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Carol Goodman
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Arcadia Falls. Carol Goodman Paperback – March 1 2010

by Carol Goodman (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 145 ratings
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  1. Print length
    386 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Piatkus Books
  4. Publication date
    March 1 2010
  5. Dimensions
    15.2 x 3 x 23.4 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0749942371
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0749942373
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Piatkus Books (March 1 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 386 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0749942371
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0749942373
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 520 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.2 x 3 x 23.4 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 145 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

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
145 global ratings

Top review from Canada

gammyjill
5.0 out of 5 stars Slightly confusing story...
Reviewed in Canada on May 5, 2010
but well-written. "Arcadia Falls" is the first Carol Goodman novel I've read. The story she tells, about an arts colony turned boarding school, is complicated, but at the same time, interesting.

The story is told in the first person by recent widow, Meg Rosenthal, who arrives with her 16 year old daughter at the boarding school in Arcadia Falls, New York. The school is run by a rather spooky older woman, Ivy St Clare, which is just one of the problems at the school. The faculty is predictably odd, and the students, mostly girls, are at the prime of teenage angst. Rituals lead to deaths which lead to murder charges. While most of Goodman's novel takes place in current times, the diary of one of the founder's of the art colony, Lily Eberhardt sends the story back to the 1920's, 30's, and 40's. Out of wedlock births and botched adoptions lead to people at the school not always being who they assume they are OR who are assumed they are by other people. It's all a bit confusing, but by the end, loose ends are tidied up.

Goodman's a good writer and the novel is enjoyable.
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Top reviews from other countries

Molly
5.0 out of 5 stars another hit by Goodman
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2011
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Meg Rosenthal is recently widowed with a sixteen year old daughter. No longer able to afford her home in Great Neck, she accepts a teaching position at Arcadia, a private school in upstate New York. Arcadia used to be an artists' retreat started by Vera Beecher and Lily Eberhardt, now both deceased. Meg is doing her PhD thesis on the fairly tales written by these women, so it seems like a perfect situation for her. But one of the students dies the first night there and Meg worries about the influence on her daughter, Sally, who has not recovered from the death of her father. She also uncovers a journal belonging to Lily and discovers some secrets that others might not want known.

my review: I have been a huge fan of Carol Goodman since I read her first novel, The Lake of Dead Languages, followed by The Seduction Of Water, The Drowning Tree, and Ghost Orchid. But then I was not impressed with The Sonnet Lover or The Night Villa. But I am happy to say that she has impressed me again with her latest.

She really is an amazing writer and infuses her mysteries with literature and art. The way she describes the fairy tales and art in this story makes me wish they were real, something I feel every time I read her books.

"It's the crystal path that the lost girl takes after she meets the white witch," Sally says, her voice clear as crystal itself. They're the first words untinged by bitterness or regret I've heard her say in months. " See the trees look like girls in torn dresses because of the way the bark's peeling...

She creates a Gothic type atmosphere with pagan rituals and isolated locations. She also creates a interesting back story that is revealed in bits and pieces and kept me captivated. I read the book in one day and felt very satisfied after finishing. There were a few plot twists, some I suspected, some I did not.

I really can not stress enough I how believe Goodman to be a very underrated writer and I can not recommend her work enough!

my rating 4.5/5
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MJ Mason
4.0 out of 5 stars Thoughts on Carol Goodman
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 9, 2014
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I've liked Carol's books for a long time, and this novel follows her usual format. However I thought the ending was rather rushed, as if she was already thinking about her next novel.
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Kathleen Valentine
4.0 out of 5 stars Changelings, fairies, witches, artists: Gothic Deliciousness
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2011
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Within the first few chapters of Carol Goodman's 2010 novel Arcadia Falls I knew I was going to love it. The story was crafted with traces of three of my all time favorite books: Donna Tartt's  The Secret History  (a remote, mysterious school for unique students where pagan rites got practiced, located on the edge of a deep gorge ideal for murder), A. S. Byatt's  Possession (a love triangle between two women artists/lovers and the man who comes between them, pregnancy, abandonment, grief), and Clarissa Pinkola Estes'  Women Who Run with the Wolves  (folklore, myths, changelings, ritual). I settled in for a dark, steamy, luscious read and I was not disappointed until... well, I'll get to that.

