From Away
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TL;DR: A good book when you’re in the mood for a relatively quick, creepy story. Maybe don’t take it on your vacation to an isolated Maine island, though.
A compelling, fast-paced ghost story, From Away tells the story of Sammy Kehoe, his sister, and his niece as they return to the family summer home on an island off the coast of Maine. They quickly meet up with old friends from childhood, make new ones, and start to establish a life on the island.
However, things aren’t always peaceful for the family. Sammy and his sister both have things in their pasts they want to leave behind. They’ve also recently lost their parents to a fatal car crash. Sammy and his niece, Maggie, are also both able to see ghosts…
Spooky and upsetting, but not gorily so, From Away keeps your attention and keeps you in suspense. There’s a sense of more to the story throughout, and the ending brings it all together. Sutton writes the story in part from the perspective of Sammy penning a letter to his niece to tell the full story, a tactic that lets the reader know from the beginning that something terrible has happened, but dive into the story fully for themselves to figure out what it is.
From Away is a ghost story, so it’s supposed to be far-fetched, but my primary criticism of the book is that the ghosts aren’t the most far-fetched part of it - the timeline is. It takes about 48 hours for both siblings to have established romantic interests that soon become some sort of relationship. Even the platonic relationships with islanders seem to zoom along at a clip that doesn’t make sense, especially jumping into the deep subject matters of the paranormal right away.
The characters are well-built, especially Sammy and his sister. We know about their pasts, their interests, and their faults. It’s easy for the reader to care about them. The island itself is a character, too, as is so often the case with spooky books set on the coast of Maine.
From Away is about ghosts, but it’s also about families and how they deal with the past and the present. It’s a worthy read if you enjoy being spooked, but want to feel as though you’ve delved into the human condition a bit.