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Black Rabbit Hall
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Black Rabbit Hall
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Black Rabbit Hall
Audiobook12 hours

Black Rabbit Hall

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this audiobook

A secret history. A long-ago summer. A house with an untold story.

Amber Alton knows that the hours pass differently at Black Rabbit Hall, her London family's Cornish country house, where no two clocks read the same. Summers there are perfect, timeless. Not much ever happens. Until, one terrible day, it does.

More than three decades later, Lorna is determined to be married within the grand, ivy-covered walls of Pencraw Hall, known as Black Rabbit Hall among the locals. But as she's drawn deeper into the overgrown grounds, she soon finds herself ensnared within the house's labyrinthine history, overcome with a need for answers about her own past and that of the once-golden family whose memory still haunts the estate.

Eve Chase's debut novel is a thrilling spiral into the hearts of two women separated by decades but inescapably linked by the dark and tangled secrets of Black Rabbit Hall.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 9, 2016
ISBN9780147524898
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Black Rabbit Hall

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Reviews for Black Rabbit Hall

Rating: 3.73437078125 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

128 ratings22 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Really enjoyed! It has that little bit of surrealism to make it extra memorable.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    You know how some books have to be read at a certain time in your life? How sometimes your own life events just keep you from enjoying what everyone else is saying is a great book? That's Black Rabbit Hall for me.
    I confess. I abandoned this one after the first 50 pages. I just couldn't *like* any of the characters, so I ended up reading the last two chapters and then putting it down.
    Maybe another time....
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book could have been so much better, but it just didn't live up to my expectations, unfortunately.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    At the first sentence, I was hooked. A character who "felt safe on the cliff ledge" had to have a good story to tell. The intriguing introduction of a second protagonist foreshadowed the intersection of two lives but when, how? Chase's writing is sumptuous, but never superfluous. She evoked my memories of reading George Elliott in college, and of endlessly falling in love with books over too short summers in the country. The voices felt so authentic, the story so true. Like traveling through Black Rabbit Hall, the narrative "fosters a dreamy kind of lingering, and openness to getting lost. The pacing is perfection, and as the story drew to its climax, I found myself wanting to prolong the inevitable. I kept putting the book down so I could draw out finishing it. By Chapter 32, I was crying. (Okay, I cried during the Martian ,too). A lovely read, I will put it on my bookshelf to pick up again in a few years, as I do with many classics.What an incredible debut! Eve Chase has written a thoroughly enjoyable, engrossing and believable story. Reading Chase's prose is like taking a tour of Downtown Abbey, you find yourself stopping to admire an especially lovely detail at you go along.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An eloquent author.This is an author I will definitely read again, not for her story-line, but for her beautiful use of words and her wonderful character descriptions, this is where the novel's strengths lie.She uses the much favoured method of moving between two time frames to tell the story of Amber, her twin Toby, and their younger siblings, Kitty and Barney. I fell in love with all the children, their vivacious American mother, Nancy, and the devoted servant, Peggy.Unfortunately disaster strikes and along comes the wicked step-mother, after which the narrative loses some of its power. I'm hopeless at guessing the end of books, but my book group reckoned they saw it all coming. In the current day scenario, Lorna comes across Black Rabbit Hall as a possible wedding venue, and despite its state of disrepair, she immediately decides that this is where she'd like her wedding, causing rifts between her and her fiance.Why is she so drawn to the house?Some of the descriptions made me smile: "She was at the 'end of my tether' two hours ago, so I don't know where she is now" (loc 1493)Others were eloquent: "But the imprint of her bare feet on the grass remains, a little bit of her left to await her return" (loc 3280)And some just struck me; "keeping half an eye on Barney, just like mother used to do in the days when I was free to be a kid" (loc 1475).With a slightly less text book scenario, Eve Chase could become an author to watch.