The story is simple on the surface. Meg Rosenthal is a recent young widow from New York, mother of an unhappy teen Sally, and broke after discovering that her recently departed husband Jude has left the family in dire financial straits. Meg applies for, and gets, a job at a quirky arts school located in deep forests of upstate New York, Arcadia Falls. The school was originally an artists colony known for its lush, sylvan setting in the deep woods on the edge of a dangerous but beautiful gorge complete with waterfall. In the early part of the twentieth century artists gathered there and, free of the need to make a living, blossomed in their various disciplines. Arcadia Falls was run by the cool, controlling Vera Beecher and her beloved LilyEberhardt. As artists they best known for their exquisitely illustrated books of fairy tales especially one called The Changeling Girl which was a favorite of Meg's early life.

Goodman creates an atmosphere so rich, lush and mysterious it throbs with Gothic intrigue and dark, delicious possibilities. Meg and her daughter arrive at the school in the midst of an autumn ritual about to be held and move into a the cottage that had once been the secluded retreat of Vera and Lily and their life together. A life that ended when Lily's affair with a sculptor who comes to teach at the school ends in her accidental death by falling into the gorge. Or was it an accident?

Within days an autumn Samhain ritual ends in death as a student, Isabel Cheney, meets with the same death Lily did. And the game is afoot. The cast of characters in Arcadia Falls is delicious - the dark, demanding headmistress Ivy St. Clare, a dishy, hunky sheriff in the nearby town, and a number of quirky artists/teachers from the school and local community.

Meg, while exploring her new home, discovers a secret panel behind the fireplace (how can anyone not LOVE a secret panel??) and inside she finds Lily's journal. At this point the book alternates between the present story and entries in Lily's diary, a literary device I happen to love. Meg also discovers that she is powerfully attracted to Cullum, the hunky sheriff.

I loved this story. I loved the atmosphere, the dark, pagan-themed rituals, the intrigue, the mystique. Upstate New York, especially the area of the Adirondacks, has always mesmerized me, so I sunk into this story and genuinely left the world. The writing was beautiful, the characters real, the settings luscious - there is even a segment set in an old convent, and we all know how much I love stories set in old convents ( Each Angel Burns ).

So when the climax comes and the true story starts to unfold I'll confess I was a little annoyed with the clichés that began popping up ("I wondered how long it would take you to figure it out," the villain crows, and then, "How do I know you're not lying?" Pretty cliché dialog.) But, okay, it was only a few sentences in an otherwise lovely tale. Then, with the villain vanquished, we come to the denouement, that literary device in which everything is finally made clear. Here I must confess I was sadly disappointed. Goodman, who is a very brilliant writer, concocted a deus ex machina explanation that came so far out of nowhere it was hard to believe she would even do that to her readers. I was crushed.

I love the way Goodman writes and I have ordered two more of her books and look forward to them. I adored this story until the final few chapters and still think it had moments of pure genius but, Ms Goodman, unless I missed something, you need to build a little more foreshadowing into your denouements. That was just weird. I look forward to the books that I ordered and hope you don't pull another stunt like that. But thanks for some great reading anyway.
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joyfully centered
3.0 out of 5 stars Not what was expected
Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2013
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Carol Goodman is the type of writer that is so engaging but this novel was not up to her usual par. It began with an engaging premise where the main character has to deal with grief, a drastic change of life circumstances, and a traumatized teen daughter. The lead is a teacher at an arts boarding school in upstate NY. She uses fairy tales to entice her students to consider their own lives and history. Interwoven were fairy tales and art, as well as the history of the boarding school and the arts colony from which it grew. However, there were elements that became so overblown and unrealistic, it turned into a melodrama. Disappointing towards the end.
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Shelly
5.0 out of 5 stars Arcadia Falls
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2012
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This was the first book of this author that I've read and I was instantly hooked! I think the characters were brilliant and the thrill of the read - well what can I say - read it!!!
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