IDLE GROUNDS

Robyn Holdaway narrates this atmospheric debut about a summer afternoon gone wrong. As a fractious extended family gathers for a celebration in 1989, a pack of cousins roam the creepy woods around the house, looking for their suddenly missing youngest and oldest members. Holdaway carefully mixes the wry voice of the unnamed narrator, recalling this episode from far in the future, with those of the characters as they appear and disappear. The children alternate between bravado and fear as they move deeper into the woods and closer to possible truths about the past that have been withheld from them. Holdaway expertly evokes the dreamlike nature of childhood memory, when fantasy and reality intertwine and time becomes meaningless. N.M. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2025]