Sara Flannery Murphy. (2017). The Possessions: A Novel. HarperCollins.

Sara Flannery Murphy. 2017. The Possessions: A Novel. HarperCollins.

Sara Flannery Murphy, The Possessions: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2017.

Sara Flannery Murphy. The Possessions: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2017.

OverDrive Product Record

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0293-1/{ECB80AEA-1F5E-4F54-8BC4-39E535856725}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0293-1/{ECB80AEA-1F5E-4F54-8BC4-39E535856725}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0293-1/ECB/80A/EA/{ECB80AEA-1F5E-4F54-8BC4-39E535856725}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0293-1/ECB/80A/EA/{ECB80AEA-1F5E-4F54-8BC4-39E535856725}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

formats

1. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780062458339
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
2. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ASIN
        • value: B01G1G47CI
   • name: Kindle Book
   • id: ebook-kindle
3. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780062458339
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • id: ebook-overdrive

mediaType

eBook

primaryCreator

• role: Author
• name: Sara Flannery Murphy

title

The Possessions

dateAdded

2017-01-19T23:34:42.99Z

contentDetails

1. • href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=2726650
   • type: text/html
   • account:
     • name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
     • id: 1151

sortTitle

Possessions A Novel

crossRefId

2726650

subtitle

A Novel

id

ECB80AEA-1F5E-4F54-8BC4-39E535856725

starRating

3.1

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain

False

formats

1. • fileName: ThePossessions_9780062458339_2726650
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 557045
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780062458339
   • rights:
     1. • type: Copying
        • value: 0
     2. • type: Printing
        • value: 0
     3. • type: Lending
        • value: 0
     4. • type: ReadAloud
        • value: 1
     5. • type: ExpirationRights
        • value: 0
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
   • onSaleDate: 2/7/2017
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=ecb80aea-1f5e-4f54-8bc4-39e535856725&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
2. • fileName: ThePossessions_2726650
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 0
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ASIN
        • value: B01G1G47CI
   • name: Kindle Book
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-kindle
   • onSaleDate: 2/7/2017
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=ecb80aea-1f5e-4f54-8bc4-39e535856725&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
3. • fileName: ThePossessions_9780062458339_2726650
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 700483
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780062458339
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-overdrive
   • onSaleDate: 2/7/2017
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=ecb80aea-1f5e-4f54-8bc4-39e535856725&.epub-sample.overdrive.com

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Murphy, Sara Flannery
   • bioText:

     Sara Flannery Murphy grew up in Arkansas, where she divided her time between Little Rock and Eureka Springs, a small artists' community in the Ozark Mountains. She received her MFA in creative writing at Washington University in St. Louis and studied library science in British Columbia. She lives in Oklahoma with her husband and son. The Possessions is her first novel.

   • name: Sara Flannery Murphy

imprint

Harper Audio

publishDate

2017-02-07T00:00:00-05:00

isOwnedByCollections

True

title

The Possessions

fullDescription

"A gripping, chilling read that's part love story, part mystery, and completely original, it's sensuous, scary, and utterly thrilling." —Anton DiSclafani, author of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls

In this electrifying literary debut, a young woman who channels the dead for a living crosses a dangerous line when she falls in love with one of her clients, whose wife died under mysterious circumstances.

In an unnamed city, Eurydice works for the Elysian Society, a private service that allows grieving clients to reconnect with lost loved ones. She and her fellow workers, known as "bodies", wear the discarded belongings of the dead and swallow pills called lotuses to summon their spirits—numbing their own minds and losing themselves in the process. Edie has been a body at the Elysian Society for five years, an unusual record. Her success is the result of careful detachment: she seeks refuge in the lotuses' anesthetic effects and distances herself from making personal connections with her clients.

But when Edie channels Sylvia, the dead wife of recent widower Patrick Braddock, she becomes obsessed with the glamorous couple. Despite the murky circumstances surrounding Sylvia's drowning, Edie breaks her own rules and pursues Patrick, moving deeper into his life and summoning Sylvia outside the Elysian Society's walls.

