One of the strangest books I've read this year....

I just finished a peculiar book today, and have decided to share it with you all.  The book is called :"The World Before Us" by Aislinn Hunter.  This book was provided to me by Blogging for Books for review.  It is by far one of the strangest books I have read.

The book starts off with Jane....an archivist for the Chester Museum.  Fueled by the disappearance of a small girl (Lily) under her care years previous, Jane is obsessed with finding "N", a woman who disappeared over 100 years ago in the same area.  She discovered "N" during research for her college thesis regarding mental institutions, including the Whitmore where "N" was from.

During the closing night of the Chester Museum, Jane has an altercation with her old employer and missing child's father, William Elliot.  Still thinking Mr. Elliot harbors bad feelings for her, Jane takes off back to the area where both Lily and "N" went missing to do some further research into who "N" was and where she disappeared to.

While all of this is going on, Jane is being followed and watched by numerous spirits who are trying to find out their identities and purpose of still lingering.  Each of these spirits finds memories in the work Jane does for the Chester, the research into "N's" life and just being in the area of the Whitmore in general.

Jane dives into her research and finds many connections between the prominent Farrington family and the Whitmore convalescent home,  Through this connection, both Jane and the spirits following her, learn many things about themselves and teh things that went on at the Whitmore.

 During her trip Jane finds herself as well.  She realizes that there is life after the mishap with losing Lily.  She meets a new man, Blake, a gardener at the estate she is researching.  The two start a relationship that is complicated but promising.

I'm not going to ruin it by telling you what happens to "N" or who the spirits are, but the discovery is quite brilliant.

The only problem that I have with this book is that there were a lot of unanswered questions.   We never find out what happened to Lily, or if Blake forgave Jane for her lies, or if she and William came to good terms.  The question of why the spirits never Ceased wasn't addressed either.  I am not a fan of open ended books, so I guess that's why it bothered me.

The writing style of the author itself was very good.  Just enough detail, but not overdrawn.  Te characters were interesting and well rounded.  The conclusion was just lacking.