Contemporary Authors

• The Possessions - 2017 Harper, New York, NY

• scribe publication - https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/the-possessions

  Sara Flannery Murphy was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. Throughout Murphy’s childhood, her family divided their time between Little Rock and Eureka Springs, a small tourist town and artists’ community in the Ozark Mountains. Murphy received her MFA in Creative Writing from Washington University in St. Louis. While living in St. Louis, she studied with writers including Kathryn Davis. She also had the chance to teach creative writing. She later attended the University of British Columbia, where her studies had a focus on library science. An avid bookworm, Murphy especially loves thrillers and mysteries. Some of her major influences include Shirley Jackson and Charlotte Brönte. She enjoys TV series and films that explore the dark and the uncanny, from procedural dramas to horror. Murphy currently lives in an Oklahoma college town with her husband and son. Her shorter work has appeared in journals including Storyglossia and Tammy. The Possessions is her first novel.

• author's site - https://saraflannerymurphy.com/

  I was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. My family divided their time between Little Rock and Eureka Springs, a small town in the Ozark Mountains. I received my MFA in Creative Writing from Washington University in St. Louis. Currently, I live in an Oklahoma college town with my husband and son. The Possessions is my first novel. My shorter work has appeared in journals including Storyglossia and Tammy.

• interview - http://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/sara-flannery-murphy

  CULTURE
  Sara Flannery Murphy and the Business of Grief
  By Haley Weiss

  Published 03/30/17
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  PHOTO COURTESY OF AVERI BLACKMON.

  Many feel the urge to reconnect with a loved one who's passed away. Whether one craves the comfort of the lost person's presence, or wants to act as though he or she isn't gone at all—the desire isn't a new one. While mediums have purported to offer this opportunity for over a century, serving as a connection to the supernatural, the notion of someone acting as a body, willingly consuming a drug to let themselves fall away and allow a deceased party temporarily occupy their person—all professionally controlled within the confines of a business—feels novel in its supposed normalcy and lack of risks. In the world of Oklahoma-based writer Sara Flannery Murphy's debut novel The Possessions (Harper Collins), out now, The Elysian Society offers this very service.

  The bodies who work at The Elysian Society are primarily female, and wear white, tissue-thin clothing. They sit before clients who have chosen them to swallow a pill known as a lotus, and in doing so summon a person of the customer's choosing. The society has rules, including no victims of murder being brought forth and no subjects who committed suicide; the threat of a body being taken over completely lurks in whispers. This regulated format seems to offer safety, but as much as bodies shed themselves, they are human and can't be vacated entirely, no matter the circumstances. Interactions take place outside of the society, too, with workers spending time with clients in their homes, acting as their loved ones, even having sex with them. As Edie, the narrator, learns when Patrick Braddock, whose wife Sylvia Braddock passed away under questionable circumstances, begins visiting her for sessions that move outside of the office, these boundaries are always blurry.

  HALEY WEISS: I'd like to talk about what spurred you to write this. Did one element come first, like a character, or was it a broader interest in grief and this idea of possession?

  SARA FLANNERY MURPHY: I think it really began more with the idea of The Elysian Society itself. I started with the very broad notion of this organization where people could come and reconnect with their lost loved ones. I was fascinated at first just by the idea of what would this mean? Who are the people who come here? But also, the workers themselves, they definitely interested me a bit more than the clients because there's that intimacy involved in performing this service for other people, and yet they remain unknown to you—that mix of doing something very, very personal but for people who don't know you very well, and ideally will never know you that well.

  After kind of thinking about that for a while, I was interested in the idea of channeling the story in the direction of one narrator, one perspective of somebody who works there. So the character of Edie, the narrator, followed from the idea of the organization itself.

  WEISS: There's something really interesting about this idea of grief being a business, and people being the bodies through which it can be experienced. Obviously there are a lot of moral questions, one of which is the Elysian Society's way of controlling the experience—limiting how far it can go—somehow superior, ethically speaking, to those who operate outside of those confines and cross those boundaries, like sleeping with their subjects. To you, is one ultimately better than the other? It seems like a huge grey area to me, that both are very problematic.

  MURPHY: I think so too. There is a bit of a conflict between Mrs. Renard, who runs [The Elysian Society], and the workers who are dissatisfied with that and branch out a little bit. But I do think that ultimately, even though going there and talking to them and following all the rules that are set out for you has more legitimacy from the outside, that perhaps if you're crossing that boundary, you maybe aren't as different as you think from the people who cross more.

  WEISS: That hit home for me especially in the case of the O'Briens. I remember realizing that the willingness of the subject being brought forth, the deceased person, was in question. When Lindsey says, "I wonder if it bothers her, that he's bringing her back," about her husband bringing back her friend Margaret, it seems that there's no way of knowing if the person who's being brought forth would be willing. It could always be considered a selfish act, even if it's well intentioned and out of grief.

  MURPHY: I'm glad that that part of it resonated with you, because I was really trying to use them [that way]. As the story progressed, at first maybe the reader would think, "This is a slightly odd service," but ultimately it's a long-standing desire of ours I think to be able to reconnect with the people we've lost, and throughout generations there have just been so many different ways presented for us to contact the dead or to reconnect with the past. And so at first, maybe it seems like, "All right, if this really was a really service, it's definitely a bit eccentric," or maybe not something that you would talk about among polite company, but it serves a certain function. I had really hoped to bring forth those questions more and more as the story moved on, about whether or not this was actually something that you should be able to control once somebody is out of your life. As much as you want to recapture everything that you had, maybe it's better to yourself and to the person you lost to let that ending remain an ending, and not bring it back in a way that can end up being unnatural or forced.

  WEISS: When you were writing did you do any research into the services coming up now that try to recreate people who have passed away either through AI or using their social media profiles? Was that something that interested you at all, these new ideas of grief services?

  MURPHY: I actually didn't know about those as a real service provided. I think I had seen an episode of Black Mirror, ["Be Right Back"]—that one was really good, and I can't remember exactly when I would've watched it. I probably was barely far along in the novel writing process, so at first when I started watching it I would've had that anxiety of, "Oh no, is this going to be my idea?" But I thought it was handled in a different way because of the use of technology, and the selves we leave behind through being so connected now. I thought that was a really intriguing take, I love that episode, and I'm really curious to know about these services that people might actually be trying to provide. I think it is an interesting idea to take those traces and try to rebuild a person through that, but I think for The Possessions, there probably was something slightly more old-fashioned about my approach to the idea, because it was more rooted in the tradition of the Victorian spiritualists or Gothic literature, where they probably wouldn't have been thinking about it in quite the same way we were. It's a little more speculative rather than drawing on what theoretically could've actually happened through technology.

