She applied the Page 69 Test to her debut novel, The Murmurings, and reported the following:From page 69:Learn more about the book and author at Carly Anne West's website.
“So then you know where they found her,” I say, starting to get a little angry. If he knew, then what was he trying to accomplish by bringing me—?Suspicion and doubt.
Oh my God. It’s a joke. This is all just a joke to him. One of his football buddies put him up to it. He’s messing with me.
This is how page 69 of The Murmurings starts, and while I wouldn't say it’s representative of the plot, I would say it’s fairly representative of the constant suspicion our protagonist, Sophie, faces throughout the entire novel. Because of the unexplained circumstances surrounding her sister Nell’s death, and because of the slow unraveling of her perceived sanity throughout the story, Sophie is constantly at odds with her own intuition. She is left wondering who she can trust, and that suspicion makes its way to her own mind at various stages throughout the story.
This growing distrust of her sanity haunts Sophie throughout the novel as she explores the depths of betrayal that ultimately led to her sister’s death. Saddled with her own guilt and grief at the loss of her sister, Sophie understands that she could just as easily fall victim to the same betrayal, and ultimately succumb to the same fate as Nell, if she doesn’t solve the mystery of just how fragile her sister’s own mental state was. What she learns as the story unravels is that her sister had much less to fear with respect to her own sanity and much more to fear from the people surrounding her, and the evils they unearthed.
At its core, The Murmurings is a story of loss, haunting, and the horrors that can emerge from the depths of betrayal.
--Marshal Zeringue
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