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The Uninvited: A Novel
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The Uninvited: A Novel
Unavailable
The Uninvited: A Novel
Ebook342 pages5 hours

The Uninvited: A Novel

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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About this ebook

Set during the fear and panic of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919, The Uninvited is part gothic ghost-story, part psychological thriller, perfect for those who loved The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield or The Vanishing by Wendy Webb.

Twenty-five year old Ivy Rowan rises from her bed after being struck by the flu, only to discover the world has been torn apart in just a few short days. 

But Ivy’s life-long gift—or curse—remains.  For she sees the uninvited ones—ghosts of loved ones who appear to her, unasked, unwelcomed, for they always herald impending death. On that October evening in 1918 she sees the spirit of her grandmother, rocking in her mother’s chair. An hour later, she learns her younger brother and father have killed a young German out of retaliation for the death of Ivy’s older brother Billy in the Great War.

Horrified, she leaves home, to discover the flu has caused utter panic and the rules governing society have broken down. Ivy is drawn into this new world of jazz, passion, and freedom, where people live for the day, because they could be stricken by nightfall. But as her ‘uninvited guests’ begin to appear to her more often, she knows her life will be torn apart once more, but Ivy has no inkling of the other-worldly revelations about to unfold.

The Uninvited is an atmospheric, haunting, and utterly compelling novel. 

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateAug 11, 2015
ISBN9780062347343
Unavailable
The Uninvited: A Novel
Author

Cat Winters

Cat Winters's debut novel, In the Shadow of Blackbirds, was released to widespread critical acclaim. The novel has been named a finalist for the 2014 Morris Award, a School Library Journal Best Book of 2013, and a Booklist 2013 Top 10 Horror Fiction for Youth. Winters lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and two children.

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Reviews for The Uninvited

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I can't give this book much of a review without spoilers, so I'll just say it is missing an element that her YA books possess. The story dragged a bit in the middle, and it wasn't as spooky as the synopsis leads you to believe, but there are a couple of surprises you won't expect.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I.LOVED.THIS.BOOK!

