Review: 'The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess' by Andy Marino, narr. by Christine Lakin

 What happens when a man has entered your house and you catch him in the act? What happens when you wake up in the hospital with no memory of what came after you coming in through the door? And what if that is only the beginning of the story? The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess was on my radar for a while precisely for these questions and while some where answered, many others popped up. Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 9/28/2021
Publisher: Hachette Audio

Possession is an addiction.

Sydney's spent years burying her past and building a better life for herself and her young son. A respectable marketing job, a house with reclaimed and sustainable furniture, and a boyfriend who loves her son and accepts her, flaws and all.

But when she opens her front door, and a masked intruder knocks her briefly unconscious, everything begins to unravel.

She wakes in the hospital and tells a harrowing story of escape. Of dashing out a broken window. Of running into her neighbors' yard and calling the police.

The cops tell her a different story. Because the intruder is now lying dead in her guest room—murdered in a way that looks intimately personal.

Sydney can't remember killing the man. No one believes her.

Back home, as horrific memories surface, an unnatural darkness begins whispering in her ear. Urging her back to old addictions and a past she's buried to build a better life for herself and her son.

As Sydney searches for truth among the wreckage of a past that won't stay buried for long, the unquiet darkness begins to grow. To change into something unimaginable.

To reveal terrible cravings of its own.

Addiction is a major theme in The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess. As I have no experience with it, I cannot quite speak to whether its depiction of the struggle with addiction is accurate, per se. What I can say is that it is described viscerally. Andy Marino takes no prisoners, describing both the lyrical highs and the oceanic lows of drug addiction in such a way that as a reader you can't help but follow Sydney through each. The lure of the escape that drugs provide is described in such a clear yet prosaic way that it gave me a whole new understanding of addiction. Yet The Seven Visitations should probably come with a warning for those that have or are struggling with addiction issues, as the theme runs consistently throughout the entire book and could be difficult to read because of that. While Marino in no way hides the despair of a come down or the devastating consequences, the descriptions of Sydney's memories of soaring high could be triggering.

Sydney came home when she shouldn't have and now she's lying in the hospital and a man is lying dead in her guest-bedroom. She can't remember killing the man, but she does know something is different. The cops don't believe her, as her past of drug addiction casts every one of her statements in a suspicious light for them. But then memories begin to resurface, along with strange happenings and voices. Flying back and forth across its timeline, The Seven Visitations tells a complex tale of love, addiction, possession, and the quest for your true self. Sydney is a complex character who makes for a very unreliable narrator at times. For the first half of the book you can't be quite sure she isn't just making it all up, but in the second half you wish that was the case. As Sydney keeps looking for answers, so a Lovecraftian atmosphere creeps into the narrative. What's inside of her? Is it just her own past that is haunting her or is something actually stalking her footsteps? The constant back and forth can be confusing, especially in an audiobook. A minute of distraction potentially means something important has been missed. And yet I loved the puzzle of The Seven Visitations, the way in which it slowly revealed itself in all its horror, not unlike the lock puzzle box in Hellraiser. Oh and this book features one of the worst mother-in-laws ever, I despised that woman.

Andy Marino does a brilliant job grounding the reader in harsh reality right from the outset. The first few chapters in which Sydney encounters the house invader and faces initial questioning are stunning in the way they immediately grip the reader by the throat. These opening chapters are also crucial because as the narrative becomes more ambiguous and disjointed, they form the cornerstone for the reader's investment in Sydney herself. As she makes her choices, for good or bad, we can't help but remember the fear of those first few chapters and feel for her. As we are solely seeing it all from her perspective, the other characters to some extent remain a mystery. What is their motivation? What do they know? These all add to the paranoia seeping through the pages and add to the confusion that rules Sydney. This means that The Seven Visitations is not a straightforward read or listen. It requires focus, a willingness to go on a tangent, to follow Sydney as she rushes from one fear to another, and a determination to see it all through to the bitter end. Christina Lakin did a great job narrating a very difficult book. The way she infuses her voice with warmth when Sydney thinks of her son, or with the harshness when the addiction is speaking, or quiet terror when it becomes clear something much larger is at play; it is all brilliantly executed. 

I give this novel/audiobook...

4 Universes!

The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess is not an easy read or listen. Full of difficult themes, damning questions and eldritch fear, Marino has created quite the story. I'd highly recommend this to any fan of Horror and of disjointed narratives.