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    The Visitors: Gripping thriller, you won’t see the end coming
    The Visitors: Gripping thriller, you won’t see the end coming
    The Visitors: Gripping thriller, you won’t see the end coming
    Ebook308 pages6 hours

    The Visitors: Gripping thriller, you won’t see the end coming

    By Catherine Burns

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    Perfect for fans of Paula Hawkins and Ruth Ware.

    Can you escape the darkness within?

    Marion Zetland lives with her domineering older brother, John in a decaying Georgian townhouse on the edge of a northern seaside resort. A timid spinster in her fifties who still sleeps with teddy bears, Marion does her best to shut out the shocking secret that John keeps in the cellar.

    Until, suddenly, John has a heart attack and Marion is forced to go down to the cellar herself and face the gruesome truth that her brother has kept hidden.

    As questions are asked and secrets unravel, maybe John isn't the only one with a dark side.

    REVIEWS

    'Once you start Catherine Burns’s dark, disturbing, and enthralling debut novel, it’s hard to stop. The Visitors is bizarrely unsettling, yet compulsively readable' Iain Reid

    'Burns blurs the line between crime fiction and horror... Deliberate pacing, a claustrophobic setting, and vivid, wildly unsympathetic characters complement the twisted plot and grim conclusion' Publishers Weekly

    'An insightful study of loneliness and evil' Daily Mail

    'Must read' New York Post

    'Atmospheric, eerie and affecting. Catherine Burns has created a complex and chilling world in which nothing is as it seems. A very clever confident novel, beautifully plotted with multiple twists and turns. I couldn't stop reading it' Suellen Dainty

    'Burns combines a study of a middle-aged woman, a tale of a highly dysfunctional family and slow burn of a mystery, creating a compelling read that's at once highly entertaining and wholly disturbing ... A dark and thrilling debut novel: disturbing, gripping, and hugely impressive' The Bookbag

    'Burns combines a study of a middle-aged woman, a tale of a highly dysfunctional family and slow burn of a mystery, creating a compelling read that's at once highly entertaining and wholly disturbing ... A dark and thrilling debut novel: disturbing, gripping, and hugely impressive' TM Logan

    'Absolutely loved it. I would advise any nail biters to sit on their hands while reading this book because they will chew right down to the knuckle. By far the creepiest novel I have read in a long time ... a highly original and intriguing mystery so compelling that I abandoned my own work to finish it' Liz Nugent

    'Compelling and wonderfully dark, choked with suspense and yet leisurely in the telling. I enjoyed it immensely' Emma Curtis

    'A dark exploration of evil in its many forms, this is an uncomfortable and disturbing yet utterly compelling read' SJI Halliday

    'A dark, compelling story with a few twists and turns that will keep the reader glued to the pages ... I found myself completely engrossed in Marion's disturbing world, which was well drawn by Catherine Burns. A very strong debut' Sarah Denzil

    'An insidious, creepy novel, with a slow burn that leads to a horrifying revelation' Literary Hub

    'Beautifully written… [a] dark, gritty and inviting tale that explores the darker side of human nature' Review Corner

    'A wonderfully dark and suspenseful read from a talented debut author' Damp Pebbles

    'The writing, the characters and the mood of this book were absolutely superbly done' BookBum

    'A deeply disturbing and unforgettable novel, dripping with evil and horror… furiously gripping, addictive and absolutely impossible to put down' The Book Babe

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLegend Press
    Release dateOct 3, 2017
    ISBN9781785079160
    The Visitors: Gripping thriller, you won’t see the end coming
    Author

    Catherine Burns

    Born in Manchester, Catherine Burns is a graduate of Trinity College Cambridge. She worked as a bond trader in London before studying at the Moscow Institute of Film, and teaching film theory at Salford University. 'The Visitors' is her debut novel.

