Mr. Splitfoot: A Novel by Samantha Hunt (Epub)

Description

Ruth and Nat are seventeen. They are orphans living at The Love of Christ! Foster Home in upstate New York. And they may be able to talk to the dead. Enter Mr. Bell, a con man with mystical interests who knows an opportunity when he sees one. Together they embark on an unexpected journey that connects meteor sites, utopian communities, lost mothers, and a scar that maps its way across Ruth’s face.

Decades later, Ruth visits her niece, Cora. But while Ruth used to speak to the dead, she now doesn’t speak at all. Even so, she leads Cora on a mysterious mission that involves crossing the entire state of New York on foot. Where is she taking them? And who—or what—is hidden in the woods at the end of the road?

User’s Reviews

From School Library Journal At 17, orphans Ruth and Nat are on the brink of aging out of the religious cult they live in. Nat, who claims to talk with the dead, shares his visions with the other children, while Ruth helps him set the stage. When con man Mr. Bell comes to the home, he discovers in them a perfect scam, and he recruits them to join him in his travels. Years later, Ruth arrives at her sister’s home and entices her niece Cora to join her on a walking journey. Cora, practical, hardworking, pregnant by a married man, is unconnected to her own life and willingly goes with Ruth. The walking is hard, but Cora is fascinated by her silent aunt and is certain that Ruth is taking her somewhere important. In alternating chapters, readers follow teenage Ruth and Nat as they travel, while Cora and Ruth’s present-day walking journey bridges the past into a ghostly present that provides a way for Cora to connect not only with Nat but with the baby who is inching its way into her life. It is perplexing why Cora follows the silent Ruth, but Ruth’s story demands to be told, and Hunt delivers it in a prose style that dwells within another realm, allowing disbelief to be easily suspended. Much like Cora, who blindly follows Ruth into the wilds beyond her home, readers will wonder where they are going and by joining the protagonists’ journey will discover that what they imagine they know about someone is often quite different from the reality. VERDICT Hunt’s lyrical writing and compelling tale are perfect for well-read teens.—Connie Williams, Petaluma High School, CA –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review A truly fantastic novel in which the blurring of natural and supernatural creates a stirring, visceral conclusion.– “Kirkus Reviews (starred review)”An escapist adventure, a gothic page-turner that is also so finely crafted that you’ll feel enriched as well as transported for having read it.– “Esquire”An intriguing mystery with clues, suspense, enigmas galore, and an exhilarating, witty, poignant paean to the unexplainable, the unsolvable, the irreducibly mysterious.– “Boston Globe”An American gothic fever dream.– “Chicago Tribune”Ethereal…The book deftly straddles the slippery line between fantasy and reality…This spellbinder is storytelling at its best.– “Publishers Weekly (starred review)”Hypnotic and glowing.– “New York Times Book Review”Motherhood, religious zeal, poverty, predation, and the frailty yet relentlessness of life are among the rich themes that Hunt explores here.– “Booklist (starred review)”Readers…by joining the protagonists’ journey will discover that what they imagine they know about someone is often quite different from the reality.– “School Library Journal”The historical and the fantastical entwine like snakes in…this blend of romance and phantoms.– “Washington Post”Zombies are out, ghosts are in. Ms. Hunt…taps into the cultural zeitgeist with a new novel blurring the natural and supernatural.– “Wall Street Journal” –This text refers to the audioCD edition. From the Inside Flap Ruth and Nat are seventeen. They are orphans. And they are developing an uncanny ability to talk to the dead. These talents bring them into the orbit of Mr. Bell, a con man with his own mystical interests. Together they embark on an unexpected journey that connects meteor sites, utopian communities, lost mothers, and the scar that maps its way across Ruth’s face. Decades later and after years of absence, Ruth visits her niece, Cora. But while Ruth used to speak to the dead, she now won’t speak at all. It seems, though, that she has arrived just in time. Cora is in trouble — single and pregnant and not sure what is in store for her. Aunt Ruth has a plan, even if she’s not telling. Cora knows she must follow. Their journey becomes an odyssey. But where is Ruth taking them? Where has she been all these years? Why won’t she talk? And who — or what — is hidden in the woods at the end of the road? A subversive ghost story that is as haunting in its examination of family, motherhood, and love as it is in its conjuring of the otherworldly, Mr. Splitfoot will set your heart racing and your imagination aflame. Unwinding in an ingenious structure, it tracks two women in two times as they march toward a mysterious, explosive reckoning. A contemporary gothic, it is “a truly fantastic novel in which the blurring of natural and supernatural creates a stirring, visceral conclusion.”* *Kirkus Reviews, starred review –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ While I disagree, I do understand the literary world’s hesitancy (whether unconsciously or consciously) to popularize this novel: Mr. Splitfoot is a strange novel. Is it about cults? It is about seances? Is it about motherhood? Is it about orphans? Is it about love? There’s a little bit of a “yes” to each of those questions pertaining to Mr. Splitfoot, but this novel transcends every genre and is unapologetically original, unapologetically unorthodox, unapologetically…simple.If I told you this novel is nonlinear, the leisure reader in you might roll your eyes. But while it is technically nonlinear (though not nearly as in depth and insane as Cloud Atlas), there are basically two storylines you need to follow.I’m tempted to talk about the plot here, but let’s not. Let me just say that it’s a shame that more people haven’t read this novel. This novel is psychedelic and poetic and hypnotic. Once the ending comes, it hits you hard, and there’s an OH-moment. And I can’t say what that OH-moment is. That’s a discussion to be had with two people who’ve read this novel. Talking about it in this review (even without any plot points) would dismantle the entire experience.I hope you give this novel a chance. Stick with it. It’s not very long. It’s not a thriller; it’s not a horror; it’s not science fiction; it’s not a comedy; it’s not a drama. I don’t know what the the heck this novel is, in terms of genre, but it’s amazing.

