many questions left unanswered. For instance, (without any spoilers), we never know who that Victorian lady or that little boy was. We never know why Stacie alone has the uncanny ability of seeing ghosts. I had enjoyed the middle part thoroughly by deciding not to question things too much as I was sure everything would be clarified by the end. When there were hardly any explanations provided, I felt let down.

One more teeny confusing factor for me was that the names of the two main characters began from the same letter: Stacie and Sarah. I muddled myself up between the two of them multiple times, though they weren’t even in the same time period. 🙈

But the book is not a complete disaster. As I said, up to about 60%, it is outstanding. The storyline is very imaginative. The historical timeline is simply excellent, as the author has perfectly nailed her descriptions of a typical 17th century village and their religious superstitions. Their behaviour with “witches” is gruesome to read. The author has balanced the two timelines excellently, and neither of them overshadows the other. While the ‘who’ of the connection between the two is very clear, the link is still interesting to read. Additionally, Stacie’s hobbies – gardening and horse riding – are unusual for a typical contemporary heroine and both are very well-written.

I loved the character of Sarah, as she seemed very clear on her path in life and wasn’t a typical docile and subservient character. Her independence and her logical clarity won me over. Stacie, nah. I went to and fro in my feelings about her, mainly because she too went to and fro in her feelings. She didn’t know her own mind, and was pretty short-sighted in her thinking. She had a couple of redeeming points but not enough to change my opinion of her. Most of the secondary characters in the contemporary timeline were a bit flat, but Seb (Stacie’s potential love interest) and Stacie’s grandma made a mark.

Overall, I think I would have enjoyed more with at least some clarity provided on many aspects of the contemporary timeline. If you just go with the flow, you will certainly enjoy the book a lot as it has enough material to keep you hooked. But if you pause to question why or how, the book won’t help much and you will be left wanting more.

The last line of the Goodreads blurb describes this book as a “contemporary romance interwoven with historical suspense and adventure”. It does fairly well on the contemporary romance part, excellently on the historical aspect, and okayish on the suspense. I don’t know how to rate it on adventure – it didn’t fit my definition of adventure books. The ghosts add a certain spookiness to the proceedings, but the result isn’t scary. So it is certainly not a horror story, though it is partly paranormal.

3.25 stars from me. (4.5 stars for the first 60-65%. 2 stars for the rest.)

My thanks to author Sara Sartagne and BookSirens for the ARC of “The Visitor”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.