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Carol Goodman
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The Lake of Dead Languages Paperback – Jan. 1 2003

by CarolGoodman (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 324 ratings
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The Lake of Dead Languages [LAKE OF DEAD LANGUAGES] [Paperback]
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  1. Language
    English
  2. Publisher
    Ballantine
  3. Publication date
    Jan. 1 2003
  4. Dimensions
    11.1 x 3 x 17.9 cm
  5. ISBN-10
    0099457768
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0099457763
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine (Jan. 1 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0099457768
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099457763
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 240 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 11.1 x 3 x 17.9 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 324 ratings

About the author

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Carol Goodman

Carol Goodman

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Carol Goodman is the author of twenty-three novels, including The Widow’s House and The Night Visitor, which won the 2018 and 2020 Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her family and teaches literature and writing at The New School and SUNY New Paltz.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
324 global ratings

Top reviews from Canada

saabataj
5.0 out of 5 stars Eerie! Non-spoilery review:
Reviewed in Canada on June 10, 2003
I stayed up until 4 AM because I just had to finish this book, couldn't put it down.
I have two words for it:
1. Chilling
2. Haunting
If you read it, you'll know it is chilling and haunting in more ways than one.
I liked the characterizations. The main narrator is very likable and you feel for her. What I would have done to have a friend like her. But I was mostly *her*, trusting my girl friends and liking them intensly in a high school girl crush kinda way. But you don't hate any of her friends even in the end. Girls do things sometimes, out of love and the need for love.
I liked the overall plot, though a bit stretched and long. I liked the psychology of it. So many people bearing guilt but all just hoping to relieve themselves of it and in some cases, unload it on someone else. Initially I thought, geez what's this thing with suicide...but turns out, it's not so creepy after all.
Goodman does a good job going back and forth between the past and the present and is able to hold your interest. Not many people can do that without being confusing especially with 6 characters - 3 girls in the past and 3 in the present.
I could see the plot twists coming a mile ahead, Goodman throws in a lot of clues, so it was not a *thud* moment when it actually unravels - it just confirms your theory but she times it well.
A good portion of the book is Goodman's description of the lake and its surroundings, the icy conditions, chilling, freezing weather that enhance the setting of the story. She does it without sounding too repetitive.
I liked Carol Goodman's language although I noticed a few grammatical errors, punctuations and such.
Lastly I wish there was an illustration of the lake adn the three rocks and a corniculum. I tried to come up with a visual but I couldn't.
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Cedric's Mom
4.0 out of 5 stars A Satisfying Companion to the Secret History
Reviewed in Canada on February 24, 2003
Carol Goodman's novel the Lake of Dead Languages is a worthy companion to Donna Tartt's Secret History. If you mourned finishing the Secret History, pick up Goodman's book. While not as lush as Secret History, the Lake of Dead Languages has enough similarities to its predecessor to feel like a continuation of Tartt's book.
Heart Lake School for Girls in the Adirondacks is described as a "last resort for a certain kind of girl." That is, the kind of girl who's bright, troubled, and mostly a bother to her moneyed family. Intelligent girls who've been kicked out of other boarding schools for the usual offenses (sex, drugs, acting out) are sent to Heart Lake. The school has steadily fallen in rank since its inception in the late 1800s. Jane Hudson, the story's protagonist, was once a student there when the school was of a higher rank. When Jane separates from her husband and has to fend for herself and her daughter financially, she returns to Heart Lake to teach Latin (the dead language of the title) and regain her footing in life.
Heart Lake has a dark legend (some would say curse), and the teenage girls at the school work hard to keep the legend alive. Problem is, actual events reinforce the legend, if not dictate the certainty of events. In Jane's quest to get at the truth of the past and the present, two parallel stories unfold.
When the past seems to repeat itself at the school, Jane decides to find out exactly what happened all those years ago. She muddles through the events of her youth at Heart Lake, carefully piecing together memories, family relations, old photos, and old journals to finally learn what happened to her close friends Lucy, Matt, and Deirdre. At the same time, she discovers that the current event is not as open-and-shut as everyone previously thought.
Jane's committed to finding out what happened at the school when she was a student there and what's going on now, but she seems like someone who simply got caught up in the momentum of her life. Having no strong sense of self or ambition, Jane's meandering life took her right back to where she was as a young woman: caught up in the events at Heart Lake. Jane learns far more than she bargained for, both about the past and the present.
I'd suggest keeping a list of character names, to keep things sorted out as the story progresses. Characters in the present parallel characters from the past. Add to that their Latin names, and it's easy to lose track of who's who. My one criticism of the story is the all-too-tidy ending. Fortunately, I didn't see it coming, and it transpires fairly quickly. That doesn't detract from the overall experience of the story. Lake of Dead Languages is an engaging read that you can polish off in a day or two. Perfect for a cold, dreary weekend.
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Michelle
5.0 out of 5 stars A Long Awaited Treasure
Reviewed in Canada on January 17, 2004
God, Carol Goodman has a way with words! I could literally NOT put the book down. My friends are pleading for me to stop recommending it: they'll read already! By the first chapter I was charmed, the second entranced, and halfway through the book I became captivated. Jane, the clever protagonist drew my eyes to the page and my heart to her character. I, too, fell in love with Lucy, coveted Deidre's sexuality, hoped to please Domina Chambers, and had a burning infatuation with Matt. By the time I finally put the book down, I felt like the story was my own. Writing is a passion of mine, even at the ripe age of 15, and I can only pray to achieve the magical style Goodman has!
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Top reviews from other countries

Helene Stephens
5.0 out of 5 stars Real Chills in an Old New England Girls School!
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2018
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When I completed reading this story, I had to turn up the heat! So much of the action takes place on, under, or near an iced lake at a private girls' school in snowy New England. Brrrrrr....!