  WEISS: To talk about Edie, how much did you build out her backstory prior to starting the novel, because it's revealed in pieces to the reader?

  MURPHY: At first, she was kind of an interesting character to write, because she is so withdrawn, and a lot of her identity relies on her keeping herself hidden. Especially for a first-person narrator, that is a weird balance between wanting her to reveal enough of herself to connect with the reader, and yet wanting to respect the fact that she's somebody very closed off. I think the first few drafts I wrote she probably didn't have quite as much of a backstory. I feel like I wrote her as a very blank at first, to the point where I almost wasn't aware of her backstory, and that was something that I really worked on a lot more once I was writing with other people, with more feedback from early readers or from my agent and editor. After that, I was able to draw more of it to the surface. But I think at first she was a bit more oblique than she is in the final product. She really was a person from nowhere.

  WEISS: That leads into something I was interested in: how gender plays into this job of being a body. Men are certainly capable of it, but there are far less of them, like Lee, and for them it seems like more a personality trait that allows them to be suited to it whereas for the women, it's this cultural training, a learned ability to enter a blank state and be a subject. Was that something you were consciously thinking about when you were writing?

  MURPHY: I did think about it quite a bit. In addition to basing it somewhat on the Victorian spiritualists, there was also a connection to sex work, which I was probably more shy about approaching in a way because I do think that's a topic that needs to be handled very sensitively, and I'm not as familiar with it. I didn't want to come down too heavily on it, but it's, I suppose, inevitable for it to rise to the surface a little bit, because they're people providing a very, very intimate, personal service to people who might form attachments to them, but these attachments are always going to have a very strange layer to them.

  The Victorian spiritualists, mediums, they tended to be women far more often than they were men. And with sex work as well, it's a field that's stereotypically and probably statistically more feminine. I thought that this line of work, to be able to find people who would take on this job that required so much of them as people without fully recognizing or rewarding them as individuals, that it would probably be more dominated by women. But I did want there to be some male workers available, because I also wondered if women would be maybe more likely to come as clients as well, and to have people there who were able to provide stand-ins for male relatives or friends or people they'd lost.

  WEISS: How much research did you around Victorian spiritualists?

  MURPHY: I was drawn to some of the firsthand accounts that they gave of what it was like to be mediums. They have different approaches to it, some of them might be a little more cynical or not talk about it as much, but the ones who did talk about it seemed extremely sincere about it, and talked about these identity crises they'd experienced and losing touch with who they really were, because they spent so much of their day being other people and feeling all this love and longing from strangers that was directed at their physical selves but not at them. I was mostly interested in the firsthand accounts, so it wasn't too research intensive, especially since I did deviate very strongly from the actual Victorian spiritualists. It was put more in a futuristic setting and I feel that a lot of the aspects of how it works were very different from what actually would've gone on. Mediums might have been working, not really as celebrities, but as figures that people could come to, and they were somewhat well known themselves. This is much, much more anonymous, where it's very industrialized and people can come, choose a body, and work with that person.

  WEISS: The way we learn about Sylvia is through the perspective of others and through this layer of Edie. How did you conceive of Sylvia as a character, because she's almost only presented to us through intermediaries?

  MURPHY: She was a slightly difficult character to write at first. I think similarly to how it worked with Edie, she was even more opaque in the first draft. It was only later on as the story grew and fleshed out in various ways that I brought in her first-person narration so we were at least occasionally able to hear from Sylvia herself. On one hand I understood that as a character she was inevitably going to be interpreted through other people's gazes. I feel that part of her unhappiness with Patrick when she was still alive was really formed by the fact that he insisted on seeing her in this certain idealized way, and that when he had to stop seeing her in this very idealized way, he withdrew from her. During life she felt as if she was filtered through other people's gazes and shaped by other people's ideas of her in a way that restricted her from being honest or from being vulnerable or flawed in any way. So I tried to give her a voice that would allow us to see things more through her eyes, because it felt as if maybe she'd been cheated out that a little bit, and also just that she and Edie might be somewhat similar, even though they weren't especially similar at first glance, that they might actually end up having some kinship with each other by the end of the story.

  WEISS: You've mentioned the draft process a few times. Is there someone in particular, other than your agent, whom you want to share first drafts with?

  MURPHY: Actually, my husband is a good reader. And I know that it's a bit risky to share your work with a spouse, because maybe you can't always trust what they say because at the end of the day, they probably don't want to be too brutal to you, but my husband—he teaches English—I feel like he's a huge bookworm, and he spends all day long basically thinking about the structure of stories, so that actually really comes in handy when he reads my drafts. Usually I will talk things over with him a little bit, and then there's a stage where I need to step away because I can let myself get too easily influenced by feedback, or try to take on too much, or please too many readers or too many ideas.

  WEISS: In terms of your writing process, are you someone who writes at a particular time of day? Do you read other things while you're writing? Do you listen to music?

  MURPHY: I don't feel as if I've ever settled into a routine. I'm a little bit scattered as a person, and I tend to be very piecemeal and multitask to varying levels of effectiveness, so usually I just write when I can. There are times when I don't really feel like running back to the computer all the time, and I will just think things over. There are other times where for whatever reason, a scene has really captured my imagination at that moment, and I've done enough work ahead of time that it's actually a real pleasure to write, which it isn't always. In those moments I'm doing that wonderful thing of always writing in my head when I'm not actually writing, and the story feels as if it's writing itself, and I have to be in front of the screen as much as possible in order to capture tha

• library love test - http://www.librarylovefest.com/2016/12/llf-guest-post-sara-flannery-murphy-author-of-the-possessions.html

  December 6, 2016
  LLF Guest Post: Sara Flannery Murphy, author of THE POSSESSIONS

  I pounced on Sara Flannery Murphy's debut novel The Possessions as soon as the manuscript was available and was instantly entranced. This book is literary and seductive, with the perfect hints of mystery and sci-fi to make it an incredibly engrossing read. It's already received a starred review from Publishers Weekly calling it, “a beautifully rendered, haunting page-turner,” and another starred review from Booklist says it's "unforgettable and impossible to put down." I could not agree more. Make sure to grab the egalley from Edelweiss, and then read on for a special message from the author herself on her love of libraries.

