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There are currently 19 member reviews
for Arcadia Falls
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Jerry W. (Waxhaw, NC)
Another Winner
I became acquainted with Carol Goodman in "The Lake of Dead Languages." "Arcadia Falls" has a similar feeling. It is filled with a sense of place (atmosphere) and is fast-moving. This is another gothic story that has buried secrets and supernatural elements. I found the book a very enjoyable light read.
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Diane L. (NY, NY)
A Literary Mystery
Author Carol Goodman sets her literary mystery Arcadia Falls in Hudson Valley area of upstate New York. My husband's family lives there, so I found the setting of interest and got a better feel for the area. It is set in winter, and the reader can feel the chill of a Hudson Valley winter.
The protagonist is unique - a folklore teacher, studying two authors who wrote fairy tales while living in an artists' colony they founded in the Hudson Valley. The relationship between the recently widowed teacher and her teenage daughter was insightful and realistic.
Casual mystery readers should be able to guess the identity of the killer midway through the story, although the motive behind the murder seemed a little unsatisfying.
The novel did make me more curious as to the story of the fairy tale artists; perhaps Goodman will expand upon those characters featuring their story in a future novel.
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Phyllis R. (East New Market, MD)
Stories Within a Story
Having read most of Carol Goodman's novels, I looked forward to Arcadia Falls. It resembles her other novels in its setting in upstate New York in the closed society of a remote boarding school. The writing is beautiful and incorporates classical references. Meg Rosenthal and her daughter relocate there after being left almost destitute by her husband's death. The setting is beautifully described, but the atmosphere is sinister. The menace is encouraged by the Pagan ceremonies the school celebrates, the strange behavior of some students, and by the unsolved deaths associated with the school.
The story holds one's interest and incorporates fairy tales, some written by one of the school's founders. I found this thread interesting since I have done some research on fairy tale motifs in fiction. The love interest is not believably developed, but seems inevitable.
Meg attempts to solve the mysteries associated with the school while improving her relationship with her daughter, which presents more problems than the former. In the end, all secrets and relationships are revealed, some rather hurriedly.
A good read, but not her best.
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Sharon B. (Rome, GA)
Arcadia Falls
Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman is a good mystery set at a remote and unusual boarding school. The plot grabs the reader and moves fast enough to keep the pages turning. It’s a good vacation read and the fairy tale element could make for good discussions in book clubs. I enjoyed the book so much that I have read another book by Goodman – The Lake of Dead Languages.
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Susan S. (Lafayette, CA)
A haunting mystery
Arcadia Falls is a haunting mystery set during winter months at a remote boarding school in upstate New York. The author does a wonderful job with the sense of place and climate – you can feel the isolation and the oppressiveness of the cold, foggy weather and short days and the danger of the snowy terrain, all of which add to the sense of desperation and fear felt by the main character. I thought that the depiction of the students and their interests was a little bit unrealistic, but the mystery itself was enjoyably complex, with a very satisfying denouement.
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Hollie D. (Sunbury, OH)
So close....
Carol Goodman is pretty reliable, and I’ve read all of her novels, but with Arcadia Falls, I think she slips a bit. I’m frustrated because she’s so very close to writing great stories, but they don’t always transcend just average fiction. That said, I enjoyed the book and can’t say I’m sorry I spent the time reading it.
She wobbles a bit here from her usual commitment to hiding clues in material objects, an art history approach that I always find entertaining and didn’t find as much of here. The “story within a story” approach appears in all her books, but not to as much advantage here as in other works. She still has a terrific ability to generate atmosphere, and the haunting atmosphere of the woods serves the story well.
I did wish for a slightly less convoluted plot. I don’t mind mulling a book over afterward, but if I have to stop ten pages from the end to say, “So that means that….???,” then that’s probably not a good sign. Arcadia Falls also stretches my limits of credulity – we’re supposed to believe that the protagonist finds a long-missing journal from a woman she’s spent years researching for a doctoral thesis, and it takes her weeks to get to the end of it?
As said, just a few small flaws which, in my opinion, keep Arcadia Falls from being one of Goodman’s best works to date. But she’s close enough that I’ll be first in line for the next book!
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Sharon V. (Chicago, IL)
Arcadia Falls
The name of this book could be “The Changeling Girl”, the fairy tale written by Lily Eberhardt, one of the founders of the artists’ colony at Arcadia Falls. The story shifts from the present day where Meg and her daughter Sally relocate from Great Neck to the 1920’s when the artist’s colony is founded by Vera and Lily and story really begins.
The magical setting of Arcadia Falls almost seems to be the main character of the story where the artists, students and townspeople who live there play more minor roles through their relationships and life choices. The folklore and legend of the White Witch add to the spiritual quality of the beautiful yet dangerous terrain of the clove where the trees seem to whisper.
Tensions between mothers and daughters, questions of identity and a passion for art provide a common thread between the modern and historic time periods as more of the mystery is revealed leading to a surprising yet satisfying conclusion.
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