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An enormous house in Cornwall is filled with love and laughter during lazy seasons of the 1960s when Hugo Alton and his nontraditional American wife vacation with their brood: teenaged twins Amber and Toby, lively 5-year-old Barney, and the youngest, sweet and chubby Kitty. Over thirty years later, Lorna and Jon discover the nearly hidden estate on their search for a wedding venue. Lorna is enchanted, her love of old clothes and houses something she shared with her recently deceased mother. Jon is more wary - and he hasn't even met the owner yet. Compelled by a force stronger than mere curiosity, Lorna is determined to learn the house's secrets - story that holds unspeakable tragedy for the Alton family.Through parallel narratives, debut novelist Eve Chase creates a haunting tale in a gothic setting, building suspense slowly and inventing a distinctive cast of characters.Readalike: Similar in tone and atmosphere to The Thirteenth Tale by Dianne Setterfield but slightly more hopeful.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase is the story of the Alton family. It is set in the 50's and 60's in Cornwall, England. It is the story of a life had and a life lost. This book for me is reminiscent of V.C. Andrews Flowers In The Attic. I absolutely loved this book!! I couldn't put it down. I found myself at work thinking what would happen next.Kudos to Eve Chase and this wonderful book!!!!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    For me this book ended up just being alright. It wasn't a bad story and I did enjoy it, but I just found a lot of it to be really predictable. I wanted to keep reading though to see if my suspicions about things were correct xD. It is a good read, and it is entertaining, but it isn't a 'fun' story by any means. I did like the two time lines though and I did like the characters, so 4 out of 5 stars for me and I would recommend this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    There were more gothic tropes thrown at this story than I think the resolution ultimately deserved, but I enjoyed it nonetheless - even if there weren't any ghosts. Gothic stories need ghosts, and not just metaphorical ones.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a story that takes place in the late 1960s and then in 2009. It begins as Lorna is looking for a venue where she can get married. As soon as she sees the rambling, decrepit Black Rabbit Hall (Pencraw) she is fixated on learning more about the estate and its mysteries.Then we switch back to 1969. Amber and her family of 5 are enjoying the holidays at Black Rabbit Hall when tragedy strikes. With the death of her mom, the family barely copes. However, one year later, and the father remarries. His new wife is the "evil" stepmother who seems to do everything in her power to erase the memory of the first wife. Eventually, we learn about the doom of Black Rabbit Hall.The book has a good resolution and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a bit of a sinister novel set in an old estate with a history behind it. I received a complimentary copy via Netgalley.com
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The story was gripping, the characters strong. But most pleasant of all was the author's wonderful use of language.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Loved the suspense of the story line and the ending.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book was recommended to me earlier this summer but it took me a couple months to get around to picking it up and finishing it. I was intrigued because the back of the dust jacket references Daphne du Maurier (Rebecca is a favorite novel of mine). At times it read a little reminiscent of Flowers in The Attic by V.C. Andrews - four siblings and a villian on an deserted estate. Kind of gothic with lots of family secrets. While the story unravels nicely between the past and the present, there was very littler character development or depth.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An enjoyable gothic tale told from the viewpoint of Amber Alton in the 1960s and from present day by Lorna Dunaway. Very happy family and happy times at Rabbit Hall until 1968 when a terrible accident causes it all to unravel. More than 30 years later, Lorna wants to be married at Pencraw Hall (our Black Rabbit Hall) and goes there with her fiancé to check it out. And then, as we would expect, the old house holds her fast until she finds out what happened all those years ago and what does it have to do with her? I'm glad that I read it but not a book that I need to own.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase is a 2015 publication. Many people will place a book in the Gothic category, using the term too loosely, in my opinion, but It’s very, very rare to find a story that delivers an authentic Gothic mystery. However, ‘Black Rabbit Hall’ delivers exactly that, and with relish on top!! I’m thrilled and amazed by this book, which tells the story of four children living an ideal life in 1968, until tragedy strikes. From there, their lives quickly dissolve into madness, turmoil, and melancholy, with more tragedy to follow. Fast forward to present day, where we meet Lorna and Jon, a couple madly in love, looking for a wedding venue. Oddly enough, an old Cornwall house on the list of possibilities, peaks Lorna’s interest, not only because she loves old houses, but because she has some fragmented memories of having visited there with her mother, who recently passed away. Once she sees the house, her heart is set on it despite Jon’s skepticism. Before