The Children on the Hill

[cornerofmadness]

The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received this from Netgalley which in no way influenced my review (and thank you). Easily one of the best horror/thrillers I've read all year. It's told mostly in two points of view with some accessories. It alternates between 1978 with the past being told by Violet Hildreth, granddaughter of Dr. Hildreth who is the head psychiatrist at the Inn, a private mental hospital in rural Vermont. Vi's part of the story is centered over her and her brother, Eric (both of them orphaned and being raised by their grandmother) and being asked to help and be siblings to Iris a young nearly feral girl with a head injury and other trauma (so yes there is trauma to children in this)

The other main story point of view comes later with Lizzy Shelley. It's 2019 and something unspecified (in the beginning, it'll be revealed in slow stages) to destroy the family. The children have all changed their names and aren't much in each other's lives. Eric has a family of his own and wants mostly to be left alone but to be sure his sister is safe from The Monster (she is another point of view). Lizzy is a monster hunter, for real, much like half the current Travel Channel shows, she is criss crossing the United States looking for Bigfoot, wendigos and other monsters (all the while looking for her sister). Lizzy lives out of her research van, has her own podcast and has been on TV which she didn't much care for.

The other points of view (other than the Monster) are a book written about what happened in 1978 and a book of monsters written by the children in 1978.

So it ping pongs back and forth in that forty year span without ever feeling jarring or confusing. The voices are well differentiated and oh so involving. Lizzy is being led back to Vermont which she has avoided in all those decades, back to where it started because the one thing she knows is young girls are going missing across the country and the only thing tying them together is all of them claimed to meet a cryptid just before going missing. Lizzy is sure it's her sister and she wants to end this once and for all.

The way the past is revealed and woven into the present is masterful. It never feels too slow and the bread crumb trail lead easily to what Hildreth was doing. That really wasn't the twice but there are two big ones. All I want to say about them are they were great. They were surprising without being so out there you're rolling your eyes. I was sorry to see it end (because this definitely feels like a one and done) and I'll definitely be looking for more from this author.

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