⭐ I felt at times like I was missing an important point or bit of information to understand what was going on in the lives of the characters. Sometimes the jump in timeline caused this, other times it was just not linking actions to a result (or their being no result). I didn’t hate the book, but it just felt like it was missing something–or maybe I did. One prime example: Who is Mr. Splitfoot? (I get the symbolism, but in the book I don’t see the idea play out.)

⭐ Mr. Splitfoot really should work for me. Unfolding across two time periods, it follows two halves of the story of Ruth, an orphan raised in a group home by a religious cult leader. In the first story, we follow Ruth and her closest friend, a young man named Nat, as they attempt to survive their bizarre childhood and find themselves falling in with a traveling con man who spies Nat’s “communing with the dead”; in the second, a much older Ruth visits her niece Cora, who’s single, pregnant, and questioning her place in the world, and decides to follow a strangely silent Ruth on a long walking journey to…well, somewhere, right?Con artists, religious cults, doomsday prophets, and ghost stories – all of it should add up to a book I loved. Instead, Mr. Splitfoot was an absolute slog for me, losing its way in overwritten and turgid prose more interested in showing off than in conveying a story, confusing “cryptic” for “interesting”, and never realizing that it takes a certain kind of story to handle a lack of clear answers, and this sure isn’t one. Much of the blame for that has to be laid at the feet of the Ruth and Cora story, whose tedium really can’t be overstated for me; while the initial mystery is intriguing (where are they going? Why won’t Ruth talk?), the story feels like it’s spinning its wheels waiting on the point where it can intersect with the other plot thread, and so instead we get chapter after chapter after chapter of the characters walking and Cora thinking to herself. Which, in of itself, might not be a bad thing, but Hunt never brings much interesting to the table in these sequences, and at a certain point, the big reveals she has at the end of the story are so weak and pointless that they can’t justify the wait to get there.But even the section of the book that follows Ruth in her childhood falls flat ultimately, as the plot gets more and more ludicrous and twisty, robbing it of its pleasures. Setting aside Hunt’s showy writing, the group home material is at least engaging, if eye-rollingly Gothic at times. And as the con man surrogate father enters the book, there’s a sense that at least we’re going somewhere fun. But, alas, that’s not meant to be, as things get silly once again by the end and Hunt’s convoluted story starts doubling back on itself.Mr. Splitfoot feels like a Gothic ghost story that’s embarrassed to admit that it’s a genre piece, and so it gussies itself up with overwrought prose and leaves enigmas aplenty so as to feel “literary”. But the enigmas aren’t thought-provoking; they’re tedious and annoying. And the prose is never engaging or rich; it’s just distracting and forced. It all adds up to a slog on just about every level.

⭐ I couldn’t put this book down! After getting past the first couple of (slow and a bit hard to follow) chapters, I was hooked. The chapters alternate between the past and present (about 10-15 years later) and cliff-hanger chapter endings make it hard not to keep reading to see what happens next. The past and present become more and more interwoven as you go and the characters (all definitely weird and quirky) become more endearing. The book is may be intended for teens, which I think is most evident at the beginning, but I (a 23 year old English major) loved it. The novel centers around themes of motherhood, contemplation of death/the dead, and even cult-like groups; at times the book borders on fantasy and can be dark but is ultimately a heart-warming story of a women coming into themselves and coming to grips with the past and the strange world they “live” in. I can’t wait to read more of Hunt’s work.

⭐ Stream of conscious, dream-like and almost reads like a poem that spiraled spontaneously into a novel. It’s easy to liken it to niche music like that of a band like the Sugar Cubes, in that it takes time getting properly acclimated to its distinctive style that not all will enjoy but others will love. It may annoy you immensely or if you give a it a few chapters to get into the groove, it just might rock your world.

⭐ I’m not gonna write a book review, I’ll just say if you like YA, a little realistic fantasy and appreciate some badass yet subtle feminist undertones – try this. The ending was surprising, original and satisfying. More Samantha Hunt please.

⭐ Several of my favorite writers on Jezebel recommended this book, and they were dead on. I can’t stop thinking about this after I read it. It pairs perfectly with a gloomy day and a glass of wine. I also just LOVE how Samantha Hunt describes things in this, she’s got such a fascinating perspective on things. If you’re into anything spooky, etherial, dreamy or any mix of those things, you’ll love this novel.

⭐ I came to this book because it was on a couple of lists of the most vitally important 100 novels of the past three decades. Well, maybe these days this is high grade fiction. It struck me as poorly-written grade Z young adult.

⭐ This is a deeply moving and strange book. It reminds me a bit of Geek Love, with its darkness and bravery. I think Samantha Hunt is probably a really cool person.

⭐ Read this one quickly, not because it was a real page turner, but because I kept hoping for something to happen. It finally did in the final few pages, but it was a little boring getting there.

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