WHISPERS OF APPLE BLOSSOMS

In Kent’s supernatural thriller, a young woman’s mother and grandmother suddenly disappear, and her investigation takes her to her widowed great aunt's house.

In the year 2000, Edna Mann is an 81-year-old woman who’s been living alone after the death of her husband, Henry Mann, the previous year. Her only companion is a mysteriously long-lived plant, which Henry gave to her when they were children. Henry’s ailing sister, Ruth, and her niece, Grace Gill, live in another house on the same plot of land; Grace thinks Edna should move on from Henry's death and into an assisted living facility. However, Edna refuses to go as long as she believes that her spouse’s spirit lingers, communicating with her through the plant—in part by blossoming in response to her questions. After Ruth and Grace go missing, Grace’s 32-year-old daughter, Noor, visits Edna, looking for answers. Despite Edna’s assertions that there’s nothing to worry about, Noor isn’t convinced; she looks in Edna’s dusty basement for clues and comes upon an old newspaper (headlined “Local Families Demand Answers: Teens Still Missing One Year Later”) and a trove of old letters that just might be the lead she’s looking for. Kent crafts a compelling, nonlinear tale of supernatural horror. Interspersed throughout the novel are scenes from Edna’s life, including her first meeting with Henry, when they were both kids, to their later engagement and marriage; chapters that focus on their daughter, Betty Lou, reveal a strange and tumultuous childhood. The novel’s exploration of generations of complicated mother-daughter relationships is well-done; Noor has a more positive rapport with her mother, but their dynamic provides a window into generational cycles of resentment and misunderstanding. Overall, this book is tense and heartwarming, by turns, as it switches between past domestic bliss and current, frightening reality.

A twisty and complex horror novel with a love story at its center.