The Barter

Enjoyable read. Well-written and well-paced. I liked how the story alternated between the experiences of two main characters, one in a modern setting and one in a historical setting. The largely non-supernatural nature of one of the story lines provided the necessary tension release from the more suspenseful scenes. I also liked that while the two main characters clearly had certain important features in common, the author didn't make their stories too overtly mirrored or interconnected. (For some reason, I like the idea that you can be haunted by a ghost of someone who wasn't murdered in your house, and doesn't turn out, improbably, to be your great-great-aunt or something. Sometimes total straangers can just be consumed by the same fears, the end.) This story might resonate a little more with moms - which I am not - but the characters' anxieties and emotions still felt plausible. I'd say the supporting characters in the book weren't very deep and clearly functioned more as archetypes to further the book's central concern, but this doesn't seem out of line for a horror novel and didn't detract from the reading experience.