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    The Kept: A Novel
    The Kept: A Novel
    The Kept: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Kept: A Novel

    Written by James Scott

    Narrated by Kate Udall

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    In the winter of 1897, Elspeth Howell treks across miles of snow and ice to the isolated farmstead in upstate New York where she and her husband have raised their five children. Her midwife's salary is tucked into the toes of her boots, and her pack is full of gifts for her family. But as she crests the final hill, and sees her darkened house and a smokeless chimney, immediately she knows that an unthinkable crime has destroyed the life she so carefully built.

    Her lone comfort is her twelve-year-old son, Caleb, who joins her in mourning the tragedy and planning its reprisal. Their long journey leads them to a rough-hewn lake town, defined by the violence both of its landscape and of its inhabitants. There Caleb is forced into a brutal adulthood, as he slowly discovers truths about his family he never suspected, and Elspeth must confront the terrible urges and unceasing temptations that have haunted her for years. Throughout it all, the love between mother and son serves as the only shield against a merciless world.

    A scorching portrait of guilt and lost innocence, atonement and retribution, resilience and sacrifice, pregnant obsession and primal adolescence, The Kept is told with deep compassion and startling originality, and introduces James Scott as a major new literary voice.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJan 7, 2014
    ISBN9780062308726
    Author

    James Scott

    James Scott was born in Boston and grew up in upstate New York. He holds a BA from Middlebury College and an MFA from Emerson College. His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, One Story, American Short Fiction, and other publications. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and dog. The Kept is his first novel.