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    Reviews for The Visitors

    3/5

    93 ratings25 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Not so gripping or thrilling. The most horrifying thing about the book is how pathetic Marion is after of life of being told she is ugly and stupid.
    • 3/5
      Oh this was so creepy and upsetting, and full of completely unredeemable characters. Sometimes a book is about bad people but twisted so, in a way, you root for them, but this one was really akin to lifting something in a garden and seeing dozens of squirming maggots. I think it was a success in what it was trying to do, but I did not enjoy the experience.
    • 3/5
      Have you ever read a book in which there were no redeeming characters? This would be one for me. During the reading of this book I vacillated between a desire to drop this book like a hot potato and an interest to see what would happen after a turn of the page. I rated it three stars but I could I have rated it at times any where between two and four stars.Our protagonist and narrator is Marion Zetfield, a spinster who lives with her domineering brother, John. Much of the beginning of this book is a character study on how this overweight, intellectually-challenged, plain Jane and years of being subjected to verbal and emotionally abuse from her parents, brother, and school peers created a non-assertive woman with such poor self esteem is easily manipulated by her brother. She adores her brother excusing the abuse she receives as her fault, which reminds me of personality of many abused wives continuing to remain with their abusing husbands. When John begins having visitors stay in their basement, she avoids confronting reality even when she hears cries for help from below.Although Marion does grow as an adult in the end of the book, her growth isn't enough for me to recommend this disturbing book. I would really need to check the reviews before I consider reading another book by this author.
    • 3/5
      50-something Marion Zetland lives with her older brother, John, in a cluttered, crumbling manor house in a down-at-the-heels northern English resort town. John and Marion inherited the house and a comfortable income from their parents. As a young man John pursued a teaching career, which ended abruptly in scandal, and he has lived at home ever since. Marion, who pursued neither education nor career, has been a doormat all her life: bullied as a child by her brother and her schoolmates, relentlessly mocked and belittled by her emotionally withholding mother, she has grown into an indecisive, timid, fearful and agonizingly unassertive middle-age woman lacking any sense of self-esteem or self-worth. Overweight and ashamed of her appearance, she spends her days in aimless lethargy, watching television and daydreaming. It is true that Marion cares for her brother, cooking his meals and performing household chores, but one thing she knows for certain is that she must never go into the basement. The basement is John’s domain, and what he does down there with “the visitors” Marion doesn’t want to know. In fact, if she has nurtured any kind of talent at all over the years, it is an aptitude for remaining wilfully oblivious to things that are too painful or odious to acknowledge. John’s shameful secret drives the action, and through the early chapters Burns uses flashbacks to fill gaps and hint at what is really going on. Eventually a crisis forces Marion out of her lethargy and gives her no choice but to face a secret she has spent her entire adult life trying to ignore. Catherine Burns’ first novel generates enormous tension and suspense. It is also truly creepy and disturbingly plausible. Admittedly, we never grow to like Marion. In many ways she is as loathsome as her brother: a reluctant partner in reprehensible acts whose inaction is criminal and repugnant. But we do cheer her on, as she climbs out of her shell and turns the tables on a world that has treated her like shit her whole life and to which she owes absolutely nothing. In the end, Marion’s survival comes across as a moral victory, the only one this bracingly cynical and hugely entertaining novel is prepared to offer its reader.
    • 3/5
      The Visitors by Catherine Burns is a rather dark character study featuring a middle aged woman who lives in the family home with her brother who harbors a chilling secret.

      Marion Zetland is in her mid fifties and she has never moved out of her family home. Now residing with her brother, John, she escapes her somewhat dreary existence with her elaborate daydreams about people she meets, watching TV and binge eating. Marion also lives in fear of disappointing John who has a quick temper and a dark secret. After John falls ill, Marion has no choice but to face what her brother has been doing all these years in their cellar.

      Life in the Zetland household has always been dysfunctional. The youngest of the siblings, Marion was never anywhere close to being John's intellectual equal and she struggled to pass any of her classes. Plagued with social awkwardness, she endured painful bullying from her classmates but Marion could always count on John to make her feel better about herself. Their parents had extremely high expectations for John's future, but Marion always fell short of the mark and as a result, she does not feel worthy of anyone's love or respect. Her loyalty to John is absolute and she will do anything to make him happy.  Even if that means turning a blind eye to his activities and never questioning what he is doing in their cellar.

      The pacing of the story is quite slow since the main focus is the minutiae of  Marion's day to day life.  These chapters are boring and repetitive since she does little beyond watching the TV while soothing herself by overeating.  She has a rich fantasy life in which she  lapses into elaborate daydreams about her imaginary relationships with people from her real life.  There are also long passages that flashback to her childhood and while these chapters offer insight into what shaped her into the woman she is today, they are overly detailed and excessively long.  Marion is occasionally worried about the strange noises emanating from the cellar but she easily pushes her concerns aside.

