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    The Evening Spider: A Novel
    The Evening Spider: A Novel
    The Evening Spider: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Evening Spider: A Novel

    Written by Emily Arsenault

    Narrated by Bernadette Dunne and Nan McNamara

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    A gripping blend of psychological suspense and historical true crime, this riveting novel—inspired by a sensational real-life murder from the 1800s—by critically acclaimed author Emily Arsenault delivers a heart-stopping mystery linking two young mothers from different centuries.

    Frances Barnett and Abby Bernacki are two haunted young mothers living in the same house in two different centuries.

    1885: Frances Barnett is in the Northampton Lunatic Hospital, telling her story to a visitor. She has come to distrust her own memories, and believes that her pregnancy, birth, and early days of motherhood may have impaired her sanity.

    During the earliest months of her baby’s life, Frances eagerly followed the famous murder trial of Mary Stannard—that captivated New Englanders with its salacious details and expert forensic testimony. Following—and even attending—this trial, Frances found an escape from the monotony of new motherhood. But as her story unfolds, Frances must admit that her obsession with the details of the murder were not entirely innocent.

    Present day: Abby has been adjusting to motherhood smoothly—until recently, when odd sensations and dreams have begun to unsettle her while home alone with her baby. When she starts to question the house’s history, she is given the diary of Frances Barnett, who lived in the house 125 years earlier. Abby finds the diary disturbing, and researches the Barnett family’s history. The more Abby learns, the more she wonders about a negative—possibly supernatural—influence in her house. She becomes convinced that when she sleeps, she leaves her daughter vulnerable—and then vows not to sleep until she can determine the cause of her eerie experiences.

    Frances Barnett might not be the only new mother to lose her mind in this house. And like Frances, Abby discovers that by trying to uncover another’s secrets, she risks awakening some of her own.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJan 26, 2016
    ISBN9780062467522
    Author

    Emily Arsenault

    Emily Arsenault is also the author of The Evening Spider, The Broken Teaglass, In Search of the Rose Notes, Miss Me When I’m Gone, What Strange Creatures, and the young adult novel The Leaf Reader. She lives in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, with her husband and daughter.

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    Reviews for The Evening Spider