  ***

  Y648
  I grew up in libraries. Their interiors stand out in my memory as clearly as the details of friends’ homes. When I was very young, Little Rock’s downtown branch was a low building, spanning a block, all faux-marble floors and huge pillars. Later, the Main Branch was rehomed in a tall building with broad, sunny views of the Arkansas River. When I lived in a tourist town as a teenager, I frequented the local Carnegie library, with a steep stone staircase outside and twin mezzanines inside.

  But more than the architectural details, the libraries I’ve entered over the decades have shared one trait in common. Libraries introduced me to the beauty of quiet. Silence not as an absence of noise, but as a presence in and of itself, textured and rich. The quiet is a level on top of a hum of activity: pages turning, patrons whispering, pens scratching, keyboards clicking. That particular quiet, filled with other people’s ambitions and daydreams, has always felt deeply welcoming to me. It’s an invitation to lose yourself in someone else’s story, or work on making your own story stronger.

  When I was in my early twenties, I briefly worked at the same neighborhood library I’d visited as a little girl. I loved entering that environment every morning, both surrounded by busyness and immersed in a focused hush. Re-shelving books, I’d often pause at the end of a row to read an interesting book jacket. By watching the patterns of what patrons checked out and returned, I discovered some of my favorite authors. There’s a sense of connection built into libraries: each book you pick up has been vetted, loved, and cared for by someone else. A warm, wordless transaction between bookworms.

  When I moved hours and hours away from my family for the first time, my apartment was located directly across the street from the University City Library in Missouri. I sought refuge there whenever I was lonely or uncertain. Being around other library-goers felt instantly companionable.

  Libraries aren’t always hushed, of course. Storytime, study groups, questions asked and answered, all create an outer ring of liveliness. Still, the stereotype of the library as a quiet space has never felt like a negative one to me. Libraries prove that silence can be productive and powerful, offering constant proof of how much potential can thrive in one building.

• fantastic fiction - https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/sara-flannery-murphy/

  Sara Flannery Murphy
  USA flag

  Sara Flannery Murphy was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. When she was growing up, her family divided their time between Little Rock and Eureka Springs, a small town in the Ozark Mountains. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Washington University in St. Louis. Currently, Murphy lives in an Oklahoma college town with her husband and son. The Possessions is her first novel.

The Possessions
Amanda Trivett
(Feb. 2017): p22.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 BookPage
http://bookpage.com/
THE POSSESSIONS

By Sara Flannery Murphy

Harper

$26.99, 368 pages

ISBN 9780062458322

Audio, eBook available

SUSPENSE

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Sara Flannery Murphy's debut novel, The Possessions, is an addictive, slow-burning mystery that fuses classic noir with the intrigue of speculative fiction. Controversial and unregulated, the industry for "bodies"--willing hosts to spirits--is in high demand, and Edie is one of the best. She excels at the evacuation of her body, making room for other souls in carefully metered-out sessions with her clients. But Edie's careful decorum dissolves upon the assignment of a new client, Patrick, who is desperate to spend time with his deceased wife, Sylvia.

As Edie's longing for Patrick grows, her desire to share more of her time and body with Sylvia reaches new heights. When Edie decides to investigate the supposedly volatile nature of Patrick and Sylvia's marriage and her untimely death, major secrets are uncovered.

Inspired by Victorian spiritualism, The Possessions is recommended for lovers of speculative fiction, noir or gritty mysteries. With its focus on intriguing, beautiful women and the variety of tragedies that befall them, the novel also recalls Hitchcock. Murphy ensures compulsive page-turning until the past and future of each character is unveiled, and the crescendo of that reveal is heady and satisfying.

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Trivett, Amanda. "The Possessions." BookPage, Feb. 2017, p. 22. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479076922&it=r&asid=7357bde77603e86ddfbbccaa40e43e68. Accessed 10 July 2017.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A479076922

The Possessions
Kristine Huntley
113.8 (Dec. 15, 2016): p20.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
* The Possessions.

By Sara Flannery Murphy.

Feb. 2017. 368p. Harper, $26.99 (9780062458322).

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Murphy's sublime debut is immersive from page one, when we meet Edie, a "body" at the Elysian Society who channels deceased loved ones thanks to a drug known as the "lotus." Edie has worked for the society for five years, enjoying the anonymity it gives her as well as insulation from the demons of her past. Then Patrick Braddock walks into her life, hoping to make contact with his wife, Sylvia, who drowned a year ago while they were on vacation. Edie is immediately taken with Patrick and becomes fixated on him and his relationship with Sylvia. Soon she finds a way to see him outside of work, and she makes a connection with the couple who joined Patrick and Sylvia on their fateful vacation. But as Edie insinuates herself into Patrick's life, she starts to see the cracks in what she assumed was his happy marriage to Sylvia, even as she becomes more consumed by her desire for him. Murphy expertly blends the dual mysteries of the circumstances surrounding Sylvia's death and Edie's own tragic past with suspense and sf-tinged mystery in a complex novel that is both unforgettable and impossible to put down.--Kristine Huntley

YA: YAs who love dystopian fiction will find this to be an engrossing read. KH.

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Huntley, Kristine. "The Possessions." Booklist, 15 Dec. 2016, p. 20. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA476563448&it=r&asid=24baa7daf79be9c6c84243e311bd385e. Accessed 10 July 2017.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A476563448

Murphy, Sara Flannery: THE POSSESSIONS
(Nov. 15, 2016):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Murphy, Sara Flannery THE POSSESSIONS Harper/HarperCollins (Adult Fiction) $26.99 2, 7 ISBN: 978-0-06-245832-2

In Murphy's debut novel, people can reconnect with the dead through the Elysian Society, whose employees--known as "bodies"--are temporarily possessed with the help of a drug called a "lotus."Eurydice, or Edie, as she is better known, has worked as a body for five years when she meets Patrick Braddock, who wants to connect to his beautiful late wife, Sylvia. From the beginning, she finds herself strangely drawn to Patrick but also to pictures of Sylvia, and when Patrick breaks protocol and gives her many of Sylvia's possessions to use during her channeling, Edie is unable--and unwilling--to refuse. As Edie falls deeper into lust with Patrick, she can't let go of Sylvia, whose spirit seems to have taken possession of the corners of her soul and body, and she continues to investigate the mysterious circumstances that surround Sylvia's drowning. Meanwhile, a highly publicized murder turns out to be connected to the shadowy Elysian Society. The novel's power lies in a careful balance between concealment and explanation. For example, it isn't until Edie watches one of the other bodies channel a dead spirit that we as readers understand how the process works and, more important, how the bodies act when they're channeling. The psychology is endlessly fascinating, and there should have been a chance for deep exploration of grief's clarity and its selfishness. The weakness is Edie herself. She often references her plainness, the fact that her personality has a certain blankness that better allows her to channel others, but this blankness also renders the narrative voice both emotionless and self-righteous, so it can be hard to connect to and feel sympathy for the character. Imaginative and original, this is a novel that should have resonated more deeply.

