The following will contain spoilers for “Welcome To Meadowbrook” by Cassandra L. Thompson. I will try to keep them to a minimum. For my spoiler-free review, check the book’s Barnes And Noble page or the one I posted on Goodreads. I suck with names so I’m probably going to refer to most characters by traits they had or stories they were in because this novel is about a series of connected short stories.
With that out of the way, let’s get into it.
Do you ever stop and consider what the purpose of time truly is? Think back to as far as you can recall. Now think about how much time has passed between then versus now. It keeps getting faster. When we’re kids, a year seems like a lifetime. As adults, they pass in the blink of an eye.
Then again, perception plays a part. In short, pressure and fun shorten time while boredom lengthens it. Not too fair, is it? What if this didn’t have to be the case, though? What if there was an ever-changing place in which time meant nothing?
That, dear readers, brings us to Meadowbrook. It’s worn many faces, ranging from a place of recovery to a place of relaxation to a place to cut loose. It seems this place knows exactly what its guests need, but is it out of benevolence, or is it like a flytrap baiting its prey? Then again, maybe it’s not the building, but the land on which it was built. Assuming you have read the book, what similarities in the tales did you notice?
Time, obviously, but each character has something they are trying to get away from, whether it be a respected New York journalist trying to recover from an accident, a rock and roll singer trying to get away from it all, or even a black couple simply trying to navigate through the prejudices of a much less accepting point in history. Why and how is Meadowbrook able to fit each want and need? Perhaps the answer lies not just in something, but someone. Allow me to introduce one, Harold Dobby, owner of Meadowbrook. No matter what form Meadowbrook takes or the point in time it exists in, he’s always there to meet its guests.
Whatever occurs in that building he always has a hand in. The book mentions spider webs a few times which I assume is supposed to be symbolic of how each story connects. I mentioned in my spoiler-free review that each one is like a web. After further reflection, though, I don’t think this is entirely correct. It’s more accurate to say each one is like a string on the same marionette being puppeteered by Harold.
What kind of person is he and how did he come to be Meadowbrook’s owner? Well, each story centers around a character or characters dealing with some form of struggle in their lives. I believe this is what attracts Meadowbrook to them in the first place. Therefore, it’s fitting the man in charge of it all has dealt with the most hardship. Major spoilers incoming, Harry was abused throughout his childhood by his alcoholic religious father.
That man, along with the townspeople, then tried sacrificing him to some ancient gods. This didn’t work, and he instead ended up in the care of Sister Helen at Meadowbrook, which was then a school for girls called Marycrest. This was his first taste of something known as time-hopping, the rules of which are not to be trifled with. There’s one particular scene about what happens if you see yourself from a different time that I thought was so out of left field and amazing that I won’t dare describe it here. Let’s just say, it will blow your mind. Harold learns the rules of time-hopping and then leaves instructions for his younger self to find.
He then goes back to his hometown, specifically to the year they tried drowning him, sets his dad on fire, and then burns down the town church with the townspeople in it. Suffice to say, he isn’t messing around. He burns away his past, literally. What’s fascinating about him is that most, if not all, of the people he is shown having any kind of affection for, are women from his biological mother to his sister he wanted to protect from their father, to Sister Helen who cares for him as her own, to his business associates to Meadowbrook herself who he refers to as his true mother. That isn’t to say he is some champion of women.
He still shows himself to be controlling of them if it means meeting his goals. You’d think this wouldn’t be the case, given how important they have been in his life. Unfortunately, we are all products of our environment at the end of the day. His father was obviously a controlling man as well as the preacher in his town, and regardless of whether or not Harold admits it, some of those traits rubbed off on him. Speaking of control, consider how much he had before arriving at Meadowbrook.
That is to say, none at all. He was under the heel of his abusive father as well as the fanatical nature of his community that offered him up without a second thought. Is it any wonder then, why the entities chose him? Gods feed off of struggle, after all, and his suffering was rewarded with the ability to hop through time like it’s his fun house. The abuse he had to endure and his childhood nearly cut short granted him a form of immortality.
The time he was robbed was now his to command within Meadowbrook’s walls. That’s where he always is because the lesson here is security. Every form of control Harold exerts is likely due to him never wanting to feel insecure again. The walls of Meadowbrook keep him safe from those feelings of helplessness while acting as a metaphorical shell of sorts. All in all, it sounds like a pretty good deal.
Then again, I wonder how long the entities will want him to serve them. No matter what Meadowbrook is used as, Harold will always be bound to it at various points in time. Sure, he has some say. However, he doesn’t and probably will never have true freedom. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t have a way out of this either. Perhaps, he wasn’t so fortunate to receive this gift after all.
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