      The Visitors has an unusual premise but readers might be a little frustrated due to the lack of suspense surrounding John's cellar activities and a rambling storyline. It is not very difficult to deduce who the visitors are or what John is doing with them. Marion is initially a sympathetic character but it is easy to become impatient with her complacency. With a few not completely unexpected revelations, Catherine Burns brings the novel to a twist-filled conclusion.
    • 4/5
      I purchased this book from Amazon to read. All opinions are my own. ???? The Visitors by Catherine Burns. What a creepy read! The story kind of bounces from past to present and it became frustrating to keep up with Marion's imagination and her reality, but eventually they blend so it doesn't really matter. Marion spends her entire life living in the same house she was born in unable to understand simple things and lead a very sheltered life. After the loss of her mother and years later her brother falling ill she is shocked into dealing with real life issues and most importantly what happened in her cellar. Shocking changes are coming in Marion's future and quickly. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Go Read, Goodreads/StacieBoren, Amazon, Twitter @jason_stacie and my blog at readsbystacie.com
    • 2/5
      *I won a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*The description of this book gave me high hopes for a creepy thriller. Unfortunately for me, this book didn’t live up to that. It wasn’t until about 3/4 of the way through the book that the author starts delving into the “visitors” and why they were there. The relationship between Amarion and her brother John is odd, and the reader is able to decipher what is going to happen. However, there were too many minute details about Marion and her experiences that took away from the story.
    • 3/5
      Marion is a sixty-something woman who isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. She lives with her older brother John in their childhood home. John spends much of his time down in the basement. Marion doesn't like to think about what's going on down in the basement, and mostly ignores the occasional muffled screams and moans emanating therefrom.This is a creepy novel, and it felt entirely plausible. It reminded me of a tale by Shirley Jackson or Patricia Highsmith, with sociopathic characters hanging onto the fringes of normalcy, with the deep foreboding of an undercurrent of evil beneath the mundane details of the everyday.Recommended.3 stars
    • 3/5
      *I received this book through a Goodreads Giveaway.*This book is told from the perspective of Marion Zetland, a fifty-ish woman who's never held a job, lives with her controlling (and creepy) brother, and still sleeps with teddy bears. While I have some degree of empathy for Marion (partly because of how she's treated by her mother and brother), I quickly realized that Marion is one of the type of people who I avoid in real life. Not because they're weird, but because they are a bit slow and oblivious to nuance and complications. Marion knows her brother has "visitors" in the cellar who she never sees, but she does hear crying for help on occasion. The pieces of the puzzle are very clear for the reader, yet Marion can't seem to put together the full horror of what her brother has done and when pushed to recognize it, Marion attempts half-steps that are worse than her willful ignorance. Overall, this isn't a bad read if you like suspense, but I was a little deflected by the ending.
    • 2/5
      This book had a lot of things I usually love going for it. Creepy siblings - check. Kidnapped girls - check. Disturbed family - check. Eerie setting - check. But ultimately I did not care about anyone in this book. And the idea that Marion did not understand what was going on or would be able to suppress recognition of what was happening right under her nose is ridiculous even with limited intelligence. And for her to just throw off her entire personality that we've put up with for 4/5 of the book for that ending? Just, no. Sorry - we readers were just asked to suspend belief in too many things, in my opinion.

      (A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.)
    • 4/5
      Based on the jacket copy, I thought this was going to be a “there’s something in the basement”-type horror story. But, The Visitors is not a ghost story. It isn't a thriller.  It’s a twisted descent into the madness of a sociopath. 

      Mary is in her 50s, living with her older, sexually deviant brother John, in a filthy, ramshackle house full of garbage. They don’t have any financial worries, so Mary and John are free from responsibility and can pursue their hobbies. John's hobbies include pornography and model airplanes (among other things that I won't mention), and Mary's involve indulging in daydreams where she’s married to a male acquaintance she met 30 years ago, watching sentimental Lifetime movies while gobbling junk food, or petting her stuffed animal collection. It's depraved, but not exactly evil. Lurking just beneath the surface, however, there are more nefarious goings-on.

      Mary is intellectually disadvantaged. She's uneducated, unskilled, and she is also overweight and unsightly. She’s never been loved or encouraged to do anything with her life, so she hasn’t. She's believed everyone who has ever told her she's worthless. She’s wasted away in her childhood home never doing anything at all. When she allows herself some time for self-reflection, she's aware of her lack of ambition and fulfillment, but soon reverts to daydreams about men who never actually even learned her name. This denial of reality has some evil consequences when Mary has to deal with her brother. 

      This book is a glimpse into Mary’s head, into her psyche of aching for love and attention, and also her lurid desires for revenge on those who have slighted her or rejected her. There are flashes of epiphany when Mary understands she has done wrong, knows that her clothes are disgusting and her house is squalid. These insights are fleeting, but they allow some sympathy to flow in between the cracks of the abhorrence one feels for her. 

      The Visitors reminded me of Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh. Repulsive, sinister, and yet, you can't look away. Recommended.

      Many thanks to Netgalley and Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review. 

    • 2/5
      There wan't really any suspense here and Marion's character didn't so much evolve as make an abrupt about-face. The idea had potential and there was some really nice prose and I think Burns may have a great suspense novel in her future. But, here and now, this just isn't it.
    • 2/5
      Boring - just drug on and on. Finally quit reading half way through.
    • 4/5
      I totally agree with the blurb for this book that says "bizarrely unsettling". It was definitely that. The main character and voice of this book is Marion Zetland around 60 years of age. She lives in a house that has been in her family for generations. She lives in this huge house with her brother, John. They of the appearance of Grey Gardens in the movie with the same name. That's what this house looks like. Trash everywhere. Piles of just stuff, throughout the house. This was a very strange read with VERY strange characters. I really enjoyed reading this which is bizarrely unsettling. However, Marion was a character that blew my mind and I had to just keep reading.Thanks to Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
    • 3/5
      The Visitors by Catherine Burns is a tense novel in the style of Barbara Vine and Minette Walters. It builds slowly, so that the first half is spent describing Marion, a socially phobic middle-aged woman who is nearly house-bound, living in her childhood home with her brother, watching treacly movies and the house decay around her. The novel looks at her grim childhood and takes its time with the story, slowly piling on hints that something is very, very wrong. it's not easy to build a buzz for a debut novel as slow-building as this one, and so the publisher went with the strategy of revealing the bad thing on the back cover summary. While it didn't ruin the book, I think it would have been much more fun to have gradually figured out what was going on, rather than going into it looking for the clues. And while the central storyline is fantastic and creepy and terrible, this is a debut novel, with issues with pacing and character development. Still, Burns is an author to keep an eye on and I don't think anyone will disagree that the literary world is always in need of more literary suspense novels that really deliver in unexpected ways.
    • 2/5
      The Visitors is not what you may be expecting: a heart-thumping, fast-paced thriller. It isn't really a thriller at all. In fact, it's hard to grasp what, if anything, it is offering. The outcome is a slightly creepy novel with a thin storyline and unlikeable characters.
    • 3/5
      A dysfunctional family, though using that word here may be a disservice to dysfunctional families. Parents, one extremely passive, father, a lecher and maybe more, Marion, sister, backwards, not much expected of nor by her and John, cruel and I think quite insane. Parents dead, now a grown brother and sister live alone, well except for whoever or whatever is in the basement. It is hard to separate how I felt about the novel, or rather how this novel made me feel, with the quality of the novel. Discomfort in the main, and for lack of a better literary description, this book made me feel icky and grungy. Like the movies, What ever happened to Baby Jane or the Bad Seed, where you want to look away or can't quite believe what you are seeing, but find yourself looking or reading anyway.The descriptions, the filth and clutter in the house actually sent me scurrying to see of I had any green mold or black fuzzy things in my refrigerator. I didn't, but cleaned it and my freezer anyway. Very slow, a detailed rendering of both characters as well as events in their past and what was happening now in the present. Clues are scattered here and there so by the time what was in the basement is revealed, most readers already have a pretty good idea. There were still a few revelatory surprises disclosed. So if the authors motive was to cause these kinds of feelings, then she succeeded, so I rated it a three. I wasn't quite satisfied with the denoument, thought she could have done more, gone a different way after the big build up, and she did leave a few threads hanging, unanswered questions that I had. ARC from Netgalley.
