Acquainted With the Night [Large Print] [Paperback]

Sollace Hotze (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1993

During a summer on a Maine island, seventeen-year-old Molly and her older cousin become very close, as she helps him deal with his father's suicide and his experiences in the Vietnam War, and as together they share encounters with a troubled ghost.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite its 1970s setting, this tale of ghostly encounters and forbidden passions has the flavor of a Gothic romance. Seventeen-year-old Molly, still distraught over her parents' divorce eight years earlier, falls in love with her cousin Caleb, who has returned to Plum Cove Island after being wounded in Vietnam. Having not yet come to terms with his father's suicide and best friend's gory death, vulnerable Caleb returns Molly's adoration. Meanwhile, the pair is involved in solving the mystery of Evaline Bloodworth, an 1800s woman whose ghost has appeared on the island. As Molly fits together pieces of Evaline's life, she realizes how this woman's tormenting desires parallel her own. The novel's cleverly wrought framework adds an extra dimension of suspense to a bizarre, historically accurate tale of incest. Although Hotze's narrative at times becomes over-emotional, events remain compelling enough to keep pages turning. Readers are sure to become engrossed in this story of long-kept secrets by the author of the acclaimed A Circle Unbroken . Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-12-- This is a rather confused tale with two separate story lines--one set in 1970, the other almost 150 years earlier--that are tied together with the thinnest of threads. When 17-year-old Molly's cousin Caleb joins her family for the summer after his return from Vietnam (complete with wounds and night terrors), she barely recognizes the boy she knew 9 years earlier. Before they even arrive at Molly's house, they come across the ghost that will tempt them to unravel a sad (supposedly true) story about a woman scorned that will help them to abstain from the incestuous relationship they have come to long for. Although the characters are all well intended, this family is chock-full of serious problems that include suicide and divorce. Too many things simply don't add up here--Molly and Caleb are warned against falling in love because they are double cousins, but only a single relationship is ever explained; Caleb's reasoning for enlisting to fight a war he seems ambivalent about is less than convincing, and the antiwar passions of the time are not reflected here. Finally, a ceremony conducted to put a ghost to rest seems meaningless. The main characters have emotional depth and intelligence, but their story is predictable and too often unconvincing. The ghost mystery adds historical, cultural, and dramatic interest but is an inaccurate mirror of Molly and Caleb's emotional and sexual dilemma, and it picks up steam too late to rescue this unsatisfying romance.
- Susan Oliver, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 309 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Pr (May 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560546905
• ISBN-13: 978-1560546900
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,543,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite book, July 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Acquainted with the Night (Hardcover)

I read this book and it was phenomenal. I loved it! The tradgedy of loving someone so much, yet knowing that it could never be. The story was great, but it was like two stories in one book. I loved it, along with another book by the Author, Summer endings

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greatest book I have ever read, July 9, 2000

By 

Beverly (Savannah, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Acquainted with the Night (Hardcover)

This book was the greatest book I've ever read, and I recommend it to everyone. Its about two cousins, Molly and Caleb. They consider themselves "double first cousins" because Mollys mom and Calebs dad were brother and sister, and Calebs mom and Molly's dad were brother and sister. They find they are attracted to each other, but know that their love can never be. The also are haunted by a ghoast named Evaline Bloodsworth, whoose story is similiar to their own.