Book Review: Arrowood by Laura McHugh

Arrowood by Laura McHugh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story is told by Arden Arrowood, who was eight years old when her almost two year old twin sisters, Violet and Tabitha, disappeared. After a stressful time in graduate school, Arden has inherited the family home, Arrowood, in Keokuk, Iowa. After the disappearance of her sisters, the family eventually moved away, but it’s always been home to Arden. The house was left to her by her grandfather, but only passed to her upon her father’s death. Arden has a love of history and knows not only the history of her home, but of many of the homes in Keokuk. You wonder if her interest in history is partly because you can’t go back. History (the past) is where her sisters are -- they are not in the present.

Her relationship with her mother is odd at best -- she’s a shadowy woman, who from what little we see, is not particularly attached to her daughter. Which makes one wonder if she was attached to the twins. We don’t see a lot of the mother, but what we do see is that perhaps she puts on one personality for the world and another for Arden.

Since Arden was playing outside with the twins the day they disappeared and because she is six years older than they were, she has always felt responsible for their disappearance. Even though she was only eight at the time and had been sick.

A mystery investigator, Josh Kyle, reaches out to Arden, who agrees to talk with him. Their first talk makes her doubt her memory of what happened that day. She later learns that Josh’s brother disappeared and has yet to be found -- though in that case, he was a 17 year old who ran away. They both share a sense of loss shrouded in mystery. Rounding out the book are her childhood friends Ben and Lauren and their mother, Julia Ferris, and caretaker Mr. Heaney.

Arden narrates, but I never really connected with the characters. There was narration and a telling of the past (from Arden), but I never really felt like I got to know the characters. It was almost there, but not quite. Maybe that was the design. Arden is narrating and on some level she wants to be who she was when she spent summers in Keokuk as a child. But, the last summer was 10 years ago, when she was 15, and we all know that a lot happens in 10 years, especially if you go from 15 to 25. The house is decaying, the town is decaying. There is a saying that you can’t go back and I wondered throughout reading this book if the decay that surrounded Arden’s return was in fact a way of confirming that we can’t go back. Sure you can go back to a place, such as a town or a house, but it’s never going to be the same. Sometimes, it will be better. In Arden’s case, I think she was somehow connected to Keokuk, not only because she was born there and because that’s where the twins disappeared, but because that was probably the only time she had a true home. Regardless of what happens to the town, it’s her home. And, for those who have moved, we know some places we connect with and others we don’t. There is no place like home though, literally.

Things happen at a steady, but slow pace. This is not a mystery per se, though I’m not sure I’d throw it in the gothic genre as while there was suspense, it didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat. I wanted to know what happened to the twins. I even wanted to know what happened to Josh’s brother (while it’s a part of Josh, it’s never mentioned if he investigated that and of course, it’s not really part of Arden’s or the twin’s story, so it’s just kind of in the background).

There is a somewhat dramatic end and while you think you know what happened, you find out you don’t. I’ll admit - I didn’t like the ending. You think it’s there, but it’s almost a cop-out. Then, you think there is another twist, but it just hangs out there, leaving the reader to decide what they think actually happened. There is no true resolution as to what actually happened. Arden finds a way to make it make sense and finally move on (she was in essence waiting for the twins to return to truly get on with her life). However, the ending for me was disappointing and somewhat of a let down.

Overall, I’m glad I read the book. Ultimately, I liked Arden and Josh and Ben and Lauren and even Mrs. Ferris. I think Arden’s decision at the end was the right one and wouldn’t mind someday finding out what happened to Josh’s brother. Does this make me want to read everything by the author? It doesn’t as I’m not a fan of this type of ending. I get them -- life doesn’t always give us pretty answers, but I prefer it when my books do.


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