long, Lorna becomes involved with the matriarch of the house and the housekeeper, vowing to help bring in more clients by writing up an article regarding the history of the house, and its family legacy. Little did she know her vague memories of the house connect her in a direct way to its past and could possibly shape her future. The lovely and isolated setting of Cornwall is a fitting backdrop to tell the history of the Alton children. The mystery of what became of the family is told in alternate chapters, while Mrs. Alton shares her memories with Lorna in the present. As the story unfolds, Lorna slowly begins to piece together her own memories of Black Rabbit Hall, revealing a shocking revelation that left me stunned. This absorbing tale and family saga is full of dark secrets, betrayals, and manipulations, but as the two storylines begin to merge, the ghosts of the past will finally rest in peace, paving the way for healing and new beginning for all. This is such a beautifully written novel, rich in details and vivid characterizations, cloaked with a haunting atmosphere that lingers long after the final page.The ending is everything I hoped it would be and more. This is definitely my kind of book!! 5 stars
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase is a very slow book. The story tells of Lorna and Jon looking for a place to get married. They find Black Rabbit Hall (aka Pencraw Hall). Lorna visited the hall with her mother when she was a child (her mother recently passed away). Then the story goes back to the late 1960s with the Alton children. Amber, Toby, Barney, and Kitty spent their school vacations at the hall. Their mother, Nancy called it Black Rabbit Hall because of the rabbits that came out at sunset and you saw their black shadows across the lawn. Their mother died at Easter when she was out looking for her youngest son (off playing and then it started storming) on horseback (got thrown and broke her neck). The father, Hugo quickly rebounds and married Caroline Shawcross (she pursued him). Caroline brings her son, Lucian with her into the marriage. Lucian and Amber are attracted to each other, but it is forbidden (like that will stop them). Caroline is not fond of the children and there will be many changes to the family (Toby does not handle the changes). When Lorna visits Black Rabbit Hall, she encounters Dill (the housekeeper/cook) and Caroline. Caroline has opened the hall for events (needs the money). What happened to Hugo Alton and his children? Why is Lorna drawn to Black Rabbit Hall (she becomes obsessed)? Lorna gets a chance to stay at the hall and find some answers.I found Black Rabbit Hall to be an extremely boring book. It tried to be a mystery, but it did not succeed. I just found Black Rabbit Hall to be odd. We get the story from two different perspectives: Lorna’s and Amber’s (the majority of the book is from Amber’s point-of-view). The Amber section reads more like a young adult novel (she finds love at fifteen). The two stories go back and forth until we see how they are connected. I just found it dull and uninteresting (reading this book was like trekking through the desert). There is some very graphic violence (it is awful) in the book as well as sex and foul language. I did not enjoy Black Rabbit Hall (as you can tell). It sounded like such an intriguing and mysterious book (from the synopsis). I think the book (the idea) had potential, but the writer was not able to pull it off. I give Black Rabbit Hall 1 out of 5 stars. This book was just not for me. If you are looking for a book to help you sleep, then read Black Rabbit Hall.I received a complimentary copy of Black Rabbit Hall from NetGalley and First to Read in exchange for an honest review.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    ‘Black Rabbit Hall’ starts off fairly slow; Lorna and her fiancé are looking for a wedding venue in 1999 or so, and Pencraw (the Black Rabbit Hall of the title) in Cornwall is first on her list, despite its decrepit condition and odd owner and manager. In 1968, young teen Amber Alton and her very happy and close family (Toby, her twin; young Barney; and baby Kitty) are leaving London for the summer at Pencraw, their ancestral estate. But it’s not long before things change; tragedy strikes the Alton family. The event shatters the close family; some do not have the coping skills to survive it. And the way the father choses to try and survive creates further problems that will echo through the years, intersecting with Lorna’s life. The prose is lush and beautiful. Multi-sensory descriptions abound, allowing the reader to fully inhabit the story. While I had suspicions of how the story would wind up, it ended up surprising me. I stayed up late reading this book, and grabbed it again in the morning. Despite being set in the Cornish countryside and having no supernatural elements, it reads like a Southern gothic- at one point I thought it was going to go all ‘Flowers in the Attic’-ack. It’s family drama at its craziest, but with touches of sweetness. It does have faults. While Chase has description and setting down pat, some of her character building is lacking. The wicked step-mother is pretty much nothing but wicked; she has not one redeeming feature or even any characteristic other than ‘wicked’. Father Alton is pretty one dimensional as well. Amber (the narrator of most of the story) is the most complex character because we spend so much time in her head; she’s got a good range of emotions and motives and I felt a lot of sympathy for her. Lorna, for some reason, is kind of blah even though she is the other main character. In some ways, she’s simply a device for the family secrets to be unveiled. Despite this character problem, the book is highly readable and compelling.