“You don't think this could be about Laura, do you?”
Ten years ago, they were all friends. Ten years ago, something terrible happened. Ten years ago, they agreed to take the truth about Laura to their graves. All they had to do was forget, and keep their mouths shut.
But when a hidden force starts cutting them down one by one, in a series of increasingly horrific incidents, the remaining friends are forced to face the truth.
Somehow, Laura has come back.
Laura is a horror story about six people who thought they could hide the truth, and about the girl who returns from the grave to make them all pay.
Amy Cross writes novels and short stories in a number of genres, mainly horror, paranormal and fantasy. Books include The Farm, Annie's Room, The Island, Eli's Town and Asylum.
This is actually a brilliant story. A good old ghost story to get ones teeth into. The characters are good and you become invested in their fates fairly quickly.
In truth I would dearly love to give this book a higher rating, unfortunately the latter third of the book prevents this. Its not the story that is the problem but rather the mistakes that become as frequent as the deaths. Naming characters incorrectly on such a frequent basis meant I began to doubt my own sanity and spent a great deal of time having to skim back to check. This ruined the flow of the tale and meant that the end has much less impact.
Despite my grumble it is a well told story and definitely worth a read.
“I'll admit that this whole situation is pretty crazy, but there's one important fact you've got to keep in your head. Laura hasn't come back from the dead. If there's one thing I've come to understand over the past few months, while I've been grappling with my own mortality, it's that ghosts are just a way for people to make themselves feel better about death. They're not real. There's not such thing as ghosts. And therefore, we can be pretty damn certain that Laura's gone forever.”
Five friends; Elliot, Nick, Sophie, Victoria and Jonathan hold a secret that they hoped would end in a watery grave and stay that way forever. Yet as the story begins to unfold, nobody is as honest as you thought they were. Laura Meare died ten years ago after becoming injured at the beach late one night. In the heart of a storm with the tide pulling closer and closer to her, she makes the frantic phone call to her friends to save her from the death she knows is looming. As they answered, you quickly learn how tired they were of her and her blackmail and laughed as she sat pleading for her life on the other end of the call before her phone finally died. As they went shopping from pub to pub, she was pulled deep into a cavern with the tide coming in. With a guilt conscious, Elliot went to where she was and after her admitting to the blackmail on Sophie, he sat and watched as she slowly drowned while she cursed them all. Now, as the years have scraped by one by one they start to get visits from the ghost of Laura, starting with Victoria. Six months ago she saw the reflection of their deceased friend in the bathroom mirror. It's been six months since Victoria committed suicide by dragging that shattered glass across her throat, yet nobody was supposed to know that. As her spirit haunts the apartment she becomes this recluse, as her husband Jonathan hid her body in the bottom of the chest freezer. Effectively keeping her locked inside and still alive.
Laura is right behind me. Her flesh is pale and rotten, and her eyes have been eaten away, leaving blackened sockets. Wet, matted hair is stuck to her forehead and to the sides of her face, and water is dribbling from her mouth. Not just her mouth, either. There's a hole on the side of her neck, and a kind of thick slime is oozing down the side of her neck and gathering around the tattered threads of her shirt.
It started with a dinner party where Victoria accuses all her close friends of knowing who was responsible for her horrendous stalking. Leaving behind nothing, she releases the leaked photos of Sophie causing her a stress related miscarriage and for her spouse to leave her upon seeing the altered photographs. As one by one their friends are dying, Elliot and Sophie fight with everything left to discover the truth about Laura's and where her body has come to lie. Yet that wasn't what Laura wanted as her vengeful spirit killed Elliot before trying to take Sophie as well. As the story begins to fade out, Sophie is locked in a mental institution which gives her a safe reprise from Laura who is locked inside that old London Apartment. With the new tenants begining to suffer the curse of Laura, it seems her vengeance will never end.
“You have your youth,” she whispers, “and your beauty. Men'll strip all of that from you if they get the chance. We have to stop him.”
Another creepy tale, where friendships take on a whole new meaning.
I do enjoy this author's writing style - fast-paced and back and forth in time so that it builds the story, characters and tension. The first-person is narrative is a brilliant way of getting into the minds of each character.
However, it is a shame there are so many typos and, despite the author being English and the setting in England, that she uses American spelling and words - though that is mixed with some English e.g. metric measurements instead of feet and inches that Americans use. I can only hope that she will stick to English.
Nevertheless, this is a great story, with twists, turns and the unexpected. Loved it.
I chose this book because of its interesting synopsis. It kind of reminded me of the movie "I Know What You Did Last Summer," only quite different. Though the book was a good read and kept me captivated, it also distracted me; for one, the author swears far too much, so you probably don't want your twelve year old reading this (I wouldn't recommend it anyway), secondly, there seemed to a lot of spelling and grammatical errors, as well as the improper use of words, missing words, etc. I think I may still read other books by this author though; it will depend on the book/story, its synopsis and how well the plot flows.
