There was an abrupt turning point, and the novel took an unexpected turn that didn't work well for me.
from the description: Growing up as best friends in small-town New Hampshire, Jon and Chloe are the only ones who truly understand each other, though they can never find the words to tell one another the depth of their feelings. When Jon is finally ready to confess his feelings, he's suddenly kidnapped by his substitute teacher who is obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft and has a plot to save humanity.
Including an H.P. Lovecraft element sounded interesting; however, the way the story proceeded was much less interesting than the initial chapters. I didn't find it suspenseful, and I plowed through most of it.
Lovecraft was a strange man, but I've never been particularly interested in reading his work. I have been interested in the way his pulp fiction influenced other writers, though, which is why I wanted to read Providence. The love of all things Lovecraftian was one of the weirdest parts of the book--the "love" of all the people who attended the annual Necronomicon festival in Providence and pseudo-philosophical stuff was bizarre.
There was so much potential, and yet the book wandered around, repeating itself, and never truly examining the most interesting parts about Blair and his experiments. It will please some people (reviews on NetGalley cover the spectrum), but Providence left me dissatisfied.
NetGalley/Random House
genre? June 19, 2018. Print length: 359 pages.
