Category: Paranormal

‘Little Bird’ – Tiffany Meuret

The cover and tagline had me intrigued, but I was unsure exactly how this book would blend horror and magical realism. Having finished it, I’m still not entirely certain I get it.

The story opens with our introduction to Josie, a rather reclusive character who does all she can to minimise interactions with others. Somewhat struggling with the death of her beloved father, Josie keeps her life together with the help of strict routines, her dog (Po) and copious amounts of vodka. When she finds herself visited by a new nosy neighbour who seems determined to befriend her, Josie is concerned at what is to come.

What she could never have foreseen is the arrival in her home of vines that seem to grow with her state of mental health and a skeleton who promises to leave her alone if she tells an original story.

The character of Skelly was, for me, a kind of barometer for Josie’s mental health. I liked that Skelly tries to help Josie regain a sense of purpose, but the whole thing was a little strange.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

 

‘The Grimrose Girls’ – Laura Pohl

The Grimrose Girls makes for an interesting story…death, secrets and a boarding school with a history tinged with odd events. When the book begins we learn that Ari, a student at the school, has recently died. The general consensus is that she committed suicide, but her best friends – Yuki, Rory and Ella – are convinced that she would not have done this and there is more to the story.

Upon their return to school the girls decide to try and investigate. They have to broach some dark secrets and try to address some of the things about themselves they would prefer to keep hidden. It’s unclear who can help them and who might have something to gain from keeping them in the dark.

New girl Nani is given Ari’s place in the school and it’s no surprise that she finds it hard to settle. She has her own secrets and is reluctant to trust others. Determined to find out exactly what caused her father to leave before he got her the place at the famed school, Nani offers to help the girls try to discover what happened to Ari.

Once Nani finds a mysterious book the girls start to realise that there are some disturbing links between Ari’s death and other strange deaths of students that have taken place in the last few years.

I enjoyed the natural way in which we learned about each of the girls and the details of the mystery of the school. Some of the finer points of the story weren’t always explained, but I wonder whether this might be because there’s more details to come in the next book.

 

‘The Gifts that Bind Us’ – Caroline O’Donoghue

I enjoyed book one, but hadn’t loved the book as much as I’d hoped to. However, this was a much more engaging read. Darker in tone, focusing on a range of concerns and the magic felt more natural in this.

Moving on from the events surrounding Lily, the group are practising their magic and preparing to move into the next phase of their lives. They’re all looking forward, and a substantial part of the book focuses on how it feels when something so momentous starts to fragment.

Maeve is the one most affected. Unsure of her academic potential she seems destined to stay in their town, and is struggling to understand why the others are so determined to leave. She fears losing Roe and her friendships with Fiona and Lily come under pressure.

When events begin it wasn’t clear where we’d end up. The girls head back to school and are shocked to see signs of the Children returning. This toxic group has worked their way into school, trying to establish a hold on those susceptible to their message. However, it soon becomes apparent that they’re after something much bigger.

As events unfold we learn more about Maeve and her friends, their skills and the way groups such as the Children operate. There’s some unexpected developments regarding some familiar figures and it was lovely to see certain elements developed more fully here. Dramatic moments, plenty of witchy action and a wonderful focus on friendship.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this before its scheduled February 2022 publication.

 

‘Only a Monster’ – Vanessa Len

Monsters are, traditionally, the things we hate but in this fascinating story we not only get to learn more about the monsters but we also are encouraged to side with them. Nothing is quite what it seems.

Our main character, Joan, is aware of feeling different. Her family background is a mix of cultures, and though she loves her father’s family she also enjoys the time she spends with her mother’s side of the family. When we first meet her she is spending the summer with her grandmother and spending time working at a local historical house. She was drawn to the place, and is excited to be going on a date with Nick, another volunteer.

On the day of her date, Joan learns something about herself that she could not have foreseen. The truth about her family is revealed, and it sets in place an awful chain of events with Nick at its heart.