Laura by Amy Cross came out in 2017. The novel’s Kindle page lists it at 501 pages. Free through Kindle Unlimited; the purchase price is USD 0.99. I am an Amy Cross addict although I cannot read two of her books consecutively. She might be considered by most readers to be a writer of horror fiction but there is also a mixture of crime, thriller, mystery, and psychological genre. I find the content too intense to read more than one of her books per month. Then I read other things and return to her novels for a burst of motivation.
After reading a few pages in Prologue, I could tell I was going to have a problem keeping all the characters and their relationships in mind. Going back to the table of contents helped me with the way the novel is organized. There are 13 parts if the prologue and epilogue are included. Then there are ten parts, each one with a character name as its title. The story involves the fates of six main characters with Laura playing a primary role. Reader confusion begins here. At some time, Laura is a member of the “group of six,” other times in the narrative she is not. This is important to the story. Laura was replaced in the group by Victoria. It doesn’t matter who replaced Laura; the situation is unacceptable to her. As the reader will learn, Laura is vindictive, creative, and out for revenge. She is also dead, a fact that partially explains her estrangement from the group.
Reader confusion continues as this character driven story explains shifting relationships in the group as it existed with Laura and post-Laura. Sophie and Elliott are not really a couple. A very close platonic relationship is how Sophie would explain it. Elliott wants it to be more but Sophie intends the relationship to be no more intimate. Lynn and Nick are married and in a fairly stable relationship but Nick would prefer Lynn to lighten up on the cocaine use. Johnathan and Victoria seem to be successful in marriage and financially well off but, as we find out at the beginning of the novel, Victoria is obsessed with the idea that she has a stalker intent on destroying her life. Johnathan feels that excessive preoccupation with this idea will lead to insanity.
Each of the ten character-titled parts is written from the perspective of that character about their relationship with each of the other characters. Their perspectives are given in three parts; one from twenty years previous, one from ten years previous, and one from the present. This will continue to the end of the novel where we find a couple of segments set from a few months to one year into the future. All of this time-shifting can make it difficult to remember who precisely is giving “testimony” about what has happened or is happening. I found I had to use a highlighter and make notes so that I would not lose track of who Toby and Tommy were. They are not main characters but they move the story along.
There is not a lot of strong or sexual language in this story. Laura is variously described by the other characters as a slut but that is about as strong as the language gets. There is no reason for trigger warnings. Yes, there are photos of several characters engaged in extreme sexual practices to be used as blackmail but these are only hinted at, never described. So, the reader is left to use personal imagination to fill in the blanks with the appropriate amount of salaciousness to taste.
Laura is dead. No one actually killed her (perhaps, readers can decide) but Laura blames everyone for her death. She wants revenge and believes the best consequence for everyone she blames for her death would be to spend some time with her in the wonderful state of Limbo. How she goes about this and whether she will succeed or not is what makes this a very entertaining read. Not all Amy Cross books were created equal. I put them in three categories ranging from merely entertaining (good) to entertaining with a twist (better) to the top category of entertaining with lots of twists and surprises (very good). Laura is in the top category.
While I really LOVED this book, because it was scary as hell and very psychological, this review is just the platform to count all the ways the characters in this book are the worst! Now, keep in mind I believe that the fact that these individuals are horrible human beings makes the book that much more fantastic! *Victoria: she is frigid and cold and closed off... The fact that she dies 6 months before the beginning of the book, unbeknownst to the reader, of course, is the only real redeeming quality she posses. The fact that she may not exactly be cold and distant because she is literally a soul who hasn't even really learned that she is dead makes up for her lack of humanity just a touch. *Lynn: she admits it herself that she is not a nice person... And isn't THAT the truth!! She is a bitch when they are at university and she is a bitch after she gets cancer... *Jonathan: JONATHAN!!!!! I mean really, he is a horrible person. For one, he is a dirty cheater. I mean, he does say that he is in a pretty loveless and sexless marriage, but still... He is the person behind his own wife's constant torment. I mean, what? Who does that? And then, there is the fact that when he tries to leave his wife, she kills herself in front of him and he cannot even muster enough of a semblance of the love they must have once shared because he can only think of himself. He is worried what people will think of him after word gets out that he killed herself. No remorse. No sadness. Then, he stuffs his wife's body in a freaking freezer, then stuffs Sophie in the freezer 6 months later, alive! He then proceeds to attempt to kill Elliot and Sophie later so Laura will spare him? Yeah, a lot of good that did him. *Nick: Yeah I have really nothing to say about him... He was just a sad, lonely person who would have probably drank himself to death if Laura hadn't gotten to him first. *Toby: He was the only one who really perplexed me. He was the only one that I couldn't get past his character. Yes, the rest were horrible in their ways, but they served a purpose. This d-bag was just a really nice, loving, doting hubby who is consoling his poor wife after she loses their unborn child, and instantly becomes this disgusting jerk who throws his wife out without even letting her TRY to explain herself in the pictures that she swears are doctored. He calls the woman he loves some really terrible names and just assumes, without even thinking twice that she is this two-timing whore. That was really baffling to me. what was the point? *Elliot: okay he was the worst for obvious reasons that are revealed at the very end. But before that, he was the only one I really liked. I will say that right before the big reveal at the end, he was really making me a little crazy because even with ghosts literally in front of his eyes, he still refused to believe they were real. For real bud? *Sophie: Okay, she may be the only person who wasn't involved in the death of Laura, per say, but she wasn't really completely innocent. Then there was the whole point of her not forgiving Elliot after he reveals that they made out one drunken night in college... 