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Murphy, Sara Flannery: THE POSSESSIONS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Nov. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA469865897&it=r&asid=4f9e6f78546b21f0a31d9ba66b749df7. Accessed 10 July 2017.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A469865897

The Possessions
263.45 (Nov. 7, 2016): p40.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
* The Possessions

Sara Flannery Murphy. Harper, $26.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-06-245832-2

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Behind the reassuringly bland facade of the Elysian Society, dramatic, distressing, and sometimes dangerous scenes play out daily as the bereaved seek to communicate with their departed loved ones, in Murphy's suspenseful supernatural-tinged debut, set on the gritty side of an unnamed U.S. city. The bridges between the living and the dead are people referred to as bodies, such as the young woman known as Eurydice (aka Edie), who after ingesting pills called lotuses can summon these spirits. The work perfectly suits emotionally guarded Edie, who apparently wants nothing more than to lose herself after a traumatic past, which only gradually emerges. But her carefully maintained shell starts to crack when she begins sessions with Patrick Braddock, an attractive lawyer, whose stunning wife, Sylvia, drowned 18 months earlier under suspicious circumstances. As Edie finds herself sexually drawn to Patrick and experiencing disturbing flashbacks, which seem to come from Sylvia, her efforts to investigate what happened that night at a lake outside the city--and its potential connection to a recently discovered Jane Doe--land her in very real jeopardy. Those ready to buy into the author's premise will be rewarded by a beautifully rendered, haunting page-turner. Agent: Alice Whitivham, Alice Whitwham Agency. (Feb.)

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Possessions." Publishers Weekly, 7 Nov. 2016, p. 40. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA469757477&it=r&asid=3d9652dea6fdb96d0d33203fc03c8ad2. Accessed 10 July 2017.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A469757477

Murphy, Sara Flannery. The Possessions
Portia Kapraun
(Jan. 13, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
[STAR]Murphy, Sara Flannery. The Possessions. Harper. Feb. 2017. 368p. ISBN 9780062458322. $26.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062458339. F

[DEBUT] The Elysian Society is a discreet service that enables people to contact dead friends and relatives. This is not done through seances or Ouija boards, but instead employees, called bodies, take a pill that allows the dead to possess them for a set amount of time. Eurydice has been with the society for five years, using the possessions as a way to remove herself from reality for large parts of each day. When Patrick Braddock wants to reach his wife, Sylvia, whose death may not have been as clear-cut as he makes it out to be, Eurydice's detachment crumbles. Growing obsessed with the Braddocks, she begins to break the rules meant to keep her safe. At the same time, a local murder may reveal the dark side of the Elysians. This poignant tale is a study of grief and obsession told by a person who will do anything to forget while surrounded by those who refuse to move on.

Verdict Murphy's imaginative debut is a haunting ghost story and a thrilling mystery that will engross readers until the final page. [See Prepub Alert, 8/26/16.]

Portia Kapraun, Delphi PL., IN

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Kapraun, Portia. "Murphy, Sara Flannery. The Possessions." Xpress Reviews, 13 Jan. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA478698487&it=r&asid=35040844a1619e50d48e878cc20c96d2. Accessed 10 July 2017.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A478698487

Trivett, Amanda. "The Possessions." BookPage, Feb. 2017, p. 22. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA479076922&asid=7357bde77603e86ddfbbccaa40e43e68. Accessed 10 July 2017. Huntley, Kristine. "The Possessions." Booklist, 15 Dec. 2016, p. 20. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA476563448&asid=24baa7daf79be9c6c84243e311bd385e. Accessed 10 July 2017. "Murphy, Sara Flannery: THE POSSESSIONS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Nov. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA469865897&asid=4f9e6f78546b21f0a31d9ba66b749df7. Accessed 10 July 2017. "The Possessions." Publishers Weekly, 7 Nov. 2016, p. 40. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA469757477&asid=3d9652dea6fdb96d0d33203fc03c8ad2. Accessed 10 July 2017. Kapraun, Portia. "Murphy, Sara Flannery. The Possessions." Xpress Reviews, 13 Jan. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA478698487&asid=35040844a1619e50d48e878cc20c96d2. Accessed 10 July 2017.

• readings
  https://www.readings.com.au/review/the-possessions-by-sara-flannery-murphy
  Word count: 337

  The Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy

  Reviewed by Ellen Cregan
  30 Jan 2017

  The Possessions is a novel that dips its toes into a number of genres with ease. Within its pages you’ll find supernatural spirit channelling brought on by advanced medicine, an illicit, obsessive romanceand at the very centre of everything, a duo of mysterious deaths.

  The Elysian Society offers a unique service to clients: the ability to reconnect with dead. Our protagonist, Edie, works within this society as a ‘body’. She spends her days with clients desperate to revisit their lost loved ones. By taking mysterious pills known only as ‘lotuses’, Edie is able to become a host body for the dead to speak through for limited periods of time. Despite her fantastic occupation, Edie leads a quiet and uneventful life – that is, until she meets Patrick Braddock. When Edie begins to channel the spirit of his late wife Sylvia, her life and the circumstances surrounding Sylvia’s death collide. Edie quickly becomes enamoured with Patrick, and it doesn’t take long before she is breaking the rigidly enforced rules of her profession to be with him, and let him be with Sylvia. As the encounters between Patrick and Edie move beyond the walls of the Elysian Society, and the possessions by Sylvia grow longer and far more intimate, Edie risks losing herself entirely.

  This is a compulsively readable book. The world of the Elysian Society is intriguing and dark, and there is an underlying danger to Edie’s line of work that I was constantly wanting to learn more about. When we are finally allowed to witness a possession from the other side of things, it is both satisfying and totally horrifying. The Possessions has the pace of a crime thriller, but for me, the goings on at the Elysian Society are the highlight of this novel, save for its chilling ending. The final few pages are particularly twisted, and gave me goose bumps.