    The plot twist...wowza...YASSSSSS!!!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is my first Cat Winters book and it won't be my last. I will admit that through out most of the book I kept wondering what is this book really about. I thought it was supposed to be a ghost story but I kept with it because of Cat's beautiful descriptive writing and plot lines and subject matter is so relevant to our times right now it just kept speaking to me. It isn't until the last several chapters that it all becomes clear and My jaw actually fell open. Great twist and a beautiful ending.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The blurb promises this is part gothic ghost-story, party psychological thriller... and I agree with that, but must say the ghostly stuff doesn't become clear or show up until very late in the story. I do give this a full star just for a surprise ending. It shocked me. I didn't see it coming.But until that point, it was a bit dull. It just follows this confused young woman as she goes about town, from her "boarding house" to her lover's to an ambulance she's coerced intro driving for two Red Cross girls.The main theme is hatred and prejudice toward Germans in America during WWI and the flu that took many lives.It's first person, past tense and I found this narrative suited the story, but to be honest, I'd have preferred a tale told from May's perspective. Widowed wife receiving amorous visits from her dead husband every night at 3 a.m.? There's potential there! And I think I feel this way because this was a very confused heroine--understandable, but made a confusing and dull read for me at times. I also wish some things about the ghosts were better explained. If you don't grow facial hair, I presume you don't go to the bathroom either and at some point in a week's time, you'll realize you're drinking all this booze and not peeing and that's sure to raise some red flags. So the intricacies weren't explained.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Took no time at all to finish this book. It was set during WW1 and involved a town in Illinois dealing with the loss of boys in war, the spanish influenza epidemic and the fear of anyone foreign, especially Germans.Ivy is a quiet, introverted 25 year old who keeps to herself until she finds out her dad and brother have killed a young German man in anger. After running away to town, she discovers a new world of jazz and friends and a German who she in drawn to beyond her control.This book was a fast read, but it was interesting and the twist on the end was well worth it.I received this book as part of the Librarything Early Reviewers.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Ivy is living in Illinois during a 1918 influenza outbreak. By day she ferries the sick in an ambulance and by night she carries on an affair with a young German man who is despised by the community for his ties to the war that took the lives of so many of the towns sons. Besides her awesome ambulance driving talent, Ivy also has the ability to see the dead and when she does it means that the veil between the living and the dead is breaking down. With so many people being felled by the flu it is no wonder that the list of "uninvited" is growing.This is my first Cat Winter's novel and I just loved it. The writing is so beautiful and it reads just like a fevered flu dream. You are never sure what is real and what is imagination. I loved the scenes between Ivy and her German beau Daniel. That twist at the end! To be honest I have seen it before more than once but it was perfect and I didn't see it coming. This book is another fitting choice for October. I will definitely be on the lookout for this author's other books.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Not what I was expecting but I enjoyed it nonetheless. A creepy, gothic, Sixth Sense, WWI type of novel. There was a lot going on really. Ivy, along with all the other women in her family, have the ability to see ghosts. They appear right before a loved one dies and unfortunately for Ivy, she's been seeing a lot of them lately. After her father and brother brutally murder a German merchant for being a "hate mongering kraut," Ivy decides to flee the house and try living on her own. She sheds her cocoon and begins to fly into new, unchartered territory. She is a deeply empathetic person and finds herself helping drive the red cross ambulance across town to pick up influenza patients who seem to be multiplying very night. The historical aspect is intriguing and haunting and the added dimension of ghosts only add to the story and build up to the shocking conclusion. A great, quick read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A book of War, the Spanish Influenza, Family, Guilt, Jazz Music and Ghostly Apparitions. Ivy has the gift/curse of seeing ghosts: The presence of these Uninvited guests always heralds the death of someone else in her life. When Ivy recovers from the Spanish Flu in 1918, she sees the spirit of her Grandmother and learns shorty thereafter that her brother, Billy, was killed in the war. Then, to her horror, she learns that her father and brother have killed a German shop owner in town in retaliation. Unable to bear living in the same house with them, she packs her bags and heads into town. There, she learns that the pandemic has wreaked havoc and the norms of society are breaking down. People are living in the moment, because there may be no tomorrow. The apparitions begin to appear more frequently and Ivy is not sure who she will lose next. I loved how Jazz played such an important part of this book and the ending absolutely made the book for me. I guessed some of it, but not all.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I was at first a bit disappointed in the book, the balance of supernatural elements and historical fiction story telling seemed off balance to me. Yet, once things really got rolling, my eyes were opened to how the author was incorporating those creepy elements. Now I’m in awe.The supernatural in this work is very subtle, almost ethereal and mystical. With only occasional mentions as the book opens, understated clues and foreshadowing opens a window into an amazing world of ghosts and the supernatural that leaves the reader breathless. I loved how the supernatural ties into the historical side as well. Acting as a reflection for how people are dealing with all the trauma of the era (wartime, disease, sudden death), the reader finds themselves wanting to learn more and more.The historical side of this is as amazingly done as the ghosts. Portraying an American society on the brink, filled with despair, suffering, and violence, the author makes it come to life in both her characters and her setting. Seeing the lengths that tragedy will make a person go in both violence