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    Reviews for The Kept

    3.5/5

    46 ratings30 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is, bar none, the bleakest novel I've ever read. Once begun, it is also one of the most irresistible. In 1897, a woman in upstate New York walks the 6 hours to her home from the nearest train station. She's a midwife and has been gone several months. She finds the bodies of her husband and four of her five children, and when she opens the pantry door, her surviving son, thinking she's a returning murderer, shoots her. He manages to nurse her to enough health that they set out to find the killers, even as her past "sins" are slowly revealed to have set the murders in motion. The characters are held at arm's length, and although told in alternating sections from the mother's and son's points of view, the story is in third person, increasing the sense of distance and suspense. The reader has few expectations as to what the characters will do, and rightly so. Attitudes and actions are rarely explained, and often I found myself wondering if this is really how people lived, but I'm willing to confess I know too little of the time and place to make a judgment. My only complaint is that the story ends very abruptly, without entirely resolving what happens, and this didn't make sense after almost 400 pages of immersion in the main characters' plans for revenge. So, a beautifully written and unbearably tense literary debut that somehow fall short at the very last page.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      For some people, the fever never breaks and they wander through the world of God with a piece of the Devil burning a hole through their brain, whispering into their ears. Page 121Elspeth Howell, a midwife comes home to her isolated farm from one her numerous and extended trips to the city to find her family shot, murdered, dead. With the sole surviving member of the massacre, her twelve year old son Caleb, Elspeth will now set off in search of retribution and revenge. Alone in each of their own world of guilt, memories, and torment, mother and son will come to face the sins of the past and together they walk towards a future that is no bleaker than what they've left behind. Scott's debut novel is not one of hope or of silver linings. He sets the tone of the entire book with the gruesome discovery of an entire family murdered in a home that is so enclosed in the wilderness that it could only have been the result of cold, calculated intent. What starts off with a heart wrenching opening sort of stalls at about the halfway point of the story as both mother and son are caught up in their individual journeys. Elspeth will come to terms with the secrets that has brought this destruction upon her entire family, and Caleb, forced to be the man he is not ready to become, obsesses over discovering the identity of the murderers. Both stranded in their respective islands, orbiting, but untouching. Despite lagging at moments, the final climax and resolution wraps up the story fittingly. Dark and dreary. Slow burning, and memorable. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      I was expecting much more from this book. I think it fell apart at the end (or at least it lost my interest).
    • 3/5
      Taylor references - openly, the debt being acknowledged - a raft of great nineteenth century novelists in this 400 plus page heavyweight. Sadly, "heavyweight" rather sums it up. I found this rather hard going. For me, the key characteristic of Trollope or Dickens that was missing here was the liveliness.
    • 3/5
      Whilst the writing and the language were evocative of the time, I was disappointed with this novel. Maybe I was expecting too much after having read 'Oliver Twist' by Dickens, "The Woman in White' by Wilkie Collins and 'Far from the Madding Crowd' by Thomas Hardy.The Story starts interestingly enough with the seemingly unrelated deaths of two gentleman and the decent into madness of a young widow who is then in effect imprissioned in a decaying country estate belonging to a strange elderly gentleman entrusted with her care. However the story then takes a long time to come together, with each chapter featuring various, at times, seemingly unconnected people or events including, a pet mouse, a wolf, a failed grogery salesman, a train robbery, lawyers, mens clubs, a pushy mother and other seedy characters. I admit at times to considering putting the book aside. I was glad when I reached the end, where I suppose after what seemed a very long time,everything did come together. Overall though, It didn't live up to the cover blurb.
    • 5/5
      Powerful, haunting, lyrical, and well-written novel set in the late 1890s in upstate New York. It's a story about family, about community, about life and death, good and evil... about survival, recovery, and revenge. Main characters are a mother and son and their journey to avenge a horrible tragedy. Amazing effort for a first novel!