After years of hiding beneath the lotuses' dulling effect, Edie discovers that the lines between her own desires and those of Sylvia have begun to blur, and takes increasing risks to keep Patrick within her grasp. Suddenly, she finds her quiet life unraveling as she grapples not only with Sylvia's growing influence and the questions surrounding her death, but with her own long-buried secrets.

A tale of desire and obsession, deceit and dark secrets that defies easy categorization, The Possessions is a seductive, absorbing page-turner that builds to a shattering, unforgettable conclusion.

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Refinery 29, Lead Pick
   • content: "A Gone Girl-esque twisty thriller about a woman who tries on dead people's souls for size."
2. • premium: False
   • source: Publishers Weekly, starred review
   • content: "Suspenseful...a beautifully rendered, haunting page-turner."
3. • premium: False
   • source: Cosmopolitan
   • content: "Lush, hair-raising."
4. • premium: False
   • source: Kiristine Huntley, Booklist, starred review
   • content: "Murphy's sublime debut is immersive from page one.... A complex novel that is both unforgettable and impossible to put down."
5. • premium: False
   • source: Portia Kapraun, Library Journal, starred review
   • content: "This poignant tale is a study of grief and obsession.... Murphy's imaginative debut is a haunting ghost story and a thrilling mystery that will engross readers until the final page."
6. • premium: False
   • source: Amanda Trivett, BookPage
   • content: "An addictive, slow-burning mystery that fuses classic noir with the intrigue of speculative fiction... Murphy ensures compulsive page-turning until the past and future of each character is unveiled, and the crescendo of that reveal is heady and satisfying."
7. • premium: False
   • source: Hank Stephenson, bookseller, Flyleaf Books, ShelfAwareness
   • content: "The numerous mysteries that weave in and out of the main plot add a page-turning element to the book, and another ingredient to Murphy's intriguing genre fusion.... The Possessions is difficult to classify but very easy to enjoy."
8. • premium: False
   • source: Anton DiSclafani, author of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls
   • content: "I was totally immersed in the strange, beautiful world of Sara Flannery Murphy's The Possessions. A gripping, chilling read that's part love story, part mystery, and completely original, it's sensuous, scary, and utterly thrilling. I've never read anything quite like it."
9. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from November 7, 2016
     Behind the reassuringly bland facade of the Elysian Society, dramatic, distressing, and sometimes dangerous scenes play out daily as the bereaved seek to communicate with their departed loved ones, in Murphy’s suspenseful supernatural-tinged debut, set on the gritty side of an unnamed U.S. city. The bridges between the living and the dead are people referred to as bodies, such as the young woman known as Eurydice (aka Edie), who after ingesting pills called lotuses can summon these spirits. The work perfectly suits emotionally guarded Edie, who apparently wants nothing more than to lose herself after a traumatic past, which only gradually emerges. But her carefully maintained shell starts to crack when she begins sessions with Patrick Braddock, an attractive lawyer, whose stunning wife, Sylvia, drowned 18 months earlier under suspicious circumstances. As Edie finds herself sexually drawn to Patrick and experiencing disturbing flashbacks, which seem to come from Sylvia, her efforts to investigate what happened that night at a lake outside the city—and its potential connection to a recently discovered Jane Doe—land her in very real jeopardy. Those ready to buy into the author’s premise will be rewarded by a beautifully rendered, haunting page-turner. Agent: Alice Whitwham, Alice Whitwham Agency.

10. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      November 15, 2016
      In Murphy's debut novel, people can reconnect with the dead through the Elysian Society, whose employees--known as "bodies"--are temporarily possessed with the help of a drug called a "lotus."Eurydice, or Edie, as she is better known, has worked as a body for five years when she meets Patrick Braddock, who wants to connect to his beautiful late wife, Sylvia. From the beginning, she finds herself strangely drawn to Patrick but also to pictures of Sylvia, and when Patrick breaks protocol and gives her many of Sylvia's possessions to use during her channeling, Edie is unable--and unwilling--to refuse. As Edie falls deeper into lust with Patrick, she can't let go of Sylvia, whose spirit seems to have taken possession of the corners of her soul and body, and she continues to investigate the mysterious circumstances that surround Sylvia's drowning. Meanwhile, a highly publicized murder turns out to be connected to the shadowy Elysian Society. The novel's power lies in a careful balance between concealment and explanation. For example, it isn't until Edie watches one of the other bodies channel a dead spirit that we as readers understand how the process works and, more important, how the bodies act when they're channeling. The psychology is endlessly fascinating, and there should have been a chance for deep exploration of grief's clarity and its selfishness. The weakness is Edie herself. She often references her plainness, the fact that her personality has a certain blankness that better allows her to channel others, but this blankness also renders the narrative voice both emotionless and self-righteous, so it can be hard to connect to and feel sympathy for the character. Imaginative and original, this is a novel that should have resonated more deeply.

      COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

11. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from December 15, 2016
      Murphy's sublime debut is immersive from page one, when we meet Edie, a body at the Elysian Society who channels deceased loved ones thanks to a drug known as the lotus. Edie has worked for the society for five years, enjoying the anonymity it gives her as well as insulation from the demons of her past. Then Patrick Braddock walks into her life, hoping to make contact with his wife, Sylvia, who drowned a year ago while they were on vacation. Edie is immediately taken with Patrick and becomes fixated on him and his relationship with Sylvia. Soon she finds a way to see him outside of work, and she makes a connection with the couple who joined Patrick and Sylvia on their fateful vacation. But as Edie insinuates herself into Patrick's life, she starts to see the cracks in what she assumed was his happy marriage to Sylvia, even as she becomes more consumed by her desire for him. Murphy expertly blends the dual mysteries of the circumstances surrounding Sylvia's death and Edie's own tragic past with suspense and sf-tinged mystery in a complex novel that is both unforgettable and impossible to put down.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

popularity

534

links

• self:
  • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/ecb80aea-1f5e-4f54-8bc4-39e535856725/metadata
  • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json

id

ecb80aea-1f5e-4f54-8bc4-39e535856725

starRating

3.1

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0293-1/{ECB80AEA-1F5E-4F54-8BC4-39E535856725}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0293-1/{ECB80AEA-1F5E-4F54-8BC4-39E535856725}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0293-1/ECB/80A/EA/{ECB80AEA-1F5E-4F54-8BC4-39E535856725}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0293-1/ECB/80A/EA/{ECB80AEA-1F5E-4F54-8BC4-39E535856725}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

isPublicPerformanceAllowed

False

languages

1. • code: en
   • name: English

subjects

1. • value: Fiction
2. • value: Literature
3. • value: Romance
4. • value: Thriller

publishDateText

02/07/2017

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 9780062458322

mediaType

eBook

shortDescription

"A gripping, chilling read that's part love story, part mystery, and completely original, it's sensuous, scary, and utterly thrilling." —Anton DiSclafani, author of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls

In this electrifying literary debut, a young woman who channels the dead for a living crosses a dangerous line when she falls in love with one of her clients, whose wife died under mysterious circumstances.

In an unnamed city, Eurydice works for the Elysian Society, a private service that allows grieving clients to reconnect with lost loved ones. She and her fellow workers, known as "bodies", wear the discarded belongings of the dead and swallow pills called lotuses to summon their spirits—numbing their own minds and losing themselves in the process. Edie has been a body at the Elysian Society for five years, an unusual record. Her success is the result of careful detachment: she seeks refuge in the lotuses' anesthetic...

sortTitle

Possessions A Novel

crossRefId

2726650

subtitle

A Novel

publisher

HarperCollins

bisacCodes

1. • code: FIC019000
   • description: Fiction / Literary
2. • code: FIC027110
   • description: Fiction / Romance / Suspense
3. • code: FIC031080
   • description: Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological