Review: The Children by Melissa Albert

The Children by Melissa Albert
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ALC and ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book.  This follows Guinevere aka Guin for short in the present as an adult as she releases her memior about growing up with a famous author for a mother and being the muse for one of the main characters in her mother's beloved books.  Guin paints a picture that everything was great and living off of her mother's estate she is the picture perfect face of her mother's beloved legacy.  She hasn't spoken to her brother Ennis since they were orphaned as children, and as he announces a secretive art show, her facade begins to crumble.  Guin's carfully crafted persona begins to crumble as people begin to ask questions about their childhood that are off limits and she desperately seeks out her brother ahead of his show.  

As Guin spirals in the present we are alternately taken back to the past where we find Guin and Ennis running barefoot through the forest playing make believe and fending for themselves most of the time.  Their mother is holed up in her writing room or throwing lavish parties, while their father is trying to make a comeback in acting or the arts.  Those who spend too long in their farmhouse experience strange dreams and recognize that there is something strange about the house.  As adult Guin faces these strange events in her childhood she realizes that they were the key to her mother's success as and author, and perhaps the key to her brother's eerie success as an artist.  

Overall I liked the concept of this book, but there were parts that dragged on for me where nothing happened.  The narration was very good, but every time I put this down, I found myself not wanting to pick it up again, but then something would happen to pull me back in.  The reveal at the end, while creative and interesting, I do feel could have been don't earlier and flushed out a bit more.  The author always does a great job building a great atmosphere in her books and did a great job building up to the reveal, letting the reader know that while the children were being neglected by their parents, something just wasn't right.   I wanted more time with the house and the gothic aspects of the past versus present Guin trying to find Ennis to figure out what he was going to reveal in his art.  Overall this was good, but didn't check all the boxes for me.

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