    • 3/5
      This is the story of revenge, and of sinners. At the beginning, Elspeth is on a six-mile walk home, in winter, in 1897's upstate New York. She quickly learns that her husband and four of her five children have been killed by strangers. She and her surviving 12-year-old son set off on a trek to find the killers and extract revenge. The characters of both Elspeth and Caleb are complex, deep and well drawn. The story itself is a bit of a stereotypical western, and I found the plot didn't hold up to serious questioning once the characters got to the town of Watersbridge, where most of the story takes place. But the writing especially in the beginning, is beautiful and, as I said, the main characters are strong. So, all in all, a good (but bleak) read.
    • 4/5
      Kept is a Victorian murder mystery. Set in the 1860s, the book opens when an East Anglia squire falls from his horse and dies. His wife later goes mad and goes to live at Easton Hall, the home of Jonas Dixey, an eccentric, amateur taxidermist. Seemingly unconnected is a train robbery orchestrated by a couple of crooked lawyers and their henchmen. Channeling Dickens, Thackeray, Tennyson, and the sensationalist novelists of the 1860s, Taylor gives us a wonderfully descriptive picture of Victorian England. It’s clear that the author has done his research. While it takes a little while for the book to get to the point, the mystery is a little anticlimactic, and the book doesn’t really seem to have a proper ending, the characters in the novel are intriguing, lively, and unique. By far my favorite character was Esther, the lively kitchenmaid at Easton Hall. You never know where the story is going to take you next, and that’s what I liked about Kept. It’s similar to The Meaning of Night in that it provides its reader with a reasonably realistic, understated, and fictionalized view of Victorian England.
    • 4/5
      As I was reading through this, the thought struck me that I was really enjoying it because the author tried very hard to present his story in the manner of an actual novel written during the Victorian period. I love Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, etc and it occurred to me that the reason I love reading these guys is that the stories each writes is not just one single story, but a host of plots, subplots, character portraits and loose threads that come to be tied together at the end. I realized that Taylor was doing quite a fine job of setting forth Kept in such a manner, and it works, to a point. It is, of course, NOT a true novel written during that time, but more of a pastiche. The story itself is quite good and held my interest throughout the entire book. It opens with the death of one Henry Ireland, dead from a fall from his horse. Or at least, that is what it looks like he died from. He leaves behind Isabel, his wife, who is somewhat mentally unbalanced. Isabel is taken in by Mr. Dixey, a naturalist living out in the country as society begins to wonder exactly what has happened to her. Enter also a group of plotters who want to rob a train of its gold bullion & coins and you have enough to keep you busy for a while.A very delightful novel; the characterizations are, for the most part, done very well and the writing is quite good. I would recommend this book to others who like modern novels set in the Victorian period; this one is not a cozy by any stretch. I really appreciated the author's efforts to try to make it sound somewhat authentic.
    • 5/5
      The Kept is James Scott's debut novel - and it has firmly established him as a author to watch. 1897. Upstate New York. Midwife Elspeth Howell trudges home to the isolated farmhouse that houses her husband and five children. But, as she draws closer everything is silent - no noise, no smoke, no light. They're all dead, save one - twelve year old Caleb. Caleb, who sleeps in the barn, who is not comfortable with the scriptures his father lives by.....and who saw the men who killed his family. "Caleb feared she saw his guilt, but hoped she saw how he'd changed. He would defend them, he would find those men and he would kill them for what they'd done to his family." Caleb was a brilliant character. It was him I became invested in. His forced entry into adulthood was hard to watch, yet impossible to turn away from. His thoughts, his unerring goal and his path there were heartbreaking. Elspeth is a complex character as well. The opening lines of the book are hers. "Elspeth Howell was a sinner. The thought passes over here like a shadow as she washed her face or caught her refection in a window or disembarked from a train after months away from home. Whenever she saw a church or her husband quoted verse or she touched the simple cross around her neck, while she fetched her bags, her transgressions lay in the