This is a recently published novel with strong Emily Brontë echoes:
Every Little Secret
by Emily Carpenter
Publisher: Lake Union Publishers
ISBN: 1503951901
Emotionally guarded Daphne Amos always believed she’d found a kindred spirit in her fiancé, Heath. Both very private people, they’ve kept their pasts hidden from the world, and each other, until Heath’s escalating nightmares begin to put an undeniable strain on their relationship. Determined to give their impending marriage the best chance of succeeding, Heath insists that Daphne join him on a seven-day retreat with Dr. Matthew Cerny, a psychologist celebrated for getting to the root of repressed memories. Daphne reluctantly agrees—even though the past is the last place she wants to go.
The retreat’s isolated and forbidding location increases her unease, as do the doctor’s rules: they must relinquish their keys and phones, they’ll be monitored at all hours by hidden cameras, and they’re never to socialize with the other guests.
One sleepless night, Daphne decides to leave her room…and only then does she realize that the institute is not at all what it seems—and that whatever’s crying out from Heath’s past isn’t meant to be heard. It’s meant to be silenced.
Deep South Magazine interviews the author who clarifies the Brontë influence:
Erin Z. Bass: What books or writers inspired you for this novel?EC: I was very inspired by a movie “Ex Machina” that takes place in one house, and things are not as they seem and the main character has to figure it all out. He goes from amused to annoyed to suspicious to terrified, and it’s just delicious. Masterful. The book that inspired me was Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The love story—or obsession story, people differ on what it actually is—between Heathcliff and Catherine was a bit of a mirror for some relationships in the book, as you’ll see by the opening quote.
EZB: Your main character is named Heath in a nod to Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, and you say in your acknowledgements that this book is “an unabashed love letter to Emily Brontë.” Can you talk more about that?
EC: I can’t tell you too much about why Heath is named what he is, or how it relates to the story, but I will say, I think that love and obsession are often closely linked and I think Emily Brontë nailed that concept in a way that nobody else has. The proof being that half the people who read Wuthering Heights swoon at Heathcliff and think he’s the most romantic of heroes, and the other half think he’s the opposite. The book’s not an easy read because the language and structure is really of its time, but the story is powerful and so emotional and completely relatable in these modern times.
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