This book has been extensively reworked and re-issued for 2014 and it shows. The novel is actually 'three for the price of one'. There is a modern strand that treats the teenage to adult transition period with great insight, plus two further strands telling the story of the land and of the mine through the troubled voices and visions of their separate historical periods. The story launches the reader straight in to what matters. Shelley is different. Very different. She hears voices trapped in the past by their circumstances, and without proper closure, until someone listens to and understands their stories. That someone is Shelley, a seventeen year old girl whose own past lacks determination. Thinking herself certain of her parents and all those around her, she is led unwillingly by the voices to a life-changing discovery of her own. Listening to the voices trapped deep in the Derbyshire stone of the nearby lead mine, Shelley uses their wisdom and experience to help determine and accept who she is and what the future holds for her.
With poetical writing, we take on a journey of seventeen year old Shelley who hears voices from the past. May seem fantastical and a thriller at first glance but ravals the relationship between divorce, parental affirmation and misunderstandings. One way or another we understand the importance of communication, may it be between ghosts of past or your mother. I enjoyed it for what it was.