hollow of her chest, hard and heavy as stone." I was intrigued by the isolated setting and the veiled references to the past. Elspeth's sins, and her past are slowly revealed as the book progresses - not in statements, but in a deliciously slow manner through memories and flashbacks. There are a number of secondary characters that are equally well drawn. And like Elspeth and Caleb, also searching. For a sense of belonging, for acceptance, for family, for wealth, for power, for revenge, for vengeance, for the will to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Scott is a brilliant wordsmith. He prose easily capture the starkness, grittiness, the violence and the hard life that Caleb leads. But the tendrils of hopes, dreams, desires and love are also captured. Scott's descriptions of time and place were just as evocative. I trudged through the cold with Elspeth and Caleb (actually quite easy to imagine as it's -25C. (-13F) outside right now) and saw 'civilization' for the first time through Caleb's eyes. I really enjoyed The Kept. I had no idea where Scott was going to take his story. I appreciate being unable to predict where a narrative will wend. I did read the ending more than once, just to make sure I understood what Scott was saying. And a few more times to see how I felt about it. It's fitting - even if it's not what I would have wanted to have happen. Hauntingly bleak and beautiful. And recommended. Those who enjoy Cormac McCarthy and Charles Portis's True Grit would really enjoy The Kept.
    • 3/5
      This is a very dark story , set in the late 19th century, in rural upstate New York. The beginning is very brutal and very explicit and it is this that will set Elspeth the mother, and Caleb who is still very young, twelve or thirteen, on a quest for vengeance.Extremely well written for a first novel, it is very atmospheric and hard to forget. The scenes, the dialogue all are so vividly portrayed, what they have seen and what they go through so hard to forget. A boy, who had to grow up quickly and way to soon. A mother, who I really did not like until the end, when she finally figures out what it takes to actually be a mother. A story of guilt and justification. The cover is so perfect, the barrenness, the starkness, perfectly fitting for this novel. Reminds me a little of Bonnie Jo Campbell and her writing. The comparison to True Grit I can also see but like I said I had a hard time liking and forgiving Elspeth. Not sure that I ever did. A good, solid first novel, brutal in nature, but unforgettable. ARC from publisher.
    • 5/5
      This book had me transfixed from beginning to end. I found it a slow read but I literally had to force myself to put it down each night and did actually fall asleep reading as it just got too darn late. Set in 1897, up-state New York, an amazing opening scene grabbed me and had me hooked that I knew right away this was going to be my kind of book. What starts off as a tale of vengeance ends up one of redemption. Caleb, a 12 year old boy, is always the main character and he pulled my heart strings from the get go. I have a 13 year old son and was able to compare and contrast the difference in the times but still be aware of the innate mindset of twelve years of age. Very shortly after the book starts it is often hard to remember that Caleb is only 12 and I often started thinking of him as 16 or so; the author seems to be allowing the reader to do so by only very infrequently bringing back a mention of his real age which throws the reader for a loop reminding themselves of this and what this boy is being asked to do and how he is coping with the situation. Much further on in the book, things change and we are constantly reminded of his age and there is purpose to this as well. Elspeth, the mother, is an unlikable character but one grows to understand her, wonder at a woman's lot in this era where no psychiatric help was available, where it was the woman's fault if no children were born, and if a baby girl came first she was told to have a boy next time. Elpseth is responsible for her own actions though and by tale's end redemption is all she can, and does, ask for. I loved this book. It was atmospheric, dark, moody, and well-written. However, as soon as I finished the book I knew it would get mixed reviews and even some bad reviews. Some readers can't stand dark stories that don't have happy endings. Personally, I think if a soul finds redemption, that *is* a good ending. If you want happily ever after, this is not the book for you! If you want profound beautiful writing that tells a tale about life's sorrows and redemption you'll like this book. James Scott is a name I will be looking for in the future.
    • 3/5
      I liked the writing in this book. I liked the characters... but talk about DEPRESSING! I kept reading because I had high hopes for, if not a HAPPY ending, at least a decent ending. WRONG lol.