and benevolence are both explored to great effect. All the darkness and pain being surrounded by death and illness would cause make an appearance with such immediacy that I got a visceral reaction to it. I felt every tear and moan of pain.At first I didn’t like Ivy that much. I felt that she was a weak character to tell the story through, and I just couldn’t respect her much. Yet, as the story got rolling and I realized her circumstances, I liked her more and more. She’s a woman who is dealing with the trauma and tragedy surrounding her to the best of her ability, trying to help others and provide comfort where she can. I grew to like her sweet and caring side more and more as the story progressed.Daniel I liked from the start. A character visited by tragedy early on, he’s understandably angry and finds it hard to forgive. He takes restitution where he can and in so doing starts to find forgiveness and peace I liked seeing how his character changed and developed as the story progressed; by the end, his anger is outbalanced by clemency. His primary motivators are no longer those negative emotions but rather love and protectiveness.Again, I am surprised and impressed by this author. I enjoyed her other book, In the Shadow of Blackbirds, for its intriguing exploration of lesser known historical aspects and the supernatural. This one pleases on the same fronts. Delicate use of the supernatural elements and a riveting historical fiction story kept me spellbound. Ivy and Daniel grew on me the longer I read about them. To me, this is another example of how excellent an author Ms. Winters is. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a bit of supernatural to their historical fiction.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Uninvited starts off with a bang when twenty-five year old Ivy Rowan, who has always seen ghosts when someone close to her is about to die, finally gives up her reclusive life on her family's farm and moves into the town of Buchanan. On that night in 1918 as World War I rages, fueled by booze, paranoia, and grief Ivy's father and younger brother beat a German furniture store owner to death. Finally realizing that there's nothing she can do to protect her family from her volatile father, Ivy determines finally to leave home to start a new life. In a chain of events that is nothing if not surreal, newly liberated Ivy takes a room with the war widow of the most popular guy in her high school class, assists two young women desperately if inexpertly driving an ambulance around the poorer side of town where influenza victims are dying by the dozen, and is lured by jazz music to a dance at the Masonic Lodge - a dance that seems to know no race or prejudice. In the meantime, she is riddled with guilt over her father and brother's dreadful deed and comes to know and love the surviving brother of the man they killed. As Ivy drifts through her new life with a sleepless fanaticism, making new friends, connecting with old ones, and trying her best to atone for her family's failings, she begins to see the ghosts of the people she knows to be dead and fears the worst for her mother and her newfound lover. It's not long until Ivy's journey of self-discovery takes an unexpected turn, and everything she knows about herself and her new life is called into question.It took a little while for me to settle into the reading of The Uninvited. Being dropped into a life on the cusp of change and one that is changing so radically is hard to catch up with. Ivy's new life is rendered in such a way that it seems almost dreamlike, with chance encounters and forbidden loves that spin her in a radically different direction than what she has ever known. With an odd combination of jazz music, World War I generated paranoia, and the plague of influenza, Winters makes a vivid setting of downtown Buchanan. The fear and frenzy there is palpable and contributes to the unsettled feeling of the narrative.Ivy herself is lovable character, a young woman who waited too long to discover herself. I was both amazed and appalled by the journey her guilt led her on. Winters does a perfect job of rendering Ivy's new life in a way that is satisfying but feels, deliberately, just the slightest bit off so that when the unexpected occurs, all the pieces are ready to fall into place. I'll be honest, I was expecting more ghosts and less coming of age, but I still liked what this book delivered, which is a great historical coming of age story with a twist that makes it hard to put down. In The Uninvited, Cat Winters has written a ghost story that is less about death and more about learning to live.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley. Previous to reading this book I had read and really enjoyed Winters’ novel In the Shadow of Blackbirds. This was a well done adult historical fantasy with a twist.Twenty five year old Ivy Rowan (who has the ability to see ghosts) has been struck down by the flu for days. When she finally recovers she finds out her father (who has always had a drinking problem and been cruel) and her younger brother have killed a German in town. Ivy is horrified by their cruelness and decides that this is the final straw. She leaves home and journeys to town only to find that the town is in panic over the increasingly deadly Spanish Flu. Ivy seeks to build a life for herself in town; befriending the surviving brother of the German her father murdered and helping the stricken flu victims. However Ivy’s ability to see ghosts is causing her unease as she sees more and more of them roaming the streets. Now Ivy is fearing whatever dreadful revelation all these wandering spirits portent.As with In the Shadow of Blackbirds, this book takes place during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. However this time the book takes place in the Midwest instead of on the coast. I really enjoy reading about this time period; it’s an interesting time in history. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that the people of the United States could be so cruel and paranoid to each other.This book is mostly a mystery with some paranormal elements and a lot of history. I enjoyed it; it's an engaging story with an interesting twist. I found the twist to be fairly predictable but it was still well written and entertaining.Ivy is an excellent heroine and I really loved her as a character. She is a perfect blend of a conservative woman who has both an adventurous and a compassionate personality. Overall I really enjoyed this haunting historical fantasy. I loved reading about the time period and enjoyed the characters a lot. There is some haunting mystery in here as well as some romance. I would recommend to those who enjoy historical stories with ghosts in them. I will definitely be reading future books by Winters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The females of the Rowan family have a secret; they can see the ghosts of loved ones who have passed. These uninvited guests however, are carrying an omen of a death soon to come. Ivy Rowan is 25 and has not lived much of life outside of her family farm. The Great War and the Spanish Influenza have taken their toll on her and her family. Ivy awakes after suffering the flu to learn that her father and brother have taken out their revenge on the last German business owner in town and have brutally murdered Mr. Schendel of Liberty Brothers Furniture. Unable to live with her father and brother’s deed, Ivy strikes out on her own and decides to pay penitence to the other Schendel brother in any way she can. With Daniel Schendel, Ivy comes into her own, ignites her love of jazz and finds things that were missing in her life. However, when she begins to see her uninvited guests everywhere she turns, Ivy begins to fear life once again. This was a very surprising book that was ultimately about a woman figuring out how to live life to the fullest in the most unexpected of ways. At first the blend of the time period with the element of the paranormal really intrigued me. Although, when I was reading, it was Ivy’s character that kept me wrapped up in the pages. Ivy surprised me with many of her actions, constantly showing parts of herself that made me respect her more and more. From her ever growing confidence to her ability to drive a model-T and her relationship with Daniel, Ivy is a woman full of heart that I could easily relate to. The other part of the book that drew me in was the setting, during the Great War in a small town suffering with Influenza. Terror and panic rule the streets, many people forget that the German immigrants were ostracized and blamed during this time period, the fear and misunderstanding was apparent in the streets of Buchanan, Illinois that probably mirrored many other small towns at the time. The paranormal aspect of the book seemed like just a side note at first, but grows steadily with time and offers a surprising twist near the end. When the twist was first offered, I felt a little crushed for Ivy, but with Ivy’s true nature shining through she carries on and continues to make the best of it. Overall, an engaging and unexpected book with wonderful characters, and a great blend of historical fiction and paranormal. This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The women in Ivy Rowan's family have long been gifted with being able to see the dead. The ghosts are heralds of death, warning the women that someone they know has or soon will die. Ivy has long viewed her gift as a curse. One evening in October of 1918, Ivy sees the ghost of her grandmother, the same night her father and brother have beaten and killed a German businessman in town.At that time in American history, as the Great War rages, hostilities are high against all people and things German. The death of the German is not looked into too closely--he must have been deserving after all. Perhaps he didn't donate enough to the War cause or failed to turn his back on his own heritage completely. In another town, a German had been hung without trial or good cause, and the jury acquitted the mob who murdered him--believing they had done their patriotic duty.As anti-German sentiment flourishes, so does the Spanish Influenza, a deadly virus which has taken the lives of many. Ivy caught the bug early on and finally feels herself coming around when her father and brother burst into the house with the news of the German's death. Ivy cannot take it anymore: the drunkenness of her father, the influence of her father on her young brother, and the violence. And so she sets off on her own at the age of twenty-five to make a life for herself.Ivy has been a recluse for the past several years, rarely venturing out of her house. She has made a living giving piano lessons to area children. Ivy has neglected her childhood friendships and really has no one, outside of her mother. Still, she is determined to do what she must. The feeling and need to make restitution to the murdered German's brother is strong, and that is how, one evening, she finds herself at Daniel's doorstep, unsure what to say and how to act.I went into The Uninvited with high hopes, I admit. The description lured me in immediately. I wanted to know more about this woman who could see ghosts, about the time period she lived in and everything else the story might hold for me. I was swept into the story right away and curious about Ivy. She's very naive in her own way, but also very smart. Even despite her fears, she takes what comes her way and makes the most of it. There was instance in which I questioned Ivy's judgement, but given the times and the sentiment of living in the moment, I suppose it wasn't that farfetched. The novel has a host of interesting characters. There is May, a war widow, who has had her share of people looking down on her because she is beautiful and from somewhere else. There are the Red Cross women, Addie and Nella, who cannot drive an ambulance to save their lives, but who are determined to help victims suffering from the Spanish Influenza. Then Lucas whose loyalty to the American Protective League is unwavering, always with an eye out for those who might be unpatriotic. There are the ghosts, of course, relatives of Ivy's, including her brother, Billy, who lost his life in the War. There are the folk in the club, drinking despite the Prohibition, playing jazz and dancing as they try to forget the world outside. It is hard not to be caught up in the times, feel the tension and helplessness, and yet also taking joy in the moment.I really liked Daniel, the brother of the German furniture store owner, the more I got to know him. He holds his secrets close to his vest. He has had a difficult time of it, not just in the United States, but in his home country of Germany as well. Daniel is full of anger, especially towards Ivy's family. And yet he has a definite soft spot for Ivy herself.While everything about this novel is fiction, from the setting to the characters and their stories, there is truth in the history. Cat Winters does a good job of capturing the mood and desperateness of the times, including the horrors of war, the effects of fear and ignorance. I was really drawn into the time period and into the lives of the characters the author has created. I especially loved how everything came together in the end.The Uninvited is not just a ghost story, but it is also one about redemption and hope. It is about missed opportunities and love found. As well as about finding one's way and letting go of the past. Was The Uninvited everything I hoped it would be? Yes and No. It wasn't, in the end, quite what I expected, but that was okay. In many ways, it was even better.