Reviewer: Kate
I received a copy of The Barter by Siobhan Adcock in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis:
The Barter is a ghost story and a love story, a riveting emotional tale that also explores motherhood and work and feminism. Set in Texas, in present day, and at the turn of the twentieth century, the novel follows two young mothers at the turning point of their lives.
Bridget has given up her career as an attorney to raise her daughter, joining a cadre of stay-at-home mothers seeking fulfillment in a quiet suburb. But for Bridget, some crucial part of the exchange is absent: Something she loves and needs. And now a terrifying presence has entered her home; only nobody but Bridget can feel it.
On a farm in 1902, a young city bride takes a farmer husband. The marriage bed will become both crucible and anvil as Rebecca first allows, then negates, the powerful erotic connection between them. She turns her back on John to give all her love to their child. Much will occur in this cold house, none of it good.
As Siobhan Adcock crosscuts these stories with mounting tension, each woman arrives at a terrible ordeal of her own making, tinged with love and fear and dread. What will they sacrifice to save their families—and themselves? Readers will slow down to enjoy the gorgeous language, then speed up to see what happens next in a plot that thrums with the weight of decision—and its explosive consequences.
Review:
I love a good ghost story. Paranormal fiction often allows us to explore our greatest fears—death, the unknown, darkness, fear (yes, fear, because often we are simply afraid of being afraid). But Adcock misses the mark with The Barter. An overwrought but non-so-scary ghost, a contrived interwoven plot, less than endearing characters, and only suggestions of important themes left this book flat for me. The publisher has a brilliant write up (see above) about the riveting emotion and explosiveness of the narrative, but this reader just never quite found it. While Adcock has moments of brilliant veracity (some of the quips about the truth of motherhood and marriage are laugh-out-loud funny), there is a synergy between the stories that’s lacking for me. And the promised terrifying ghost is little more than a timid “boo” from a woman under a sheet. The revelation is unenlightened and the ending both truncated and trite. I wanted to like this one, but I’d say pass on it.
Rating: 2 Stars