    • 4/5
      Fifty-ish Marion Zetland lives in a formerly fine house, now falling apart and filthy. Brought up by parents who considered her below contempt, her childhood was friendless and she was bullied both because of her weight and her slowness at learning things. Her brother was the shining light of the family, and she has spent her life deferring to him and being his servant. To say she’s mentally unhealthy would be putting it mildly. Brother John is no better; he never lived up to his childhood promise and spends most of his time in the basement, which is forbidden to Marion. Marion has no hobbies or real interests; she soothes herself by eating, watching TV, and sleeping with her many stuffed animals. No one speaks to her (except on the rare occasion when someone wants something from her); it’s like she has been erased- or never existed at all. Meanwhile she knows something is going on in the basement- there is extra laundry for her to do, and she makes (horrible) meals for extra people. And there are a few trips to ferry landing or bus station.. Then one day her brother has a heart attack, and is taken to the hospital. Now she must face what’s in the basement. How Marion deals with her new freedom from John and her responsibility to the Visitors is both heartening and shocking. In the end I loathed Marion as much as I did John, although I wondered how much responsibility could be laid at her door versus her parent’s. The writing is very atmospheric. I could feel the claustrophobia in the falling down house, and the claustrophobic state of Marion’s own mind, always trying to efface herself and make people like her- or at least not denigrate her. It’s a very creepy book, although not what I thought it would be when I requested it. I expected supernatural horror; this was far more horrifying.
    • 4/5
      A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.I have been reading a lot of thriller/mystery books lately, and while this is not a fast-paced, page-turning type of thriller, it is still true to the genre—it is more in the gothic and psychological vein. Burns writes a character-driven novel about a brother and sister with an almost Hitchcock feel to it.Marion Zetland is a fifty-something spinster shut in who lives with her controlling older brother, John. The siblings still live in their family home, a Georgian townhouse is a seaside town. Despite having money, the house is literally decaying and is filled with garbage, dust, and secrets. Told from Marion's perspective, Burns' character study is no less than fascinating. Marion is child-like, but not innocent. She has been beaten down her whole life, first by her overbearing mother and now by her domineering brother. Denial is her coping mechanism—when at all possible, she either daydreams or simply turns a blind eye. Her only friends seem to be her collection of stuffed toys. She uses these as an escape, especially to what John has locked in the cellar. After John's has a heart attack, Marion is forced to forced to go down to the basement to face what her brother has kept locked up. She also has to navigate the outside modern world and other responsibilities that John has normally handled. Things start to unravel and there is a glimpse that John isn't the only one with a dark side.If you like books that cross the line into the macabre, then this book is for you. Like the house, it is grimy and gritty and utterly disturbing.
    • 5/5
      The Visitors is Catherine Burns' debut novel. I was intrigued by the cover. Something so simple - peeling wallpaper - and yet it somehow promised a darker read.Who knows what lies behind the face presented to the world? What goes through someone's mind? What happens behind closed doors?Fifty something spinster Marion lives with her older brother John in the house they grew up in. Nothing much in the house has changed since their parents died decades ago. Well, a few things.......there are visitors of John's in the cellar. Marion never goes to the cellar. In fact, she chooses to try and never acknowledge that there are 'visitors' in the basement. Instead, she finds solace in her stuffed animals and imagining friendships, relationships and situations that are a far cry from the life she is living. Marion is somewhat simple people say. Not so her brother John - he's intelligent - and manipulative.Burns is just as manipulative with the reader. My thinking was one way as I started the novel, drawn into the story, but hesitant to turn the next page. It's impossible not to though - I wanted to see what path Burns would lead me down. Her descriptions of the siblings, their personalities and their actions produce a myriad of reactions in the reader - from sadness, to sympathy, to disgust, to apprehension and more.And it seems like life will continue along this path for Marion....until the day John falls ill and lands in the hospital. And it falls to Marion to see to the visitors. And what happens next is not at all what I expected.....Oh my, what a dark, disturbing novel! The premise has it's roots in reality, having taken inspiration from many newpaper reports. What Burns has done is imagine the mindset of someone who knows what is happening, but doesn't act. And what could have led to this inability to act.The flashbacks to Marion and John's childhood days are saddening, disturbing and a testament as to how childhood trauma can shape a person's future. The Visitors does not focus on lurid, descriptive details of what is happening in the basement. Instead it is a character study of John and Marion, their dysfunctional relationship and what shaped them. It is through Marion's eyes and memories that we see this.I loved The Visitors - it was a very different read - unexpected, unpredictable and so addicting. I can't wait to see Catherine Burns' second novel!
