susan s asked this question about
The Kept:
I am totally baffled by the ending of this book. I have my own skewed supposition on what happened (or is going to happen), but would love to hear other's theories on what exactly the ending means?
Thanks.
Mary
This answer contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)[*****SPOILER!*****
Turn away if you don't want the ending ruined!!!
My supposition on what happened is the brothers reach the front door, see their brother lying dead, see a dead man and a dead woman in the front room, pull out their weapons to check the house -- and eventually find an unarmed Caleb in their mother's/grandmother's room. Whether they torture him for sport before they kill him only the author knows -- but Caleb is definitely a dead 12-year-old boy, and the 354 pages to get him to that point were wasted reading time.
Well, okay, that's harsh -- the book kept my attention for the first three-quarters and I was preparing to give it 4 stars until about page 317.
The writing started to get a bit clunky around then.
From that point on, several things were very unsatisfactory, IMO. Why on earth did the Elm Inn owner London White have such an avuncular, almost proprietary interest in Caleb? His interest was obvious -- the reason for his interest was tantalizing to me, given the mystery of Caleb's origins -- but there is apparently zero reason for the interest. I mean, Caleb was locked in the room and had to escape this man by going out the window, rappelling down the side of the house with tied-together bedsheets. It was all very dramatic -- but the reason for his imprisonment wasn't explained adequately or convincingly, and again, the reason for London White's interest wasn't fully developed.
Also, the very dramatic scene with Martin Shane and London White and Owen Trachte and Elspeth -- it wasn't written well, and then Owen Trachte walking her back to his isolated cabin and then just letting her go -- it didn't come across realistically, considering all that had happened in the preceding scene, including the death of Martin Shane (also not well written).
London White later says to Caleb, "Owen Trachte is not the kind of man to take injury kindly. It [Elspeth] has been put out of its misery." Owen Trachte's character development didn't seem to match this statement. Earlier in the book he showed kindness and concern toward Charles, and when the icehouse accident happened he was frantically trying to do what he could to assist with the little doctoring he'd picked up from his father -- and his interactions with Elspeth in her male disguise, e.g. setting her broken nose -- his character, though damaged from events caused by Elspeth 12 years, came across as cordial bordering on friendly . And indeed he didn't put Elspeth out of her misery, he let her go, so I guess London White was wrong about Owen Trachte -- but this all felt quite rushed and not well developed.
Writing these criticisms out, I have to go back to the early part of the book and complain about something.
So the three killers approach the isolated house, shoot the 6-year-old girl, go inside, shoot three more children -- two in the kitchen, one in the great room who was running toward his father's bedroom -- and then the killers go into the bedroom and kill the father. Elspeth later found him dead in bed, full of bullet holes, blood everywhere.
Given that it's been made clear to us that dad killed and buried at least four people in the years leading up to these dramatic events, presumably in defense of his home and family, he's not a stranger to guns, he's not a stranger to violence. He hears four gunshots and doesn't stir from his bed? Did he go deaf in the preceding years and the author failed to mention it? Was he ill and in the throes of a fever, not conscious enough to hear his family being slaughtered while he lay abed? Even given how quickly these three hired killers must have moved from the first shot outside the house, there would still have been time for dad to react. If he did so it wasn't made clear by Elspeth's observations of how she found his body upon coming home.
I noted these things while reading the opening, but I can easily let that kind of stuff go in a first novel, if the rest is good -- but my dissatisfaction with the last quarter of the book made me return to that as another example of something which wasn't developed well enough.
If the ending had been better, I could have shrugged these other things off a little more easily, written it off as a first novel and hoped for better from the author in the future -- but the first three-quarters really built up to something, and then there was a big let-down. Scott writes very well at times -- I will hope for more (and better) in the future. (hide spoiler)]
Turn away if you don't want the ending ruined!!!
My supposition on what happened is the brothers reach the front door, see their brother lying dead, see a dead man and a dead woman in the front room, pull out their weapons to check the house -- and eventually find an unarmed Caleb in their mother's/grandmother's room. Whether they torture him for sport before they kill him only the author knows -- but Caleb is definitely a dead 12-year-old boy, and the 354 pages to get him to that point were wasted reading time.
Well, okay, that's harsh -- the book kept my attention for the first three-quarters and I was preparing to give it 4 stars until about page 317.
The writing started to get a bit clunky around then.
From that point on, several things were very unsatisfactory, IMO. Why on earth did the Elm Inn owner London White have such an avuncular, almost proprietary interest in Caleb? His interest was obvious -- the reason for his interest was tantalizing to me, given the mystery of Caleb's origins -- but there is apparently zero reason for the interest. I mean, Caleb was locked in the room and had to escape this man by going out the window, rappelling down the side of the house with tied-together bedsheets. It was all very dramatic -- but the reason for his imprisonment wasn't explained adequately or convincingly, and again, the reason for London White's interest wasn't fully developed.
Also, the very dramatic scene with Martin Shane and London White and Owen Trachte and Elspeth -- it wasn't written well, and then Owen Trachte walking her back to his isolated cabin and then just letting her go -- it didn't come across realistically, considering all that had happened in the preceding scene, including the death of Martin Shane (also not well written).
London White later says to Caleb, "Owen Trachte is not the kind of man to take injury kindly. It [Elspeth] has been put out of its misery." Owen Trachte's character development didn't seem to match this statement. Earlier in the book he showed kindness and concern toward Charles, and when the icehouse accident happened he was frantically trying to do what he could to assist with the little doctoring he'd picked up from his father -- and his interactions with Elspeth in her male disguise, e.g. setting her broken nose -- his character, though damaged from events caused by Elspeth 12 years, came across as cordial bordering on friendly . And indeed he didn't put Elspeth out of her misery, he let her go, so I guess London White was wrong about Owen Trachte -- but this all felt quite rushed and not well developed.
Writing these criticisms out, I have to go back to the early part of the book and complain about something.
So the three killers approach the isolated house, shoot the 6-year-old girl, go inside, shoot three more children -- two in the kitchen, one in the great room who was running toward his father's bedroom -- and then the killers go into the bedroom and kill the father. Elspeth later found him dead in bed, full of bullet holes, blood everywhere.
Given that it's been made clear to us that dad killed and buried at least four people in the years leading up to these dramatic events, presumably in defense of his home and family, he's not a stranger to guns, he's not a stranger to violence. He hears four gunshots and doesn't stir from his bed? Did he go deaf in the preceding years and the author failed to mention it? Was he ill and in the throes of a fever, not conscious enough to hear his family being slaughtered while he lay abed? Even given how quickly these three hired killers must have moved from the first shot outside the house, there would still have been time for dad to react. If he did so it wasn't made clear by Elspeth's observations of how she found his body upon coming home.
I noted these things while reading the opening, but I can easily let that kind of stuff go in a first novel, if the rest is good -- but my dissatisfaction with the last quarter of the book made me return to that as another example of something which wasn't developed well enough.
If the ending had been better, I could have shrugged these other things off a little more easily, written it off as a first novel and hoped for better from the author in the future -- but the first three-quarters really built up to something, and then there was a big let-down. Scott writes very well at times -- I will hope for more (and better) in the future. (hide spoiler)]
by
James Scott
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