• culturefly
  http://culturefly.co.uk/book-review-the-possessions-by-sara-flannery-murphy/
  Word count: 866

  Book Review: The Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy
  Rabeea SaleemMarch 7, 2017
  Book ReviewsBooksFeatured

  The Possessions is a debut novel and is set in a parallel world where the bereaved can contact their deceased loved ones using humans as conduits who are referred to as ‘bodies’. Edie is one such body, who works for the Elysian Society, one of the high-end places which offers this service. This is one of those books that is hard to slot into a particular genre. Yes, it is set in a dystopian world but I won’t label it a fantasy novel. Suffice to say, it is a literary thriller with elements of fantasy and relationship drama.

  The job of a ‘body’ is to act as a portal to channel dead people, with the help of a little pill called lotus and a prized possession of the departed. Such work entails high risk, as Edie soon discovers. It is clear very early on that Edie is a reticent character with a checkered past. She tries to escape it by investing all her energy in her work almost as if she is intent on shedding all part of her own identity, camouflaging it with bits and pieces of various dead people whom she channels. She is coolly professional with her colleagues and clients and has no personal life to speak of.

  Things take a turn once Edie acquires a charming new client, Patrick, who wants to get in touch with Sylvia, his wife who drowned in a lake on a getaway under mysterious circumstances. Edie, who is otherwise assiduous when it comes to her job, finds herself breaking long-standing rules of disengagement. She is drawn to Patrick and Sylvia’s glamorous marriage, her enigmatic persona and abrupt death. As she begins to channel her frequently, she gradually finds Sylvia invading her mind, impulses and emotions. It is eerie to see how Sylvia steadily starts taking over Edie’s personality, with the latter providing the perfect corporeal facade to the dead woman’s dangerous motives.

  Soon Edie gets embroiled in Sylvia’s secrets even as her passion for Patrick grows. Her carefully constructed life begins to unravel and she starts getting into trouble with the Society’s administration after taking undue risks to get insight into Sylvia’s last days. Along the way, she uncovers startling facts about the Elysian Society. Everything is not as black and white as she has been led to believe – there have been horrific incidents in the past with bodies who have been trapped in limbo between death and life.

  I was surprised to find out that The Possessions was a debut, since the novel reads like something written by a seasoned writer. The story has ingenuous subplots; societies that exploits people who can channel the dead and one body occupying two or more souls. Such a premise requires nuanced execution and refined narrative skills because otherwise the story has the potential to come across as unbelievable or gimmicky. Fortunately for us, Murphy’s writing is sharp and well-crafted which really elevates the story, compelling the reader to keep turning pages. The exposition is superbly done with deft world-building which makes this futuristic story relatable.

  The Possessions contemplates poignant questions about the power that our deceased loved ones can have on our life. Also, as Edie soon realizes, some people easily misuse this channel for their nefarious purposes. The book perceptively examines how grief is different for every individual and the myriad ways that people cope with it. As Edie observes:

  “I’ve seen people waste so little time that they’ve arrived at Room 12 with eyelids still swollen from the funeral. For some clients, working with me is like returning to a conversation after a brief interruption, scarcely noting that anything has changed…But I’ve also known people to wait for decades, letting everyone believe that they’d moved on. Completing the dutiful stages of mourning, crafting new lives in the space left behind. And then waking up with the simple, unignorable urge to talk to their wives, best friends, daughters.”

  Edie’s character is a blank canvas and provides a perfect vantage point from which to observe the world around her but it also makes her a bland protagonist. Specifically, in the later parts of the book, I found Edie’s character increasingly insipid and unlikeable. Another issue I had was how some minor storylines were handled. Without giving away any spoilers, I felt that Murphy alluded to some very interesting story arcs that she didn’t properly tap into. This led to the story deviating considerably from the main plot which I found distracting. Nevertheless, these minor flaws did not take away much from the novel which thrives on its writing for the most part.

  The Possessions is a haunting and brilliantly written thriller which raises questions about the boundaries between grief and obsession. People who enjoy offbeat fiction with a touch of supernatural will enjoy this book.

  ★★★★

  The Possessions is published in hardback by Scribe UK on 9 March 2017

• NSW Writers' Centre
  http://www.nswwc.org.au/2017/05/book-review-the-possessions-by-sara-flannery-murphy/
  Word count: 476

  Book Review: The Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy
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  What if you could talk to your loved ones from beyond the grave? Not through hoax séances and fake mediums, but through a real organisation, with real results? Would you reach out to your dead partner, son, or daughter?

  Eurydice, or Edie, works as a Body with the Elysian Society. Her job is to connect people with their dead loved ones by letting the souls of the dead enter her body for a brief moment. When she vacates her own body, she doesn’t remember anything afterwards, and Edie is happy doing this job for her clients. She is content with her life and has lasted for a long time in a line of work where no one stays long. Edie follows the rules and doesn’t question them. She listens to the Society’s madam, Mrs Renard, and is deemed one of the group’s most trustworthy Bodies.

  Until the day she meets Patrick Braddock. Edie becomes intrigued by Patrick and his dead wife, Sylvia. The more Edie channels Sylvia, the stronger her attraction for Patrick grows. Even the mysterious circumstances of Sylvia’s death don’t discourage Edie from wanting to know more about the Braddock’s life together.

  She becomes so obsessed that for the first time in her life as a Body, Edie breaks the rules, and breaks them big time. She secretly purchases more lotus pills, the pills that allow her to empty her body so she can be used as a vessel, and offers private sessions to Patrick, allowing him to be with Sylvia as husband and wife.

  Edie’s entanglement with the Braddocks makes her curious about how Sylvia really died. She digs into their past more and more, learning dark things about the couple, while trying to hide her own dark past at the same time.

  The Possessions is an interesting read, to say the least. The concept of someone allowing their body to be used by the dead raises a lot of questions about morality, especially when Edie decides to meet Patrick in private. Sara Flannery Murphy writes Edie’s thoughts so masterfully that it is easy to understand why she deviated from her simple, uneventful life after meeting Patrick. You can’t help but feel sad for her but also angry at her recklessness, risking all that she worked for to pursue someone she barely knows.

  Murphy thus takes you on a slow, yet thrilling ride into the protagonist’s descent into obsession. You might hate Edie for her actions and find yourself annoyed by her stupidity sometimes, but you will want to know what she does next. And to uncover what she’s been hiding all this time.

