I chose this book because of the beautiful jacket illustration and the setting in the Scottish Highlands, my favourite place. I also tend to read a lot of supernatural and ghost stories at Christmas time and this ticked all of the boxes.
There are some lovely atmosphere building descriptions in this book and attention to detail, and the author takes time to introduce her characters and give revealing pen portraits of them.
Not overly eerie, the supernatural element runs through the book along side of the normal everyday. This ties in nicely with the did it happen, didn't it happen vibe of the plot.
I don't think it delivered on it's full potential. I did find that there were lots of unanswered questions and a few plot snags but the detail of the descriptions made up for this. The tension heightened in a few places simply to fizzle out and the final reveal seemed very rushed and a little contrived. This made the last few pages a little unsatisfactory for me.
Lauren was an interesting character, who occasionally acted older than her years, but I suppose that could be attributed to the loss of her mother and living alone with an alcoholic father. I think using her as the "observer" of what was happening worked well. Her relationship with her father was interesting but lacked parental concern but again that could be a reflection of the situation, but it did raise the question, why did no one get involved to safe guard Lauren?
Overall a good debut novel with nicely drawn characters, a readable plot and lovely descriptions. I would just have liked to see a more convincing resolution and the tension to have been held right to the end.
There are some lovely atmosphere building descriptions in this book and attention to detail, and the author takes time to introduce her characters and give revealing pen portraits of them.
Not overly eerie, the supernatural element runs through the book along side of the normal everyday. This ties in nicely with the did it happen, didn't it happen vibe of the plot.
I don't think it delivered on it's full potential. I did find that there were lots of unanswered questions and a few plot snags but the detail of the descriptions made up for this. The tension heightened in a few places simply to fizzle out and the final reveal seemed very rushed and a little contrived. This made the last few pages a little unsatisfactory for me.
Lauren was an interesting character, who occasionally acted older than her years, but I suppose that could be attributed to the loss of her mother and living alone with an alcoholic father. I think using her as the "observer" of what was happening worked well. Her relationship with her father was interesting but lacked parental concern but again that could be a reflection of the situation, but it did raise the question, why did no one get involved to safe guard Lauren?
Overall a good debut novel with nicely drawn characters, a readable plot and lovely descriptions. I would just have liked to see a more convincing resolution and the tension to have been held right to the end.