The story is focused on Jane Hudson, who attended the Heart Lake School as a student; then, twenty years later, she returns to the school as a teacher of classical Latin. The school is a gothic dream: Heart Lake was once the manor house (with surrounding lake and other properties) of an old esteemed family, donated for the betterment and education of young ladies.

As a student, Jane's time was darkened by the tragic loss of her two roommates by suicide--along with the death of young man whom she had secretly loved. Now, as a teacher, there's a déjà vu situation, as similar tragedies begin to happen again, seeming to repeat the dreadful memories of Jane's previous school years. Jane finally begins to realize that she, herself, may be the intended target of revenge.

There are many characters in this story, well described and rounded, but it may be a challenge for the reader to keep track of the girl students' names: In addition to their real names, they assume a goddess name for their classic studies, so it is necessary to remember that (for example) Ellen Craven = Athena, Melissa Randall = Aphrodite, Sandy James = Vesta.

I enjoyed this read! There was a lot of good and interesting issues going on in the story, and I learned about May Day "pagan" rituals and "ice harvesting" and a lot of "chills" delivered via shadows of the past and the constant "moan" and "cries" of an icy lake, as the ice expands and contracts. (Scary!)

The writing was top-notch (as I say above, I "felt" the chill of the icy environment). The author took care to make her story authentic. It was enjoyable to get a taste of the Latin language and the classic tales that were being studied. Also, I liked the protagonist: Jane as teacher is presented with a good deal of authenticity and a personality that is very concerned about the welfare of her students. But when the past seems to replay before her, she becomes baffled as to who would hold her in such hatred.

The structure of the narrative varies between Jane's past and present at the Heart Lkae School, works well--alternating in clever ways that lend depth to the story. As a small drawback, this sometimes felt repetitive, as you might get an event from both viewpoints: student Jane and then teacher Jane. Still, it is relatively clear to follow.

The suspense comes from the threat of the deaths repeating themselves, and the young students (as well as Jane herself) at risk. There were suicides and deaths by drowning in Jane's earlier years, and then these dangers seem threaten to repeat. There was some psychological analysis of suicide-as-contagious, and this idea seems logical within the claustrophobic confines of the ancient Heart Lake School.

A good read! I would recommend this book--but be sure to have that afghan blanket nearby--it gets chilly!
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Darja
5.0 out of 5 stars Goodman does not disappoint
Reviewed in Germany on March 6, 2014
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Not very brainy, but great read. Mysterious and unputdownable, especially if you like thrillers about female professors of classics and literature with a bit of magic thrown in. I believe her Ghost Orchid is by far the best book, but The Lake of Dead Languages is definitely from the same family
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Ellesce
4.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 17, 2010
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I read this in 2 sittings and went ahead to buy other books by the author. Now, I'm not saying it perfect. There were some issues for me - first, I guessed pretty quickly what was going on. However, I still enjoyed reading it. Second, there were certain sections that were too long and I felt my eyes rapidly searching for the next line that would involve me. All that being said, I loved reading it and I do think its well plotted. The atmosphere is spot on and the characters are multi-dimensional. So I do recommend this book!
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Tina Morris
4.0 out of 5 stars a well-executed guilty pleasure
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2003
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Carol Goodman has produced a dark, gothic, yet sensual tale that will definitely not let you rest until the last page is turned. If you are a well-practiced mystery reader you are undoubtedly going to figure out some aspects of the extremely convoluted plot, since the build-up to some of the conclusions is just too elaborately crafted. But the author executes this so well that you actually don't mind. For parts of the book Goodman walks the very fine line between romantic drama and second-rate kitsch, but she always gets away with it because of her classy writing and overall exquisite and non-cheesy character development. Jane Hudson, her heroine latin teacher who returns to her old school to relive the horrors of adolescence is a slightly jaded and thus intensely likeable character. Her set of school teachers at Heart Lake made me chuckle more than once, and anybody who has ever had latin in school for extended periods of time and liked it will love the pangs of nostalgia that will be inevitable when reading this book. It is really hard to categorize this novel as a typical mystery. It is a coming-of-age story as much as a romance and a dark, atmospherically very dense gothic tale. An addictive guilty pleasure.
5 people found this helpful
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LoriG.
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2022
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I discovered Carol Goodman a few years ago when I purchased one of her books, The Widow’s House, in an airport. I loved that book but had not read another of hers until I rediscovered her in The Lake of Dead Languages. Her writing is descriptive, fast-paced, and she neatly ties up all of the loose ends along the way. I have downloaded several more of her books onto my Kindle and look forward to reading them all. I’m a fan for life!!
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