Review by Booklist Review
Murphy's richly imagined and vividly rendered third novel, after Girl One (2021), finds a group of former high-school friends drawn back to their hometown of Eternal Springs in the Arkansas Ozarks after the only one of them to stay behind vanishes. As teenagers, Jadelynn (who goes by Jay), Brandi, Iggy, Charlie, Hilma, and Max were brought together during their senior year in a quest to find a set of magical houses constructed in the early twentieth century by a mysterious female architect named Theodora Trader. Fifteen years later, Brandi compels the other five to return to Eternal Springs to fulfill a vow they made in the Oath House. Now a struggling artist who still finds herself depicting Theodora's incredible houses in her work, Jay is deeply conflicted about returning, grappling with her guilt over her severed friendship with Brandi and her lingering feelings for Iggy. Readers will lose themselves in the otherworldly houses Murphy has created, from a mirror house that can both conceal and damage to a house that offers duplications of varying and unpredictable quality to the final house, which promises transport to other worlds. Magical, moving, and gripping, this is a special book indeed.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The latest standalone thriller from Murphy (Girl One) gets its hooks into readers from the opening chapter and doesn't let go. In 2015, 30-something Brandi Addams is preparing to leave her hometown of Eternal Springs, Ark., for a fresh start. On the way out of town, she stops at an abandoned house, where she finds a mysterious antique key she's been seeking, and then promptly disappears. Two weeks later, with Brandi's whereabouts still unknown, the townspeople hold a candlelight vigil in hopes of bringing her home, an event that coincides with the arrival in Eternal Springs of several of Brandi's old friends, who have each received identical, two-word letters from Brandi, stating simply, "You promised." Their reunion turns into an amateur investigation as they seek the truth about Brandi's fate, which may be related to an incident that occurred in 1999, when the group was in high school together. Through alternating timelines, the group's dark past comes into focus and sheds light on their present, rarely in ways most readers would expect. Murphy delays answers effectively, and makes the reveal about why the friends felt bound to respond to Brandi's message worth the wait. With echoes of I Know What You Did Last Summer, this gives a familiar trope new life. Agent: Alice Whitwham, Cheney Agency. (July)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Across two timelines, a band of friends explores the secrets of an Arkansas hot springs town. In a town in the Ozarks, there are eight magic houses, each with its own abilities. One house forces visitors to tell the truth, another can slow down time for those inside it, and a third grants powerful luck. The friends spend their senior year of high school hunting for the houses; the eighth and most mysterious they call the Portal House, and they believe it can transport them to the alternate dimension that gives the houses their powers. But their quest ends in tragedy, and most of the group leaves town, presumably for good. Fifteen years later, in 2015, they're drawn back when one of them--Brandi--disappears. While the rest of the friends found success elsewhere, Brandi stayed in Arkansas, cleaning houses and struggling with an addiction to prescription pills. The book focuses on Jay, a painter constricted by guilt over leaving Brandi, her one-time best friend, behind. There's also Iggy, a popular quarterback who was once Jay's lover; Charlie, bookish and wistful; and Max and Hilma, wealthy twins who are outsiders to the town. Finding Brandi is mandatory: The group is bound by an oath they took, given power by one of the houses. The influences of Stephen King, Donna Tartt, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are clear here. Aside from the fantastical houses, which are neither haunted nor quite benevolent, the world of the novel is conventional, and Jay is the only character with depth. At the end, the person who turns out to be the antagonist discusses their actions and motives and then asks: "Is this like at the end of some cheesy movie, where the villain just explains everything to you?" Jay isn't sure if it's just a joke, and neither is the reader. A thriller that doesn't elevate its fascinating core premise. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