Without giving too much away we learn that monsters walk the earth. We don’t know how they came into being, but they can travel through time…only they have to steal time from humans to do so. Joan is half-monster. Nick is the hero created to destroy monsters – so him falling in love with a monster is never going to be a good idea!

What we get is a tense and dramatic time-travel fantasy story, with lots of potential strands for development. I am desperate to learn more about the history of the monsters, and am pretty sure that we have not seen the last of the characters that make this such an exciting read.

Though not due for publication until early 2022, I’m grateful to the Secret Readers for allowing me the opportunity to read it in advance of publication. Exciting stuff!

 

‘The Coldest Touch’ – Isabel Sterling

Our main character, Elise, has been struggling to find happiness after her brother’s death. She blames herself, and ever since this accident Elise has not wanted to touch anyone as she can foretell a person’s death if she does.

Initially, it was hard to tell what was going on with Elise. However, there is a young woman following her. Claire seems to know more about Elise than she should, but we don’t get to know much initially.

What we eventually learn is that Claire is a vampire. She has a vested interest in getting to know Elise…but there’s someone else trying to get to Elise. Someone who has the potential to make things very difficult for her.

The story of two sides battling one another for control is not a new one. The humour and developing romance offer us something to get interested in…and there’s definite hints that this is far from over.

Thanks to NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this before publication in exchange for my honest thoughts.

 

‘The Bewitching of Aveline Jones’ – Phil Hickes

Summer holiday, and Aveline is with her mum in a remote cottage in a little village in the middle of nowhere. Boring…or at least it is until Aveline befriends one of the local girls who isn’t quite what she seems.

We can tell where this is going a mile off, but the story is engaging and offers some genuinely creepy moments. If you loved book one, this delivers another similarly engaging read.

Hazel and her desire to be friends with Aveline could have gone very differently, but we sense things will resolve themselves.

A quick read, giving just the right amount of creepy vibes. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this before publication.

 

‘The Taking of Jake Livingston’ – Ryan Douglass


Jake Livingston is one of the only black kids in his school. The other is his popular older brother. Jake is reserved, finds it hard to interact with others and when a lot of your time is spent seeing dead people I imagine it’s hard to deal with the real world. This alone would make Jake’s high school experience a challenge, but Jake is also having to come to terms with being gay, and when we later learn about how his now-absent father responded to this years earlier his reticence is understandable.
From the outset we were encouraged to get into Jake’s head and try to understand his experience. We watch the micro aggressions in school, and we see how these are affecting him. This seems quite familiar territory, but the book is very far from familiar.
With its focus on spirits and the main character being a medium, this was always going to be something a little different. Alongside Jake’s experiences, we are also given chapters by a character called Sawyer. This is a character who is receiving treatment for potential depression and who seems to have little support around him. We may be tempted to feel some sympathy for him, particularly later in the book when he experiences some deeply concerning events, but he was a character I found it hard to feel anything positive about as he is so skewed in his attitudes to others. As we also have Jake’s experience alongside we learn that Sawyer is – in the present – actually a ghost, a malevolent force who in life gunned down several of his peers, killed himself and now appears to be haunting those who survived.
Learning that Sawyer is determined to cause trouble, and Jake is going to be the vessel through which he achieves this, lent a much darker tone to the book than I expected. When we get into scenes of possession, I admit to being not only spooked by the events described but also very very confused. There were considerable sections where I really could not say with certainty what was happening.
I may be wholly off in my reading of this, but the spirit possession and the scenes towards the end seemed (at least they did at the time of reading) to be some form of symbolic representation of Jake’s struggle to come to terms with his self-identity. Perhaps this was not the case, but by the end I did feel Jake had found some clarity about himself and how he might be in the future.