• sydney morning herald
  http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/the-possessions-review-sara-flannery-murphys-supernatural-romance-20170213-gubjzo.html
  Word count: 207

  February 17 2017
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  The Possessions review: Sara Flannery Murphy's supernatural romance

  Cameron Woodhead

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  The Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy.
  The Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy. Photo: Supplied

  The dead can return in the world of Sara Flannery Murphy's debut novel. Such visitations are handled by the shadowy Elysian Society, who have mastered the art of the seance. Through the agency of special mediums known as "bodies", who operate under the influence of a drug, anyone may be temporarily reunited with the departed. Eurydice (or Edie for short) has worked as a "body" for a while. When she encounters Patrick Braddock, asking her to channel his late wife Sylvia, Edie is strangely drawn to the request. She soon begins to break the rules of her profession, to lose herself in Sylvia's desire. Death circles – the mysterious circumstances surrounding Sylvia's drowning, and a high-profile murder that may be linked to the organisation Edie works for. The Possessions is supernatural romance that thrives on its author's imaginative world-building; all it lacks is a more likeable and developed narrator.

• guardian
  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/09/the-possessions-sara-flannery-murphy-review
  Word count: 817

  The Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy review – a simmering gothic joy

  This creepingly clever ghost story in which the spirits of the dead can be channelled by mediums encompasses thriller, horror and literary fiction
  Sara Flannery Murphy
  ‘All the white-knuckle plotting of high-Victorian sensation fiction’ … Sara Flannery Murphy

  Sarah Ditum

  Thursday 9 March 2017 07.00 EST
  Last modified on Tuesday 2 May 2017 13.24 EDT

  Some opening lines are so good, you worry that what comes after will disappoint. This is how The Possessions starts: “The first time I meet Patrick Braddock, I’m wearing his wife’s lipstick.” It’s a perfect mystery in miniature. Who is Patrick? Who is speaking? Why is she wearing another woman’s lipstick? Is it all as sleazy as it sounds? The answer to that last question is yes, but not in the way you’d expect, as Sara Flannery Murphy unspools a creepingly clever ghost story that encompasses thriller, horror and literary fiction with seductive swagger.

  Our narrator is Edie, short for Eurydice. She is an employee of the Elysian Society, which is a kind of bordello for mediums. The Possessions’ universe is, fundamentally, our universe, with one tweak: the spirits of the dead persist and can be channelled, with the help of a pill called “lotus”. The class of professionals who do this work are referred to as “bodies”, and all of them seem to be on the run from their own identities, lending their physical selves to roaming souls at least in part for the temporary relief of vacancy.

  Most of them are women. “Poor boys,” says one body pityingly of the male hires. “They don’t have the training for the work that women do.” It takes a certain socialisation to get the hang of giving yourself so completely to somebody else, letting someone else inside you. It takes a certain desperation, too, because the work is rough. With five years’ service, Edie is an old hand. “Most of the bodies barely survive a year,” she tells us. “Some vanish after a week or even a single day.”

  Even so, life in the Elysian Society is better than the alternative, at least according to Mrs Renard, its madam. Out on the unregulated streets, untold horrors await the hapless bodies. Here, at least, they are safe. But safe from what? The big danger is clients. Clients who have unfinished business with the dead. Clients who want revenge. Clients who want too much: the best paid, and most risky, kind of work that a body can do is “going permanent” – allowing the departed to take up 24/7 residence. The occupational hazard, of course, is that you might never find a way back inside yourself.
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  Exactly what designs Patrick has on Edie when he pays her to be possessed by his recently deceased wife, Sylvia, is menacingly unclear. There’s also the troubling matter of another dead woman whose battered corpse has shown up in a seedy part of town. Despite the society’s rule of not getting involved with those who’ve died violently, an amateur gumshoe client hunting for clues comes looking for someone to channel the victim. Then there’s the question of what Sylvia herself wants from Edie, and how she came to drown in Lake Madeleine – which it turns out is a real place, as well as a hat-tip to Proust in a novel that’s all about what happens when the past comes rushing back.

  The Possessions wears its allusions on its sleeves. Sometimes these are explained by the plot: Eurydice’s name, so appropriate for one who moves between the living and the dead, is the pseudonym given to her by the Elysian Society. Murphy tells us that Sylvia is reading Charlotte Brontë’s Villette at the time of her death which, like The Possessions has a closed-off narrator (the chilly Lucy Snowe), and is set in a closed-off institution (a school rather than a metaphysical megabrothel) that is run by a woman with a steely streak of cunning.

  All this pressing at the skin between the world within the book and the world outside only adds to the novel’s thrills. Murphy shapes the supernatural element deftly, so it’s as easy to swallow as a lotus pill; once you’ve taken it, you’re delivered into an entirely compelling world with all the intoxicating imagination and white-knuckle plotting of high-Victorian sensation fiction. And around the plot points, Murphy delivers a kind of love story to our mortal selves, tenderly prying into the ways we have of grieving and of letting go, celebrating the unthinkable oddness and pleasures of fleshly life, brilliantly dramatising dizzying questions about selfhood and sympathy. The Possessions is a simmering gothic joy.

• leigh kramer
  http://www.leighkramer.com/blog/2017/02/review-the-possessions.html
  Word count: 1097

  02/17/2017
  Review: The Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy
  The Possessions- Sara Flannery Murphy

  The Possessions

  Synopsis

  In this electrifying literary debut, a young woman who channels the dead for a living crosses a dangerous line when she falls in love with one of her clients, whose wife died under mysterious circumstances

  In an unnamed city, Eurydice works for the Elysian Society, a private service that allows grieving clients to reconnect with lost loved ones. She and her fellow workers, known as “bodies“, wear the discarded belongings of the dead and swallow pills called lotuses to summon their spirits—numbing their own minds and losing themselves in the process. Edie has been a body at the Elysian Society for five years, an unusual record. Her success is the result of careful detachment: she seeks refuge in the lotuses’ anesthetic effects and distances herself from making personal connections with her clients.

  But when Edie channels Sylvia, the dead wife of recent widower Patrick Braddock, she becomes obsessed with the glamorous couple. Despite the murky circumstances surrounding Sylvia’s drowning, Edie breaks her own rules and pursues Patrick, moving deeper into his life and summoning Sylvia outside the Elysian Society’s walls.

  After years of hiding beneath the lotuses’ dulling effect, Edie discovers that the lines between her own desires and those of Sylvia have begun to blur, and takes increasing risks to keep Patrick within her grasp. Suddenly, she finds her quiet life unraveling as she grapples not only with Sylvia’s growing influence and the questions surrounding her death, but with her own long-buried secrets.