      I really did like the style of the author's writing. So - if you need a real downer, go for it!
    • 2/5
      look, being 'literary' doesn't excuse poor plotting or not having a goddamn ending.

      Utterly unsatisfying and confusing.

      Look, I read Victorian novels for fun. A book like this should have been my sort of thing. I just don't think Taylor did the Victoriana well. It was far too knowing at times, and far too earnest and others - and honestly, Taylor isn't good enough at writing characters that sound different to manage a book of this scope. It's too easy to get confused between the characters as they all seem so similar.
    • 3/5
      I really enjoyed the author's style of writing, and the beginning of the book was amazing. Once Elspeth and Caleb hit Watersbridge, though, I think the plot fell apart. I kept waiting for it to come back together, and I don't know that it ever did. I'm surprised at myself, but I really would have liked a happier ending.
    • 4/5
      Publisher's Synopsis:“In the winter of 1897, a trio of killers descends upon an isolated farm in upstate New York. Midwife Elspeth Howell returns home to the carnage: her husband, and four of her children, murdered. Before she can discover her remaining son Caleb, alive and hiding in the kitchen pantry, another shot rings out over the snow-covered valley. Twelve-year-old Caleb must tend to his mother until she recovers enough for them to take to the frozen wilderness in search of the men responsible.”I’m going to try to give you a feel of the book without relaying any of the plot, because you really want to let it unravel slowly. Winter. Winter in upstate New York in the late 19th century. Cold, grey, dismal and harsh. This is the atmosphere in which we first meet Elspeth Howell and this is the atmosphere from where neither she, nor the reader, ever escapes. The Kept is not a pleasant book. It is grim and merciless. From the flashbacks of Elspeth and her bible spouting husband to the images of her 12 year old son sweeping floors in a whore house the Kept maintained its sparse and gritty feel from beginning to end. Scott’s imagery is vivid in its desolation, his prose at times lyrical as he draws the reader into a desperate time and place where no one is really good or bad; sympathetic or reviled. We know that these were difficult and dangerous times fraught with bigotry, violence and a struggle to survive yet, Scott creates a multidimensional landscape in which our characters display the complexities of regret, determination, hope and resolve. The characters are shaped by and ultimately shape the environment they live in with their thoughts and actions. The pace and story line of the book was steady and realistic and reflected the journey ( both physical and emotional) experienced by the main characters until the middle when I felt it veered off track and introduced some characters and situations that disrupted its credibility. The ending came fairly quickly in a somewhat unsatisfying denouement.I think I liked this book- I certainly appreciated the author’s style and use of language but it left me feeling unsettled; think Ethan Fromme meets Road to Perdition.If you’re looking for a light read- this isn’t it- if you’re looking for a difficult read with stark imagery and interesting characters, give it a shot- it definitely worth the time.
    • 4/5
      A pastiche of course, but a totally intentional one. If you're looking for action and high adventure then this is probably not for you. If, however, you enjoy characterisation and descriptive prose, sentences constructed in the highest of high Victorian then read on. Both the descriptions of the bleak fens and the poverty of the London slums are brought evocatively to life. There are echoes of Dickens and Thackery and (strangely uncredited) Wilkie Collins. As a Patrick O'Brien devotee I was constantly reminded of his work - perhaps more because both authors are so thoroughly imbued in the period (although Aubrey and Maturin are a good 50 years earlier of course), rather than any direct comparison between the two. Cleverly the author writes from a variety of view points - first person narrative, excerpts from letters, newspaper clippings and the like. I think it is fair to say that no two chapters are alike.The plot is almost incidental to the story but includes all the best Victorian themes - murder, kidnapping and theft. If you accept this novel for what it is then you will enjoy it greatly.
    • 4/5
      The Kept is a gem of a book -- a powerful page-turner rendered in sharp, searing prose that offers a rewarding reading experience to a broad audience. I recommend it to any reader who finds the description of the plot interesting. I found the plot very intriguing when I first learned about the book, and James Scott's work managed to meet all of the high expectations I brought to my reading of his work. One strong impression I had of this novel was the cinematic quality of the story and its telling; I can easily imagine this book being effectively translated into the medium of film. I look forward to enjoying this book during a second reading in time. Please be advised that I received a free copy through the Goodreads First Reads giveaway program on the understanding an honest review would be provided after I finished the book.
    • 4/5
      The mystery in this novel remained obscure - at least to me - until perhaps three-quarters of the way through. Taylor's method of narration, which I found fascinating and well-executed, means that the reader is left unraveling even the parts of the story that aren't mysterious per se. For me, this was most of the fun of the story. Also, Taylor pulls off the style of the Victorian novel extremely well - the tone is right, the subplots are right, the huge cast of characters is right, and the way everything is wrapped up in the end is right as well (though not quite as satisfying as, say, Dickens). Recommended for those who like a puzzle, and especially for those who enjoy multiple threads of narration.
    • 3/5
      Started out so strong but, started to lose me about halfway through. It felt as though something was missing.
      great performance by the narrator however, a better job could have been done to eliminate the narrator's dry mouth. the constant clicking and smacking sound was very distracting. if your sensitive to this type of thing you may want to read this book rather than listen.
    • 2/5
      This book was SO depressing and very difficult to read in some parts. Even still, I think I would give it 2.5 stars. The writing was good, but once Elspeth and Caleb left their burned down home and decided to try to get revenge on the killers of their family, it lost it's allure, for me. Also, the twists that were supposed to be surprising I had figured out about 40 pages in. I did, however, feel like Caleb's character was one of the best developed characters I've come across in a while. As a mother of a 2 year old boy, my heart ached for him in many parts. Definitely need a palate cleansing book after this one.
    • 4/5
      A few modern novels set in the Victorian Age read like they might have actually been written during that period. D.J. Taylor's "Kept" (2007) is one of them. Taylor, better known as the biographer of George Orwell and William Thackeray than as a novelist, shows a gift for writing in a Victorian voice.Of course, this Victorian voice does make his book a bit of a challenge for modern readers. Two oddities about the novel add to the difficulties.1. The story has no protagonist. The title refers to an attractive widow who is being held against her will in a spooky country home belonging to to man whose main interests are collecting bird eggs and raising vicious dogs. This man, James Dixey, eventually falls in love with his prisoner, Isabel Ireland. Yet neither of these characters, nor anyone other character in the novel, can really be called the main character. There is no main character. The plot shifts from scene to scene, from character to character, making it difficult for readers to find a high point from which to view the whole story.2. Most fiction is told either from an omniscient, third-person point of view or from a limited first-person point of view. In other words, the narrator either knows everything or only what one particular character in the story happens to know. In "Kept," Taylor strangely employs both points of view at the same time. Phrases like "it seems to me" and "I think" abound throughout the novel, suggesting that the story is being told by some close observer of events. Yet a few sentences later this narrator is revealing characters' thought and private actions, things only an omniscient narrator could know. It's a bit bothersome not knowing who this first-person narrator is or how he happens to know so much about a story that involves so many different locales and so many different characters.Despite these difficulties and these oddities, I found "Kept" to be enjoyable reading
    • 5/5
      The Kept by James Scott is a dark, desolate, atmospheric, and extraordinarily well written novel. I very highly recommended The Kept.