 

‘Hexed: Don’t Get Mad, Get Powers’ – Julia Tuffs

Jessie Jones has got used to moving schools regularly, being the new face and trying to do enough not to get noticed. However, when her mum moves the family back to her hometown, things are not quite as straightforward as she might have hoped.
Trying to fly under the radar might work out okay for most…but when you find your darkest wishes suddenly manifesting in front of you it’s a sign something strange is going on. Jessie finds herself wondering how she’s managed to turn the face of popular bully boy Callum acne-ridden, and how her desire for a boy to get caught out in his lies can result in his nose suddenly growing. What she’s not expecting is the revelation that she’s a witch.
The stereotype of witches is definitely challenged here. Jessie and her family come from a long line of witches, and their powers can come in useful.
There’s a bit of silliness at first with talk of witchcraft being used to rectify awful cooking or to conjure up the perfect bath. But in Hexed we have a superficially funny tale – of a girl who learns she’s a witch coming into her powers – that is used to deliver a very important message about women in society.
From early on we can see things on the island are not quite right. Women are treated badly…and these misogynistic views are held under scrutiny with the focus on behaviour in Jessie’s school. From the casual scoring system of rating girls’ attractiveness to the leery comments and tales of poor behaviour. There’s a clear culture of sexism and this book shows one girl’s attempts to take on and challenge these views.
While it might not exactly be smashing the patriarchy Hexed shows sexism is still an issue and ought to be challenged, by everyone. Along the way, there’s some other useful life lessons challenging attitudes and pushing back bit by bit. A tale that should be shared every day…not just Wednesdays!
Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this before publication.

 

‘All Our Hidden Gifts’ – Caroline O’Donoghue

 

Maeve Chambers, the youngest of five children, is a fairly ordinary sixteen year old girl in many ways. She feels acutely conscious that she’s not as clever as her siblings, not as interesting as her peers and has no idea what she wants to do. She is fizzing with a desire to do something but doesn’t know what that something could be.

When she gets into trouble in school she is given a detention which involves clearing out an abandoned storeroom. While there she finds an old Walkman and a pack of tarot cards. So begins her new interest…

Maeve teaches herself to read the tarot cards and finds herself to have something of a knack for it. She likes the feeling she gets when she does readings for her schoolmates. Unfortunately, after she does a reading for Lily – the girl who used to be her best friend until Maeve abandoned her in an attempt to garner popularity – things go horribly wrong. Lily disappears, and Maeve is convinced (because of the presence of a mysterious card known as the Housekeeper) that she is responsible.

The mystery of what happened to Lily is at the heart of the book but never really examined, and glossed over later. It is inextricably linked to the rise of an ultra-conservative Christian group sowing discord and hatred amongst the community. No one escapes this.

There was a lot going on here, and it wasn’t always clear which strand was driving the book. Interesting idea, and certainly topical, but I didn’t really feel engaged enough by Maeve to care too much what happened to her and the characters I was intrigued by were often sidelined just when things could have been interesting.

‘Our Last Echoes’ – Kate Alice Marshall

 

Our Last Echoes was always going to have to be a book I tried as soon as I saw the Twin Peaks mention…and it definitely has its surreal, downright creepy, moments where you’re never quite sure what is actually going on. I also started reading The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jonasson at the same time, and there was a similar oppressive quality to the description of the place where much of the story takes place.

Our main character Sophia recalls nearly drowning as a young child, and she has always been plagued by memories that she can’t explain. Passed from one foster home to another, she has always felt the need to learn more about the disappearance of her mother and to learn of the significance of Bitter Rock to her life.

After pestering Dr Kapoor – the woman who is in charge of those who are allowed to work on the island – Sophia is allowed to visit. Given what we later learn about her link to Bitter Rock I still think this is rather unlikely, but it’s a necessary device to get her to the heart of where these strange things keep happening.

Many people have heard of this place. Throughout time, people who have visited the island mysteriously disappear. Nobody can explain what happens to them. As we learn more about these unusual events, I can fully understand why.

From the outset it is highly suggested that we are in the grip of something that is hard to explain. After finishing the book I can still think of no rational explanation for what happens, and if you were to get caught up in events such as this in reality you would be terrified.

This is certainly a book to go into with little warning of what is to come. It doesn’t shy away from some very dark moments, and this will not be to everyone’s tastes. However, the inclusion of interview transcripts and the details from different times lends a fascinating element to a most unusual story.