    3.5/5

    57 ratings16 reviews

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    • 4/5
      What is that sound? Abby in present day (2014) wakes up at night and hears, “Shhhhh” from her young baby’s bedroom. Oh, she remembers that she has a tape that plays soothing sounds to help her daughter to sleep. The “Shhhhh” must be coming from that. Or is it something else? When she goes to retrieve her baby, she notices a place at the top of her nose that appears sore and red. Over the next few days, the sore expands and becomes an ugly bruise. The house is very old; this was part of the attraction the house held for Chad and Abby. Abby is a historian who is still on maternity leave. She contacts the nephew of the original family who has some old records that had been left in the house. She wants to know more about the people who lived there and know if anybody had died there.Historically from a journal, we’re given Frances Barnett’s account in 1885 from Northampton Lunatic Hospital. She’s engaging in a monologue as if to her twin brother, who may be present, but more likely is not. Frances had a morbid curiosity in a murder case in 1879 for which her husband, Matthew Barnett, was an attorney. Even as a child, Frances had a bizarre curiosity. Her brother had received a microscope as a gift. Frances enjoyed examining such things as wings of dead flies and scabs. Matthew and Frances had a baby girl, Martha, who Frances proclaimed to love, but yet seemed to doubt her abilities as a mother. Once Martha was left in her care and tumbled off the bed acquiring a gash by her eyebrow. After that, Matthew had someone else watch Martha.It’s important to understand the author’s research as this is based on a real murder case, but more importantly, it’s extremely interesting. The manner in which people handled lunacy at the time is also prevalent. Per the Author’s Note, located in the back of this book, “The Northampton Lunatic Hospital was a real institution that opened in 1858.” Frances Flinch Barnett is a fictional character, who would have been a patient of this hospital while Dr. Pliny Earle was Superintendent. He “instituted a program of intensive work therapy (considered by some to be slave labor … under Earle’s leadership, the institution’s farm turned a profit).”The story, told in alternating chapters, is a haunting tale that the reader will not soon forget. I loved how Abby delved into researching Frances and Matthew’s past with Frances journals, old newspapers, and the historical society’s records. There was an additional instance of a death in Abby’s past. I didn’t actually connect this with either her story or Frances and wondered about its inclusion. I was interested in Abby, but was very curious about the history of Frances. While the story will stick in my memory, the ending wasn’t as strong as I would have liked. Rating: 4 out of 5.
    • 2/5
      This book was just so so for me. Told in alternating viewpoints, it is the story of two young mothers living in the same house a century apart. Unfortunately, the modern day mother had the majority of page time. I found her annoying and hurried through her chapters to get to the other mother's story. I wanted to like this but the narration was too convoluted and the ending unsatisfactory.
    • 4/5
      Emily Arsenault's newest book, The Evening Spider, has just released.Two women, both new mothers, living in the same house - 130 years apart - Frances in the 1800's and Abby in 2014.Arsenault employs a story telling technique that I quite enjoy - alternating chapters of past and present. The past is told from Frances's viewpoint and noted in her journal. That same journal lands in the hands of Abby in the present.Arsenault uses a slow building tension to keep the reader engaged. Are the doors really closing on their own? Is it the wind or is someone or something trying to calm the baby with a gentle "Shhh'. Is it truly gentle or threatening? Or is it simply Abby being exhausted? Perhaps postpartum depression? And what of Frances? She is a curious woman, with interests not quite befitting the social mores of her time. Her lawyer husband repeatedly quashes her spirit. Is she truly delusional? Or is she too suffering from postpartum illness?I found it fascinating that Arsenault based the past in part on a real historical crime. And I really enjoyed Abby's digging into the past through historical society records and old newspapers. (I've done this myself - it's addicting and so interesting.) Arsenault has utilized journals, books and visiting the past to solve the present in previous books to great effect.The slow building question of what is really happening in the present is mirrored by the slow reveal of what has happened in the the past. I did find the additional storyline added to the present - a death in Abby's past - to be extraneous. It just didn't feel like part of the story for me. I was much more interested in the past and Frances's life. I liked the creepy 'haunted house' aspect of the novel. The ending was not quite what I had expected - good, but not as satisfying as I hoped - I found I still had questions after I turned the last page. A good, but not great read for me.
    • 3/5
      I've not read anything by Emily Arsenault before, but the book description sounded appealing to me: two young mothers -- one living in the 1800's & the other in present day -- who live(d) in the same house, chapters alternating from each point of view. Frances tells her story via 1-way conversation with her brother, from a lunatic asylum. Present-day Abby is living in the house and begins to hear strange sounds/voices coming from her daughter's bedroom. Curious about the houses's history, she gets her hands on a diary written by Frances, which basically just provides more questions than answers. That's not a very good description, but this book is hard to describe because there are so many odd things going on, and I'm not sure they were really tied together very effectively. This novel really didn't start to get interesting until the last few chapters. Prior to that, it was just so-so and I really didn't care at all for the character of Abby, who was neurotic and didn't seem to be developed very effectively. The story was bogged down in too many unnecessary details of her infant daughter -- just day-to-day things that were dull and not necessary to the storyline. It seems as though this novel is trying to advertise itself as part mystery, part thriller, part ghost story, part historical fiction, but it ultimately doesn't pull itself off effectively with any of these classifications. Had Arsenault focused on one area and spent more time on character development, this may have been a more enjoyable novel. But I found it just lukewarm and somewhat disappointing.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed reading this book about 2 women lives that are connected through a house. Love the way it is wrote in diary form. It ends With lots of questions unanswered which is disappointing and kept this from being 5 stars. There is a mention of the first visit of the evening spider ( physical spider) and then it is never mentioned again???
    • 4/5
      Solid historical mystery that delivers on the undiscovered connection between its historical and modern-day narrators. I found it hard to connect with both characters at first, as the alternating chapter structure starts out with impossibly short chapters that made it difficult to get to know each narrator until I was at least a third of the way through the novel. But once I did, I connected with their stories and couldn't wait to see how they'd connect in the end. Unlike more literary novels of this style, like Hannah Kent's burial rites, this book moves along at a nice clip and never bogs down with slow chapters or scenes. While it isn't breaking new ground, The Evening Spider is an enjoyable mystery read for a winter day.
    • 3/5
      This is a ghost story, a mystery story, and a exploration of young motherhood, told by Abby in the 21st century and Frances in the 19th, both living in the same house. Abby hears unexplained shushing sounds on her baby monitor, and becomes obsessed with finding out the story of the house, This brings her to the diary of Frances, and more questions about what Frances did, and what she knew. Abby brought her own ghost to the house and as she uncovers the truth about Frances she also begins to face down the ghost of her college roommate. A quick and satisfying read, and a well told tale.
    • 3/5
      The Evening Spider slips back and forth in time between two different women and their stories...in part the story from the past is based on a true murder and the main character, Frances, of that story may be insane and is way too interested in the facts of the crime for her own good. In the present time a woman and her husband buy an old house Frances lived in...the house is haunted by SOMETHING that appears to be bothering her baby...she spends her time researching and trying to learn about Frances and whatever it is haunting them... This could have been an excellent book but there were too many boring details involving the murder case....also, I'm still not sure if what was haunting the house was resolved, left me a tad confused...it was an okay book, cut out a whole bunch of detail and it would be a much better read.
    • 1/5
      I will admit that when I began this novel, I had high hopes for it. The buildup was slow yet enticing and I was eager to see how the story would unfold. Unfortunately, this novel let me down big time. The more I read, the more I felt like Abby was simply delusional. Most of the time, nothing was even happening to her and she created the "eerie" situation through her own actions. Just as the novel begins to pick up the pace, it starts to go in a weird direction that just seems rushed and abruptly ends. While everything makes sense, it wasn't written out very well and just left me feeling startled. The ending had absolutely nothing to do with the premise and it seemed quite pointless by the end of it. All in all, not a good attempt and I will definitely not be recommending this book to anyone!
    • 4/5
      I received this book from Library Thing Early Reviewers. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It is the story of two different women who had inhabited an historic house in New England during two very different time periods: modern times and the Colonial period.
    • 3/5
      I started this book six times and never got all that far into it. I was bored. The description sounded good but, as someone else said, it got bogged down in too many details and tried to be this, this, this, and that.I can understand that some people might like it but, to me, there are far too many good books to read to keep trying this.Under the Pearl Rule, I put this one aside.
    • 4/5
      Beautifully written. Would have rated it 4.5 stars if this were my genre.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this book very much. I’ve read a couple of Emily Arsenault’s books, and her characters are always complex and relatable, especially the two women in THE EVENING SPIDER. It combines true crime from the 1800s with a modern day ghost story. There are two young mothers living in the same house more than a century apart, a secret diary, a grizzly murder, and troubled ghosts trying to make contact. I loved the spooky Gothic atmosphere, and trying to figure out who was doing the haunting, and what became of the characters who originally lived in the house. I liked the ending. The author doesn’t come right out and say who the restless spirits are, but she gives enough clues to where I was satisfied. Makes you think. Great book!
    • 4/5
      A few years ago, I read Emily Arsenault's novel What Strange Creatures and loved the brother/sister sibling relationship at its core. Her latest novel, The Evening Spider, has a sibling relationship in it as well, although that is not the central issue of the story as it was in What Strange Creatures.The inspiration for this story came from the author hearing what she thought was human voice over her daughter's baby monitor shushing the baby. She combined this with an interest in the true story of the murder of a woman in the 1800s, a woman she believed to be an ancestor.The Evening Spider introduces us to Abby, married to Chad, and new mom to baby Lucy, who has moved into an old house in the small town of Haverton, Massachusetts. Abby hears a voice over Lucy's baby monitor that sounds like someone is shushing her baby.This unnerves Abby, and she does a little research about the previous owners of the house. She discovers that there is a diary from Frances Barnett, who once owned the house with her husband, Matthew, a lawyer.Abby reads the diary and becomes fascinated with Frances, especially the letters Frances wrote to her brother Harry from a lunatic asylum Frances had been sent to by her husband. Frances was a new mom too, like Abby, and she became obsessed with a murder trial that her brother had a connection to.As Frances' story unfolds through her letters, Abby tries to learn why Frances was committed to a hospital. She turns to the head of the local historical society for more information and a local medium to see if her home is haunted by Frances or someone else.The story took awhile to get going, but once it does, it intrigues the reader. I found so many layers to this psychological suspense, including an incident that happened to Abby in college that may color her actions in the present.Frances is a captivating character. She loves science, and her interest in how arsenic works gets her into trouble. She wasn't a traditional housewife with traditional interests in cooking and sewing, and that made people suspect of her.I also found it surprising that in 1885 forensic science played such a big role in the murder trial. I would have thought that a recent phenomenon, but the lawyers used detailed forensic information from respected scientists to help prove their cases. (I hope this doesn't mean we'll see a new CSI:1885 series.)The Evening Spider is a novel about obsessions- Frances for the murder trial and Abby's obsession with Frances. It features interesting, well-developed characters (just like in Arsenault's previous book), and the ending of the story is a surprise to the reader.Fans of John Searles' Help For The Haunted will enjoy The Evening Spider. They both involve mediums, a haunted house and taut psychological suspense. And although I was a new mom over twenty years ago, Arsenault brings back those memories and fears of new motherhood vividly in this story.I highly recommend The Evening Spider. It's a creepy, taut, suspenseful story that will keep you up at night reading to the end.
    • 4/5
      I was a bit put off at first by the way Arsenault shifts between time periods at the beginning of the book - maybe, to be fair, I wanted to be put off by it. But the story is so interesting and the writing feels so true that I was pretty quickly drawn all the way into the mystery, as eager as Abby to understand what had happened in her house. As a ghost-or-not story, I'm not sure this does a great job of keeping alive both possibilities; I think that probably has a little to do with the degree to which the story is resolved for the reader versus how it resolves for Abby - it's unsatisfying to identify with the main character and to feel like she never gets the answers she's looking for, even if that doesn't seem to bother her.All in all this is an engaging and worthwhile read, though, and I really enjoyed it - literally couldn't put it down. Well worth your time.
    • 4/5
      Another fantastic mystery by Emily Arsenault. This book alternates viewpoints between a young mother in the 21st century and a young mother in the 19th who live in the same house. The genre is somewhere between mystery and ghost story; there are some supernatural hints but it's mostly a mystery. One of my favorite aspects of Arsenault's stories are here narrators. I found the 21st century narrator more compelling than the one from the 19th; she was more fully developed and relatable. The book's strongest weakness for me was that the 19th century narrator did not "feel" 19th century...she felt like a 21st century narrator trapped in the 19th!