June 22, 2011 by thinkhappy

Jane Was Here

by Sarah Kernochan

Summary

A mysterious young woman calling herself Jane turns up in a small New England town. She claims a fragmentary memory of growing up in this place, yet she has never been here before in her life. Upon her arrival, strange and alarming things begin happening to some of the town’s inhabitants. As Jane’s memories reawaken piece by piece, they carry her back in time to a long-buried secret, while the townspeople hurtle forward to a horrific event when past and present fatally collide.

Early Reviews

 The sudden appearance of a young woman called Jane in rural Graynier, Mass., propels this absorbing novel of reincarnation and karmic balances from filmmaker Kernochan, the winner of two Academy Awards for documentaries. Website designer Brett Sampson and his estranged 10-year-old son, Collin, are supposed to spend their summer together bonding. Instead, Brett becomes obsessed with Jane after she shows up at their rented Victorian house, claiming it was her childhood home, and Collin spends his time with Gita Poonchwalla, a slightly older Indian girl who converts him to her own unique religion. Local residents, including caretaker Hoyt Eddy and floozy Marly Walczak, get caught up in the mystery of Jane, whom PI d**k Fancher claims is actually Caroline Moss, a missing autistic woman. Kernochan (Dry Hustle) illuminates the small lives of her characters while skillfully interweaving their past and present incarnations. -- Publishers Weekly

Sarah Kernochan’s highly original and unpredictable Jane Was Here is not your father’s horror story. Its inexorably harrowing and impelling forces drive a storyline about reincarnation, ghostly presences, the paranormal, and matters of misery, mystery, and imagination raring to overwhelm the denizens of an anti-Mayberry locale in which an enigmatic and ethereal young woman calling herself Jane shows up at Brett and Collin’s rented Victorian house. ..Kernochan, an Oscar winning filmmaker and screenwriter whose credits include the supernatural thriller What Lies Beneath, brings out the same kind of craftsmanship to this nerve-jangling but cohesive volume of paranormal suspense, with its cinematic vividness and well-considered attention to detail. The twists and turns have their own twists and turns, and the butler did it as sure as a bolt from the blue. All you’ll really know, however, is that you must keep reading... and lose a little sleep while you try to ignore those pesky bumps in the night. -- Blogcritics

“…nothing short of magic” -Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Second Nature, a Love Story

“…sly, terrifying, witty, perverse, seductive and thoroughly satisfying.” - Rafael Yglesias, author of A Happy Marriage

“An eerie story that not only kept me guessing but kept me up at night.”- Brunonia Barry, author of The Lace Reader

For more information, go to: www.janewashere.com

Follow Jane on Twitter: @jane_pettigrew

"Like" Jane Was Here on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/janewashere

 

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