      The opening establishes the tone for the remainder of this notable debut novel set in 1897:
      "Elspeth Howell was a sinner. The thought passed over her like a shadow as she washed her face or caught her reflection in a window or disembarked from a train after months away from home. Whenever she saw a church or her husband quoted verse or she touched the simple cross around her neck while she fetched her bags, her transgressions lay in the hollow of her chest, hard and heavy as stone. " Her sins, she tells us, castigating herself as she approaches her home, are anger, covetousness and thievery. Of her husband she notes, "It was as if he had turned piety into a contest and Elspeth lagged far behind."

      But as Elspeth nears her home after being gone for months, she realizes that something is amiss. "It was then that the fear that had been tugging at her identified itself: It was nothing. No smell of a winter fire; no whoops from the boys rounding up the sheep or herding the cows; no welcoming light." (pg. 5) There should be noise from Jorah, her husband, and their five children: Amos, fourteen, Caleb, twelve, Jesse, ten, Mary, fifteen, and Emma, six. The ominous quiet portends the unthinkable disaster that awaits her. Her whole family has been slaughtered. Before she can fully process what has happened, her middle son, Caleb, who was hiding in the pantry, mistakenly thinks the killers have returned and accidentally shoots her.

      After Caleb tends to her wounds, Elspeth survives and the two take an awful trek over frozen land and through blizzards to try and find the three men Caleb saw who killed their family. The brutal weather is as much a character as the brutal men they are seeking to find as they head toward Watersbridge, a lawless town beside Lake Erie.

      Both Caleb and Elspeth are fueled by their need for revenge, but at first only Elspeth knows that there may have been a reason for the seemingly senseless slaughter. Their quest marks the end of innocence and his childhood for Caleb, but is fueled by other emotions for Elspeth. While you learn to care for Caleb and try to understand Elspeth, it is also clear that nothing good is going to come from their search. Clearly it examines how actions always have consequences and vengeance is best left to the Lord.

      In The Kept by James Scott, we are presented with historical fiction in a literary novel with writing that transcends the ordinary. This is truly an extraordinarily well written novel.
      But it is also a dark, violent, and hopeless tragedy. I'll be the first to admit that it might not appeal to some readers. The tension is palatable and the dread steadily increases without relief. It is a relief to finish The Kept, if only to release the tension and melancholy that will threaten to overtake you, but it is a novel that will stay with you for a long, long time.

      Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of HarperCollins for review purposes.
    • 4/5
      This is going to be a hard one to review without giving out the secrets that are such an integral part of the novel. The Kept is a very dark story about Elspeth, a midwife who returns from a job to find her family brutally murdered. Only one son, Caleb survives; he witnessed the entire massacre and knows the faces of the killers. Elspeth and Caleb head off to find them to seek revenge but all is definitely not quite that cut and dry in this dark telling of murder, lies, secrets and redemption. The book is told in their two voices.I cannot say that I liked the story; it was far too dark. Too evil. Too cold. In my efforts to stretch myself by reading books outside of my usual genres I truly pushed with this book and despite the effort it took to read I am happy that I did read it. It was not an easy read and I did not read it all at once. I read it in between two other books as I needed the bread from the intensity of the tale.Mr. Scott writes a very intriguing character in Elspeth. She is not a good woman and that is made clear from the beginning. The reader is told from that start that she is a sinner. You just don't understand the full extent of that statement until much later in the book. But you have developed a strong sympathy for her because no mother deserves to come home to a family dead in the snow.This book is worth the read. It is not going to be a book for everyone and I'm sure I would not have gone near it 5 years ago. It probably deserves a second read as many books like this get better with the insights that foreknowledge of ending bring. Although the ending is really not as satisfying as I might have liked. As you can tell, I'm a bit torn on this one. So be it. I will state though, that the cover is one that draws you in and it is beautifully bound.
    • 5/5
      This debut novel is a powerhouse of a time and place that shows very little mercy to anyone. The frozen land is just as much of a character as is 11 year old Caleb, who has to grow up much too quickly in absolutely horrible circumstances. He heard and/or watched the murder of his father and his four siblings, surviving by hiding in the barn. He gets a glimpse of the three men who did this, and he knows it is up to him to find them and get frontier justice for their horrible deeds. While trying to figure out what to do, he hears someone crunching through the snow. As the door opens, once gentle Caleb shoots the intruder. Unfortunately, it was no stranger. It was his mother, coming back from an extended midwife trip. Nursing her as much as possible, plus dealing with the bodies of the rest of his family, he becomes a man with a mission. Soon, his mother is (barely) able to travel, and both begin to track the killers. Everyone in this book has some sort of secret, even the dead. And slowly, as the hidden comes to light, the action and tension increase throughout this book until the very last standoff. It is hard to believe that this is a first novel--the writing is absolutely stunning. James Scott is truly a new voice to pay attention to.
    • 4/5
      The Kept is a novel rife with spoiler alerts. Although it takes place in rural upstate NY in 1897, it feels like a Cormac McCarthy - just as violent and tragic. It begins with a mother and son trekking through winter to find the killers of the remainder of their family - husband and four other children. The marriage, a shadowy rock upon which the family rests uneasily, is between a white girl and a native American man and is somewhat of a enigma, as are the children. The main character, Elspeth, is hard and haunted. Her son Caleb is much easier with people, and it is he who steers them to their ultimate destiny. The lake town where they stay is peopled with unusual characters and the novel is clouded by heaviness without any relief or joy. But I'm glad I read it. The author takes great care in providing the reader with the innermost thoughts of Elspeth and Caleb, as much gloom as you can bear.
    • 4/5
      This is a truly bleak book. Caleb, a twelve year old boy, grows up in a home set intentionally far away from civilization. Caleb, intentionally sets himself outside of the family home living instead in the barn. One horrible day three men come and murder his father and siblings while Caleb watches from the safety of the barn. His mother,Elspeth, who had been away returns to find the bodies of her family and then very quickly shot by Caleb. The two go on a hunt for the three men and find themselves embroiled in the remnants of a crime and the retribution for a theft that has destroyed too many families.Well written, deeply haunting, but very dark.
    • 3/5
      (Fiction, Historical, Suspense)Amazon says: “In the winter of 1897, a trio of killers descends upon an isolated farm in upstate New York. Midwife Elspeth Howell returns home to the carnage: her husband, and four of her children, murdered. Before she can discover her remaining son Caleb, alive and hiding in the kitchen pantry, another shot rings out over the snow-covered valley. Twelve-year-old Caleb must tend to his mother until she recovers enough for them to take to the frozen wilderness in search of the men responsible.”I borrowed this from my daughter’s bookshelf during my visit, although I had previously never heard of it. It’s an odd premise, and a rather odd book although it did keep me interested enough to finish it.3 stars
    • 3/5
      “The Kept,” by James Scott, starts out as a formidable debut. In fact, the first few chapters were mesmerizing. I was spellbound with the powerful descriptive literary prose and compelled by the promise of an intense tale of revenge and retribution. But I didn’t get far into the book before the spell vanished and I found myself wondering if I even wanted to finish. What kept me reading was the hope that the early magic might return. The book is set in the wilds of upstate New York near Lake Erie a few years before the close of the 19th century. As the book opens, we find Elspeth trudging home through waist high snow. She’s been away for a long time and is looking forward to seeing her husband and five children. As she nears their isolated farmhouse, she immediately senses that something terrible wrong; there is no smoke coming from the chimney. She discovers that her family has been massacred. She barely has time to comprehend that 12-year-old Caleb is not among the dead, when she opens the pantry and is accidentally shot by her remaining son. He’d been hiding in abject fear for five days and was sure the murderers had come back to kill him.Elspeth barely survives the shotgun blast, but as soon as she is able to walk once again, mother and son set off determined to find the murderers and balance the scales of justice. Caleb tells Elspeth that there were three murderers; he saw them; he knows he’ll recognize them again if he sees them. There is no doubt that Caleb plans to murder the three men when he finds them. Passively, Elspeth accepts this and accompanies her young son on his vindictive quest. At no time does the mother or the son ever contemplate the possibility that there might be an alternative other than full out revenge. This is a book about sinners. Naturally, the three murderers are sinners and by the book’s end we discover who they are and what drove them to massacre a whole family. But also during the course of the book, we discover that the mother is a powerful sinner, too. The author’s given us ample warning of this fact; in fact, the book begins with the statement: “Elspeth Howell was a sinner.” But it’s not until the reader is well into the book before we know what her sins were…and how they may connect with the murderers. The book introduces us to two other major characters: Charles and Mr. White. They’re sinners, too…and the type of sinners they are will each play active roles as the plot progresses.I’m giving this novel three stars rather than two, because the book had enough going for it to compel me to finish it. I didn’t particularly like the ending, but that doesn’t mean it was not appropriate in light of the theme and all that had come before. I recognize that others may enjoy this book more than I did…that’s another reason why it is hanging onto its three-star rating by the edge of its bleak cover. The author has talent; I hope he continues and comes out with a far better book next time.
    • 5/5
      This book had a slow, yet steady pace. The storyline was consistent and I always found myself reaching for this book to find out what happened. However, if you're someone who cannot stand an open ending, veer far from this book. Personally, I still think of the characters!