The Gathering Room: A Tale of Nelly Butler

TL;DR: A riveting, suspenseful read that will be enjoyed by historical fiction fans.

The Gathering Room by Michelle Shores is based on the Nelly Butler ghost story, Maine folklore that has lived on through the centuries. As Shores points out in her Author’s Note, many of the characters in the book were real people, including the main characters of Captain George Butler, Nelly Butler, and Lydia Blaisdell. As the lives - and deaths - of these three intertwine, the worldly and otherworldly consequences of their relationships draw in the entire community. 

I picked this book up on a whim at a local general store/bakery and was not disappointed by the impulse buy. Once I started reading, I was pleasantly surprised to find that though it’s a ghost story, The Gathering Room is not overly scary. Nor does it cross the line into the horror genre. Instead, it’s historical fiction with paranormal elements. 

If you’re looking for Stephen King-style scary, this might not be the book for you. But if you’re like me and prefer a combination of suspenseful and mysterious rather than outright terrifying, you’ll probably enjoy it. 

Even historical fiction fans who don’t generally enjoy ghost or scary stories will likely find themselves riveted by this book. It’s a well-paced story that really sets the reader in the time and place of 18th century Hancock County on the coast of Maine. The story intertwines so many fascinating elements of life at the time: gender roles, the role of religion in the community, small town gossip, close-knit family ties, the hardships of day-to-day survival. With all of these neatly integrated into the story, the reader gets drawn into the book and wants to keep flipping pages to follow the characters’ lives. 

My one small quibble with the book is the use of “Aargh” several times as an expression of frustration. Every time this near-cartoonish interjection appeared the story seemed interrupted. But that’s a small complaint for an overall great book.

If you read The Gathering Room, you may end up, like me, wanting to learn more about Nelly Butler and the tales surrounding her - so add another book to the TBR, The Nelly Butler Hauntings: A Documentary History. Let’s also hope Michelle Shores has more books on the horizon!

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