Eventide by Sarah Goodman (review)

It’s 1907, and Verity and her little sister, Lilah, are on an orphan train headed to Wheeler, a small town in Arkansas. The siblings are separated when sweet little Lilah is swept up by Miss Maeve, the town’s lovely schoolteacher, while Verity is taken on as an indentured farmhand with another family, but Verity’s got plans to get them back together and return to New York once she turns eighteen. Even a city girl can tell there’s something not right with Wheeler, a suspicion confirmed for Verity when she gets lost in the woods and meets a ghostly girl. Meanwhile, Miss Maeve is becoming increasingly possessive of Lilah, and Verity uncovers a secret that links the two sisters to a dark tragedy in the teacher’s life. Interspersed between Verity’s narrated chapters is a story about an unwanted pregnancy, a doomed romance, and a cursed well, and while readers will rightly assume they’re connected to Miss Maeve’s past, the role they play in Verity’s family history brings a few surprises. Threads come a little loose with the introduction of creepy old herbalist and love potions, but the overall story of betrayal, ghosts, and loves lost is well crafted with pacing that spools out secrets with just the right amount detail to continuously draw readers along. Miss Maeve is more tragic figure than villain, and the story pays heed to the complexity of her trauma while still maintaining an air of menace and danger. There’s a happy ending but not without a cost, a reminder that the ripples of betrayal can extend over generations.