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Im Sommer 1968 erschüttert der tödliche Reitunfall ihrer Mutter das zeitlose, unbeschwerte Leben der Familie Alton auf ihrem romantischen Landsitz Black Rabbit Hall in Cornwall. Nachdem die Zwillinge Amber und Toby (14) sowie ihre jüngeren Geschwister in großer Freiheit aufwuchsen, heiratet ihr Vater kurz darauf Caroline, die ihren älterenSohn Lucian mitbringt und ein strengeres Reglement einführt. Im 3 Jahrzehnte später spielenden 2. Handlungsstrang entdeckt Lorna (32) auf der Suche nach einem würdigen Ort für ihre Hochzeitsfeier das atmosphärisch beeindruckende Anwesen und spürt sofort eine seltsame Verbundenheit damit, deren Ursache sie klären muss. Im spannenden, wendungsreichen Finale werden die Fäden zusammengeführt und eine Kette von Familiengeheimnissen aufgeklärt. Unterhaltsamer Schmöker, dessen faszinierende Kulisse an Daphne du Maurier erinnert,der schnell einen starken Lesesog entfaltet und bis zum Schluss fesselt (s. Hörbuch, ID-A 11/16). Geschickt komponiert; sicher kein Regalhüter.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The reason I grabbed this book was that the author has been compared to Daphne DuMaurier and Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine. Both are favorite of mine so I had to read “Black Rabbit Hall”, which turned out to be a very good debut novel of forbidden love and family secrets.The novel fluctuates between the late 1960’s to more than three decades later. There’s all the ingredients of an old-fashioned Gothic romance – an old mansion with past tragedies, a love that shouldn’t be, even an evil stepmother. Teenaged Amber Alton is the main character from the 60’s. She has such a happy life at Black Rabbit Hall with her twin brother, younger siblings and parents until tragedy strikes. Lorna Dunaway is the present-day heroine. She and her fiancé Jon are looking for a wedding venue. Lorna is inexplicably drawn to Black Rabbit Hall although it’s so run down. She becomes entangled in the mansion’s family’s past and must find the answers to just what happened all those years ago.As I write that summary, I feel that it sounds so stereotype, like so many books before it. But this author excels in making her characters live and breathe on her pages. She truly pulls her reader into the story and has written a very readable, enchanting story. I had at one point thought I had figured out the family secret but it didn’t stop me from wanting to read more. But I had only figured out part of what was to come as there were many other surprises ahead. I cared about these characters and didn’t want to stop reading about them.Escapism at its best. Recommended.This book was given to me by First to Read in return for an honest review.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What secrets does Black Rabbit Hall hold, and will Lorna find out what the secrets of the Alton family are as she explores the Alton's summer home?Lorna is looking for a place for her wedding and is pulled toward Black Rabbit Hall. She has a feeling that it is somehow connected to her past.Tragedies were plentiful at Black Rabbit Hall when the Altons lived there. Lauren's fiancé isn't comfortable about having their wedding there, but Lorna insists that there is some connection to her and her family, and she wants to find out and have her wedding there.We learn about the Alton's family life at Black Rabbit Hall through flashbacks and then move forward to present day.Toby, Amber, Kitty, and Barney told the story of Black Rabbit Hall....a story with great family dynamics.Ms. Chase's descriptions are marvelous. You can put yourself into every scene of the story and clearly picture what is happening and carried out. I loved going back in time and seeing what was left behind in the kitchen and other areas of BLACK RABBIT HALL.The old house definitely is a trove of memories and untold secrets and stories. You can smell the dust, see the family’s comings and goings, hear the water dripping from the leaky roof, and visualize the people who lived there.BLACK RABBIT HALL was a family saga with hints of foreboding as you turned each page. BLACK RABBIT HALL had marvelous characters that were loving and endearing and of course there was a villain who ruined it all.I thoroughly enjoyed this book...an excellent debut. The only disappointment, which really isn't a disappointment, was when Ms. Chase left you hanging and waiting with something "juicy" at the end of a chapter and took you back to the past or from the past to the future. :)ENJOY when you read....the ending was emotional, and the entire book is addicting!! Loved the book. 5/5This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is another one of those stories that shifts between 2 points of view; Amber, a child in the late 60's, and Lorna, a young woman about to be married, told more than 3 decades after Amber's story.