  A tale of desire and obsession, deceit and dark secrets that defies easy categorization, The Possessions is a seductive, absorbing page-turner that builds to a shattering, unforgettable conclusion.

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  My Review - 4 Stars

  From the very first chapter, this book drew me in. I wanted to know what was happening. Murphy spills out the plot sparingly, keeping the reader guessing about everything from Edie's past to what's really happening at the Elysian Society.

  There's a haunting, dreamy quality throughout. We see everything from Edie's perspective and it's as if she's under water, viewing life in a muted manner. We know Edie has worked at the Elysian Society for 5 years, she's a rule follower, and she keeps to herself. It's a half life because of something that happened in her past. She'd rather disappear into work as a body.

  I still don't know what to make of the Elysian Society. The workers are known as bodies and clients come to speak- literally- to their deceased loved ones. It's similar, I'd guess, to using a medium, except there's more of an inhabitation for the duration of the session. The bodies are simply vessels. They take a pill called a lotus and they recess as the deceased person takes over until the lotus wears off 30 minutes later. They do not know what the deceased person is saying or how the client responds. At least, most of the time, as we learn things can go very wrong. As you might imagine, the work isn't for everyone and Edie is held up as an example, both positive and negative, for lasting this long.

  Everything changes when Patrick Braddock comes in as a client. For whatever reason, Edie is captivated by his dead wife Sylvia. There's something about Patrick that affects her differently from other clients and she cannot separate out Sylvia's desires from her own. After so many years of disappearing into her work, Edie's change in behavior raised a lot of questions. Was it simply the end result of denying her past? Was there something more between Edie and Patrick? Would Edie come clean with him about whatever she'd done?

  As Edie takes more risks and meets Patrick outside of work, her focus is ever more on what happened to Sylvia.I have a feeling I'll think back on Edie and Patrick for some time to come. Their relationship was not really their own, given the ready presence of Sylvia, and I wonder what might have been had Edie been able to be more fully present in her own life. I guessed correctly about this fairly early on but I enjoyed seeing how the plot came together. Despite her flaws, I felt like Edie was an honest narrator and it was harder to suss out who of the limited people in her life was worthy of being trusted. This made it a hard book to put down.

  The book also raises interesting questions about grief. Is it healthy for people to speak with their dead loved one years after they've gone? What affect does this have on the deceased to become aware of inhabiting a body that's not their own? There are a few different plot lines that examine these questions to great affect.

  The writing was incredible. There were lines like, "Tissues extend upward like static smoke" and "envelopes flaking onto the floor" that have stuck with me. The plot was original and gripping. I don't know the last time I encountered a novel like this.

  The book ends with some hope but it's a larger reflection on what happens when we cannot accept the blows life gives us and when we choose to retreat instead of fully live. And that's worth reflecting on.

  (I was happy to see this was one of the February selections for Book Of The Month Club. I think you'll be pleased if you picked it!)

  About Sara Flannery Murphy

  Sara Flannery Murphy AP
  Sara Flannery Murphy grew up in Arkansas, where she divided her time between Little Rock and Eureka Springs, a small artists’ community in the Ozark Mountains. She received her MFA in creative writing at Washington University in St. Louis and studied library science in British Columbia. She lives in Oklahoma with her husband and son. The Possessions is her first novel.

  Find out more about Sara at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

  Tlc tour host

  Disclosure: I received an ARC from TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. Affiliate links included in this post.

  Posted at 06:45 AM in Reading | Permalink

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• washington independent review of books
  http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/bookreview/the-possessions-a-novel
  Word count: 885

  The Possessions: A Novel

  By Sara Flannery Murphy Harper 368 pp.

  Reviewed by Alice V. Leaderman
  February 28, 2017

  This modern-day mystery combines sci-fi sensibilities with a hint of ancient Greek influence.

  Sara Flannery Murphy’s debut novel, The Possessions, blends science fiction with the kind of mystery that depends on withholding information from the reader in order to achieve a surprise ending.

  In an unnamed present-day American city, the novel’s narrator, Eurydice, works at the Elysian Society, where people come to contact their deceased loved ones. Employees, each known as a “body,” take the client into a room, examine photos and memorabilia of the deceased, then swallow a pill called a “lotus,” which temporarily transforms the employee into the dead person.

  This channeling allows the client to converse with the deceased for about half an hour. Afterward, the body returns to its normal self, with no memory of the episode.

  In violation of the rules, some bodies and clients find ways to extend their contact outside the society.

  One of Eurydice’s clients, Patrick, is a man of movie-star good looks whose beautiful wife, Sylvia, has drowned. Eurydice is attracted to him and voluntarily becomes entangled with Sylvia beyond the confines of work, to the point where there are moments when she doesn’t recognize herself in the mirror. She has flashbacks, if they can be called that, to Sylvia’s memories, including her death.

  Eurydice tells a coworker, Leander, that she is in love with Patrick, but to herself (and to the reader), she uses the word “lust.” Leander warns that Patrick may be dangerous — one of the red herrings that Murphy effectively weaves into the story. Further red herrings take the form of semi-parallel stories — one involving a murder, others having to do with bodies who join clients outside the Elysian Society.

  Eurydice stalks Patrick and his friends Viv and Henry Damson, who were at the lake the weekend Sylvia drowned. She learns that Patrick and Sylvia’s marriage was not the perfection photographs suggest.

  Patrick responds to Eurydice’s overtures, and they begin to see each other privately. Sometimes they make love with Eurydice as herself, sometimes she uses illicitly acquired lotus pills to bring up Sylvia.

  Plot is Murphy’s strength. She builds her story block by block, event by event. Readers will likely persist until the end, if only to find an explanation of Eurydice’s actions.

  With skill, Murphy creates ambiguity, which increases the mystery. What, exactly, happens when a body takes a lotus pill? Is Eurydice in charge of the channeling, or does she lose control to Sylvia? Is Patrick a threat to, or a victim of, Eurydice? Has Eurydice intended the final outcome all along, or did she simply take advantage of an evolving situation?

  Murphy is not as skilled at drawing characters. Eurydice often says she has come to this city to escape her past, but Murphy reveals nothing about it until the “gotcha” ending. Even in a scene where Eurydice confesses her secrets to her boss, the reader is not allowed to hear them. We do not know how Eurydice feels or what she wants. She merely acts. This is a problem with the “hold-the-facts-for-the-surprise-ending” approach to a novel.

