Go to My Grave

Donna Weaver and her mother have achieved their dream of buying a large country house and turning it into a posh but homey bed and breakfast by the bay in Galloway, Scotland. With her mother away at a convention in Glasgow, Donna alone must handle their first real guests—a group of eight cousins ostensibly celebrating the tenth wedding anniversary of the second oldest, the rude and abusive Sasha. Things start with a literal bump when he knocks his much younger wife on her bum outside the house and then attempts to drive off without her. Donna always tries to see the best in people, however, and continues to make excuses for the bizarre behavior of this quarreling family and the secrets and tensions that slowly come to light over the weekend. It seems they have all been to this house before, 25 years earlier, for Sasha's traumatic and sinister 16th birthday celebration involving two local girls. Chapters alternate between Donna's narration of the deteriorating weekend and one of the local girls' account of those prior horrifying events. Pearl Hewitt's soft voice and perfect Scottish accent beautifully conveys Donna's mounting confusion, involvement, fear for the future, and worry for her guests. Hewitt is equally adept at portraying the two local girls, one of whom is 12 and reacting to vents with a sweetness that is terrible to behold.