    • 4/5
      Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for providing me with an e-galley of The Visitors by Catherine Burns in exchange for an honest review. The tension in this novel is evident from the first page. Marian and John Zetland are siblings of a certain age living together in their dilapidated family home. Marian is passive and somewhat fearful of her older brother. The suspense builds as John spends more and more time in the basement, from which strange sounds are emitted. The story becomescreepier from one page to the next. It is a difficult story to read, but read it you must. You may cringe but you will not stop reading. A fantastic psychological mystery and a great read.
    • 4/5
      This is a very nicely written thriller about a seemingly mundane brother and sister. I don't want to give away any spoilers because I know how that can ruin a good read, but I will say that while some books classify this as horror I would place it under psychological thriller. The book is written from the sister's perspective and follows her journey from denial into realization of her family's actions, then back into denial as she justifies her own actions. This is a very well done story that emphasizes how the sins of others are far more horrifying than our own because our minds find a way to provide good reasons for our own actions. If you've ever wondered how people who commit horrifying crimes can live with themselves, this book shows how one family did so.Note: I was given a free ARC of this title in exchange for on honest review.
    • 2/5
      Now and then I find myself in this uncomfortable position of disliking a book that's receiving a lot of early hype and glowing reviews. So here I am, being the voice of dissension. I'll do my best to explain why without giving spoilers.I love dark psychological suspense, which, by the description, is what I expected from this book. It is dark, but it's more a study of Marion's character than a suspenseful novel. The pace during the first three-quarters of this book is exceedingly slow and not particularly suspenseful. From the start we - and Marion - have a good idea of what's going on in the cellar. The suspense is lost because we're given lots of information that Marion tries to pretend away. This story is more about Marion's past and her inability to function within society. Much of the first two-thirds of the book is Marion flashing back to her childhood and family life. These scenes are out of sequence and far too long and detailed. For instance, we spend half a chapter reliving a trip to a wax museum Even the information on the plaques on the displays is included. We also sit and watch TV with Marion, with the TV show playing out for us, dialogue and all. Through much of this, "the visitors" aren't much more than a minor distraction. The story doesn't pick up and become interesting until about the 2/3 mark, and Marion isn't "Forced to go down to the cellar..." (from the book's description) until late in the book. For me, the suspense and urgency came far too late. I wasn't surprised by the twist, and I didn't feel any of the turmoil and despair this type of story should have stirred up.*I was provided with an advance ebook copy by the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.*
    • 4/5
      Marion Zetland is a shy spinster who still lives in her childhood home. It's a crumbling, filthy old mansion set on the edge of a seaside resort. Her domineering older brother, John, still lives there as well. It's easier to live by her brother's rules and so she remains blissfully ignorant to the sounds she hears deep down in the cellar. But when John can no longer look after the women downstairs, Marion has no choice but to go down there and see the extent of John's secret life.

      I love the cover. I did enjoy this book and thought it was very well-written but it's not quite what I was expecting. I figured the book would be a little darker than it was, but instead it's more character driven. Sometimes we travel back in time to Marion's childhood, and we see that she was picked on, had no friends, and that her parents didn't pay a whole lot of attention to her and if they did they weren't supportive of her. We can kind of understand how Marion turned out the way she did - a shy, middle-aged woman who just craves some company. It was somewhat suspenseful but overall I'm a little disappointed because it just wasn't what I thought it would be.

      Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for a copy of this book.
    • 2/5
      This book gets compared to Emma Donoghue's Room in the blurb, which is unfair: aside from the subject matter, and the superficial choice of an unusual narrator, they don't have much in common. The Visitors is a book that uses your own sympathy as a weapon against you in a way that felt mean; it left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

    Book preview

    The Visitors - Catherine Burns

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