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Folly
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780553381511
ISBN: 0553381512
Label: Bantam
Manufacturer: Bantam
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: May 28, 2002
Publisher: Bantam
Release Date: May 28, 2002
Studio: Bantam
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Editorial Review:
"The thing about madness was, it just took so damn much energy, and it was so thoroughly tedious in the meantime." Master woodworker Rae Newborn knows madness intimately, with every bone, every pore, every particle of her being. At 52, with three suicide attempts, extended hospitalizations, the death of her husband and daughter, and a vicious attack behind her, Rae has come to Folly Island, far out in the Straits of Juan de Fuca, to rebuild her life by building a house: She would pull herself together, she would go and rebuild Desmond's house, she would lift his walls and dwell within them quietly all the rest of her days. Everything that House was lay there waiting for her to take it up: House as shelter, House as permanence, House as a continuation and a legacy, comfort and challenge, safety and beauty, symbol and reality joined as one. Bequeathed to Rae by Desmond Newborn, a great-uncle she never met, Folly Island is lovely indeed. But when Rae discovers Desmond's journal in the 70-year-old ruins of his house, she learns that Desmond had his own internal horrors to confront on the island. As she labors in solitude, her prickly nature deterring all but the most determined of her would-be neighbors, it's not just her well-being that's at stake. Rae must prove herself sane if she is to have any contact with her beloved granddaughter Petra. So when the "skin-crawling feeling of being watched" doesn't fade, she does her best to ignore it. But does paranoia have its roots in reality? And is Rae doomed to repeat her ancestor's tragic end?
So effectively does King weave together past and present--the shrouded history of Desmond's life and death on Folly, and the tense, dusty, exhilaratingly panicky account of Rae's wrestling with old demons and new timber--that the future seems less important than the author might have wished. In other words, the eventual unmasking of Rae's watcher pales in comparison to the gradual revelation of Rae herself within King's haunted and haunting narrative. But with such a strong character and such moodily lovely prose, readers shouldn't miss the denouement-driven trappings of standard suspense. --Kelly Flynn
An acclaimed master of suspense creates a heroine you will never forget in this superbly chilling novel of a woman who begins a desperate undertaking that may transform her life--or end it.WHAT HAPPENS IF YOUR WORST FEARS AREN’T ALL IN YOUR MIND?Rae Newborn is a woman on the edge: on the edge of sanity, on the edge of tragedy, and now on the edge of the world. She has moved to an island at the far reaches of the continent to restore the house of an equally haunted figure, her mysterious great-uncle; but as her life begins to rebuild itself along with the house, his story starts to wrap around hers. Powerful forces are stirring, but Rae cannot see where her reality leaves off and his fate begins.Fifty-two years old, Rae must battle the feelings that have long tormented her--panic, melancholy, and a skin-crawling sense of watchers behind the trees. Before she came here, she believed that most of the things she feared existed only in her mind. And who can say, as disturbing incidents multiply, if any of the watchers on Folly Island might be real? Is Rae paranoid, as her family and the police believe, or is the threat real? Is the island alive with promise--or with dangers? With Folly, award-winning author LAURIE R. KING once again powerfully redefines psychological suspense on a sophisticated and harrowing new level, and proves why legions of readers and reviewers have named her a master of the genre.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Folly
This is one of the best novels I have ever read. I enjoyed the story, the character and personality of Rae Newborn. She looked her fears directly in the face and proved that she was strong enough to carry through to her goals. I literally could not put this book down.
Rating:  - Unlike her Holmes or detective fiction... but darned good
Laurie King is simply a great writer who makes settings and characters come alive. After consuming every one of Laurie King's Mary Russell books (beginning with The Beekeeper's Apprentice), as though I had an attack of the munchies at midnight and found a box of cookies stashed in the pantry -- I started on her Kate Martinelli books. I found this one, a solo book (not in a series) at the library, and grabbed it as thought it was the last Wii at the toy store.
The beginning, I must ... Read More
Rating:  - Intriguing and Complex Character-Driven Mystery
King has created a moody, atmospheric thriller in which the reader is never quite sure what is real and what is imagined. At the heart of this novel is Rae Newborn, a 52-year old woman starting her life over on a remote island off the coast of Washington. For most of her life Rae has battled mental illness and depression. Eighteen months ago, the death of her beloved second husband and young daughter sent Rae spiraling into a complete breakdown. Now, although she is shaky, Rae has come to an island ... Read More
Rating: - I will have to differ with the other readers
Though the storyline was not bad, I couldn't help but be irritated with the main character. I am not familiar with mentally unstable people but this character is one selfish loser. After endangering her then infant child's life (the first one who is an adult in the story), she actually gets slighted if she has to fight for custody everytime she gets out of her insane stupor. Worse, she grumbles when her daughter and son-in-law took over her finances to pay her bills because she was crazy. It didn't even ... Read More
Rating: - Psychological thriller with rich character development
Laurie King's Folly is a very sympathetic portrayal of the effects of psychosis and madness on the individual. In this case it is Rae Newborn who is literally reborn from her last bout of suicidal mental illness through the solitude of an uninhabited island and the project of rebuilding a burned-out house. We join her as she leaves therapy to live on an isolated island off the coast of Washington state. Her only human contact is a weekly visit by a tatooed man called Ed who drops off her supplies and picks ... Read More
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