    What connects the 2 stories is an old crumbling country estate house in Cornwall, called Pencraw Hall, known locally as Black Rabbit Hall, because of the rabbits that come out of their burrows at dusk. It's the perfect setting for a mysterious gothic tale of family secrets set on the wild & stormy Cornish coast.

    The house was Amber's family's summer holiday home and is now being advertised as a wedding venue to raise funds to pay for its upkeep. Only an old woman and her housekeeper live there now and the manor is crumbling around them.
    Lorna remembers visiting there with her mother, as a child, and thinks that this would be a perfect setting for her wedding. Her fiancé isn't convinced but when she arrives, she feels a strange connection, and when she finds out a child died there, she's immediately obsessed with finding out what happened to the the child & the former occupants. Of course (typically in these sorts of books) he returns to London while she remains at the isolated house exploring its secrets.

    If you are a fan of mysterious gothic settings, family secrets, tragedy & romance, then this book is for you. Also recommended for fans of Kimberley Freeman & Kate Morton. Beautifully written for the most-part, so it was surprising when i found a few awkward sentences that an eagle-eyed editor should have spotted (eg. "So he had a fair innings").

    My only quibble with the story is that Eve Chase tied it all up too neatly at the end. Sometimes I prefer to be left a little disturbed :-D
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I absolutely adored this book!! Black Rabbit Hall is Eve Chase's debut novel. I can't imagine how she will follow it up - but I will be waiting for her next book.1969: Amber and her siblings live with their parents at Pencraw Hall, affectionately called Black Rabbit Hall by the children. Life is idyllic, until a single stormy night irrevocably changes the direction of their lives forever.30 years later: Lorna and her fiancé John are driving the back roads of Cornwall (England) hunting for a Pencraw Hall, that advertised itself as a wedding venue. When they finally come across it, Lorna feels a odd sense of.....something....recognition?I love dual narratives, past and present being slowly revealed, until the stories inevitably collide, revealing the final connections and resolution.Amber and Lorna are both wonderful protagonists, each with a distinct voice. I found myself more caught up in the past. Perhaps because it is these events that shape the future? I grew so invested in the lives of the Alton children and found myself cursing the antagonist of the book out loud. I'm trying to not give away too much, but oh my goodness - she is truly, truly nasty.All the absolutely delicious elements of a Gothic tale are in place - a creaky, crumbling old mansion filled with the detritus of its glory days, a cantankerous old woman in situ who has been hanging on to her secrets for many, many years and a housekeeper who has lived her whole life in that mansion as well. Dark woods and overgrown gardens surround the house, adding to the wonderful atmosphere Chase has created.Chase drops clues along the way - single sentences that say so much about what has happened. I found myself talking out loud again - quite saddened by some of those past events. And just as some of those past events are revealed, the narrative changes to the present day. For me, this always guarantees being tired in the morning, as I just have to read 'one more chapter'.....and then another and another.Black Rabbit Hall is hands down one of my fave reads for 2016.