  Secondary characters come to life only when Eurydice needs them; they are subordinate to the plot. Patrick seems to be a decent sort, but his personality is filtered through Eurydice, and we can barely see him. Suggestions that he might be dangerous are as plausible as the moments when he is sympathetic.

  Murphy has named the bodies after figures in Greek mythology whose stories can be seen as relevant to the events of the novel. Eurydice, Thisbe, and Leander are associated with love and death; Pandora with the release of pestilence on earth; and Ananka with destiny or fate. We never learn their real names, not even Eurydice’s.

  Murphy has trouble letting go of clunky metaphors. For example, in the middle of a conversation, a view of a watercolor hanging in a motel room is described as “meadows that appear bubbled, like burning plastic, a segment of sea as black as rotting fruit.”

  A final word, about humor: In one odd scene, the sight of a purple plum causes Eurydice to laugh out loud for no apparent reason. But the humor becomes clear when one remembers that the couple who were at the lake when Sylvia drowned are named Damson, and that much is made of Sylvia’s purplish lipstick, which Eurydice wears frequently.

  Having identified that joke, one is tempted to look for others — perhaps the mythological names of the bodies, or the name of their boss, Mrs. Renard, a sly and dangerous woman.

  Murphy has set herself an ambitious task with this novel. If the challenge is not perfectly met, she has nonetheless revealed abilities that will serve her well in her next book.

  Alice V. Leaderman writes fiction, grows native plants, and hopes for snow. She and her husband will soon relocate from suburban Maryland to New England.

• black heart reviews
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  Word count: 708

  Review: The Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy
  Posted by Black Heart Reviews on Jan 25, 2017 in Reviews | Comments Off on Review: The Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy
  Review: The Possessions by Sara Flannery MurphyThe Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy
  Published by Harper Collins February 7, 2017
  Pages: 368
  Format: ARC
  Source: Copy for Honest Review

  After I finished reading The Possessions, I had to use my Phone a Friend to discuss the genre labeling. I’ve seen some call it a romantic thriller, but I wouldn’t call it that. I’ve seen some call it a fantasy, it is in a sense, but that didn’t seem quite fitting either. We settled on psychological thriller. It’s absolutely got the psychological part down, the thriller part is there but slightly more understated.

  In fact, so much of this book is written in an understated way. More on that in a minute, first let’s get to the housekeeping bit.

  Edie spends her days as other people. She channels them for money, with the help of a little white pill. She never remembers the experiences, it’s as if she falls asleep for awhile as a deceased spirit takes over her body. Then she wakes as herself again. Herself, however, isn’t much of a person. She rarely socializes with others, she has more possessions belonging to dead people than she has of her own. She moves through her day always waiting to escape herself and become someone else. Someone dead.

  She looks at me as if I’m the invading spirit in her child’s body.

  Edie is very good at moving through her life in a systematic and cold way. She has to be in order to avoid a past she won’t discuss and does not want to remember. Patrick, a new client, makes that all the more difficult. He’s hired her to channel his wife who’s death is surrounded by questions. Edie immediately feels a connection, but that connection is more with Sylvia, the dead wife, than with Patrick – the man she believes she’s falling in love with.

  The Possessions introduces an interesting and thought provoking plot. If you could, would you want to contact a deceased love one? To what end or purpose? Is it healing or does it draw out the process of grief? All of these things are touched on in this tale. But one other thing is, as well. If a spirit could inhabit your body for a short period of time, could they do it for longer? Would they ever want to leave it?

  For a crooked second, Sylvia is in the room with me. A drowned specter, white skin peeling away like fruit rind, eyelids eaten into filigree by the fish.

  For Edie and Sylvia, that’s the key question, as Sylvia becomes more and more a part of Edie and Edie is all too willing to let her stay. To be her. The more time she spends as Sylvia, with Patrick, the more she digs in to Sylvia’s life…and her death. A search that eventually uncovers everyone’s secrets, including her own.

  Back to that understated part. Murphy wrote this book with a slow pace that still keeps you excited enough to turn the page. It’s written with a creepiness that’s indirect, I guess would be the word for it. It’s not blatant on the page. You feel like you are reading normal, every day thoughts of a lonely and quiet woman, until she thinks of wanting to slide her fingernail under skin and peel it all away. Then it’s right back to a sense of quiet normalcy.

  It’s a strange read, very different than anything I’ve read in quite a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I did wish the end had been a bit stronger, but it felt genuine to Edie’s character, so I won’t give it too much flack. It’s a solid start to Murphy’s career and I’ll be watching for more from her.

• oklahoman
  http://newsok.com/book-review-the-possessions-by-oklahoma-novelist-sara-flannery-murphy/article/5545388
  Word count: 352

  Book review: 'The Possessions' by Oklahoma novelist Sara Flannery Murphy
  By Betty Lytle For The Oklahoman Published: April 16, 2017 5:00 AM CDT Updated: April 16, 2017 5:00 AM CDT
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  “The Possessions” by Sara Flannery Murphy (Harper, 354 pages, in stores)

  This intriguing debut novel from Sara Flannery Murphy — an Arkansas native currently living in Oklahoma with her husband and son — blends mystery, suspense and a little otherworldliness with love and obsession.

  Set in an unnamed urban landscape, the story centers on a young woman who channels the dead for a living. She works at the Elysian Society, a private service that offers the opportunity for clients to contact their dead loved ones. Eurydice, called Edie, is a “body.” She uses the belongings of the dead to channel them during private sessions. Edie has lasted longer than any other body — she has been able to keep herself detached.

  Then she meets Patrick Braddock. He asks her to wear his late wife's vibrant, plum-colored lipstick. Edie feels uncomfortable yet immediately attracted. His wife was named Sylvia, and Edie studies pictures of her and Patrick together.

  Edie breaks her own rules and becomes personally involved with Patrick. As her life becomes tangled with his, secrets emerge regarding the circumstances of Sylvia's death. It was an "accidental" drowning. But as Sylvia's essence lingers, Edie begins to suspect it wasn't an accident. Under false pretenses, she visits and gets to know Sylvia and Patrick's best friends, a couple they were on holiday with when the accident occurred.

  Meanwhile, the whole city is uneasy about the death of a young girl, identified only as “Hopeful Doe.” Her body was found in an abandoned house, and for some reason she seems familiar to the bodies at the Elysian Society.

  Patrick stops coming to the Elysian Society, and Edie pursues him to the point of stalking, offering him the chance to be with her and Sylvia for the rest of his life.

  This is an unusual story that is chilling, gripping and hard to forget.

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