10 gosh darn years ago! Even after he literally saves her life, finding her in that freezer and pulling her out, she still can barely even look at him. Dramatic much? *Laura: and finally we get to Laura... What do I really need to say? Aside from the fact that she was promiscuous (because who really cares) she really did try to stir shit up for everyone while she was alive. She was constantly starting problems, hurting people and whatnot. With that being said, she seems to have had a pretty crappy childhood. Then, after her death, she was atrocious. But is that really not understandable? So, thanks for letting me rant a bit. The book kept me very entertained and wondering what would happen next. Very scary!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This is a slightly twisted ghost story (slight spoilers). The events all happen amidst a circle of friends. They jump through time between today, 10 years ago and, at times, 20 years ago. The narration also jumps between the seven different characters/friends and sometimes you don't know who is the "speaker" while other times their name is written in the header. Sometimes the header is wrong as to who the speaker is so - I began to ignore the "sometimes there sometimes not there but sometimes when it's there it's correct" header and just tried to figure it out for myself. This worked on occasion but usually not very quickly. For a long time you wonder who Laura is and what happened to her - I know I thought they had conspired to murder her or something. It is an "or something". I think I would have enjoyed this more if some of the things would have been more clearly conveyed in the story. Also, I probably would have liked the story more if there had been a character that I actually liked. I didn't like any of them because they were either too bitchy, too self-involved, too whiny, or all-around "too-something" to be likable people.
Whilst this was a very good story (and I do love a good ghost story!) It was somewhat over shadowed by the constant use of the word 'hiss'! It was a little frustrating to see the word used so many times! I wouldn't normally be this critical but it was a slight overkill! Also proof reading it would be good., which is why I have given it a 4 star. However despite all that, it was a very cleverly written novel about 6 friends and the death of one them and the subsequent consequences. Definitely a good horror with a few twists and turns! I don't doubt you will enjoy it!
Entertaining read from Amy Cross. She quickly develops a solid mystery to the story and provides great coverage, moving from character to character and on top of that, moving back and forth between the past and the present. It’s a lot to keep organized but Cross does a good job at it.
The ending felt a bit safe to me, going down a landing spot that was unsettling at least, if maybe a little bit on the easy side for the characters. There was an awkward amount of exposition crammed suddenly into a short length of text, making it difficult to really feel the weight of what should have been a powerful ending.
A solid little ghost story! I keep getting Amy Cross recommended to me on Kindle, and she hasn't yet disappointed me.
I spent a lot of time thinking there was no ghost, just a crazy friend in the group. But no...a lot of really crappy people, but not a crazy person. Not really. Then...even when I accepted the reality of a ghost...a second ghost? Then multiple ghosts? Nice!
This was a neat story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
At first it was a bit rough to read, I'm not sure if every edition of the book has the same problem. This book had some pretty glaring "typos". Mainly words that are spelled two different ways and a few wrong words, like it was quickly edited with some software and not human eyes. That said...I am glad I pushed on because the story made it well worth it. I especially loved the writing from different perspectives. I highly recommend this book.
Decent enough revenge/ghost story if you can overlook the gaping plot holes (nobody reports Laur as missing, body lies undiscovered for 10 years in an accessible location - really?) and the frequent typos that a good edit would correct (ie. "...her eyes were drawn to the table at the end of the table" Enjoyable, but some way off the 5th star.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Total page turner, but a little unrealistic. I loved the characters and the shifts in the timeline, but the whole thing was a little far fetched. Also, the editor missed a lot of errors.
I really like a good horror once in a while but this whole book was very cliché. I didn't even need to read the last 3/4 of the book because I already knew what was going to happen. Honestly, its the millionth book of it's type written down to the same plot and ending. Very big disappointment.
Very good book. Great character s, great plot, really interesting and scary story.Totally enjoyed this book and will recommend it to others. Keep writing like this ,you are very good. Thank you.
Laura, is terrifying story of friends that let a friend named Laura die a tragic death. This is the story of the horrifying consequences they pay to Laura for that fateful night.
Really good book. Lots of twists. I really like the way the author told the story from all the different points of view. Only problem was the poor editing. Several spelling errors were left in and it tended to be distracting. Otherwise, great.
This book would have been 4 stars but there were too many typos—misspelled words, words omitted from sentences, and towards the end wrong names were used for characters. I liked the story even though the story wasn’t scary. Laura was definitely crazy.
I don't want to spoil anything, this is a light read, not scary at all, so if you prefer that, you'll love Laura. The book just didn't grab me like others, nor are there any amazing twists.
I've read a few books by Amy Cross and with each one I read the next is better. 5 Star story!! Can't wait to read the next Amy Cross book on my kindle!