Two Oaks is its own dynamic character in this book; have you ever lived or visited somewhere that felt "alive" in this way? 

Two Oaks is its own dynamic character in this book; have you ever lived or visited somewhere that felt "alive" in this way? 

Some old places that I have seen on various vacations throughout my travels have seemed to be alive, and those were often the places where I had a slightly eerier feeling of having been there before... even when I had not.

If a person is open to previous lives, they will not be disappointed. I visited a home that had once been occupied by two families and, at night, their baby would cry and the adults would laugh...a lot... It happens.

Actually, I found the living house to be something of an irritation. "Magical realism" elements in books tend to leave me cold. Clearly I have no appreciation for the concept of house as character.

No I have not. It was interesting in this novel but I do not believe this would happen in real life.

I have not really had that experience, but I loved the passages where we read what the house is "feeling", especially the opening page. I have always felt sad when I have seen beautiful old homes fallen into disrepair and the author captured how I imagine a house would feel, what it would say. The part about the dreams Lindie has was a bit over the top for me, especially since she did not seem like a person who was in tune with her surroundings.

Charleston, SC area is like this for me. Every time I visit I tell people I must have lived there in a different life.
The air, the people, the scents all seem like home to me. I loved the ghosts who visited Cassie's dreams.

I have traveled places and felt that I had been there before.
Something about the place & the scent led me to believe that.

I haven't really lived any place like this but vacationing in small towns across America, we have stayed in these kind of towns

I agree with laurap. I didn't like the house as a character element of this book either. The dreams Cassie had that were inhabited by the long-ago citizens of St. Jude, could have been explained in a different way. It seemed like the house was creating those dreams.

I often feel strongly about the way houses feel when I walk into them. When we were househunting, I visited a house that oppressed me so much that I couldn't wait to get out of it. I could never have lived there.

I loved that Two Oaks was depicted this way, as being almost alive with memories, and full of the lives of those who'd lived there. There have been places I've visited that have felt this way, and it's hard to pinpoint what makes it so- perhaps just the age of a house will do this, or with a large house, there's always e potential for more people to have been inside it, therefore more energy existed here and could have imprinted? I just love that Two Oaks had all these memories, and so easily shared its past with those within its walls.

I agree with Laurap, it was rather annoying and overdone. I have been to places that were "haunted" with stories of ghost sightings , but never where the house actually was a personality.

I have not experienced a house like this, but have better memories of some places, but not ghosts. The dreams and ghosts characters were an interesting writer's tool to bring in the past as so many authors today are using different voices or different times to tell their stories. Sometimes this can be confusing, but this got at was a bit easier to remember the two years the book,covered.

The personification of Two Oaks was my favorite part of the story and where the imagination of the author shone brightest. Her descriptions of the house as a living organism reminded me of other stories I have loved like The Giving Tree. Children's literature overflows with stories where the setting is another character. As a lover of all things Harry Potter, I fell in love with Two Oaks!

I liked the house being a character in its own right. I enjoy reading about places like that. I have never really experienced anything like that. I'm open to it if it should ever happen.