Spoiler-free
I went into this book completely blind. The cover initially stood out to me, and then I saw that that it was a Scottish horror book, so I needed no further convincing. I have recently moved to Scotland, and as spooky season is well and truly underway, what better time to pick this one up?
The premise
This story is set in the Highlands (which right off back is very promising). During Haloween night, when Nial, and his daughter Lauren, are trick or treating, a woman stumbles out into the road in front of them, looking worse for wear. Nial decides to drive her back to their house, but in the morning, she is gone, along with Nial's memories of the mysterious woman, much to Lauren's confusion.
The review
Unfortunately, this one fell flat for me. I never really got fully invested in the story or the characters, but I did enjoy the supernatural elements. Lauren messing around with her tarot cards was a lot of fun.
To be completely honest, I was so confused with Lauren's age for the entire book. She went through at least 5 different age ranges in my mind before I settled on, maybe 11? But even then, it didn't really make sense because she didn't seem or act like an 11 year old. I understand this is my fault, and I have probably missed something detailing her age, but even so, I never bought the idea that she was just a kid.
Her dad was such a chore to read about, rife with misery and regret, and was just a downer on the whole thing. The book itself is very sad and mopey. While this makes sense given the themes of broken family, I was never attatched enough to truly care about anything that happened. I guess it just didn't grip me enough.
I loved the scottishness of it all, and the setting was very cold and atmospheric. I found the various glimpses of 'Christine' to be very chilling and effective. The way that everyone was gaslighting Lauren, by saying they never saw 'Christine' even though they clearly did, was very creepy and unsettling.
Final thoughts
Even now that I've finished, I still feel as though I never got the answers I wanted, maybe I just dont care enough to fully understand or think deeply about the events or characters, but that's okay. I just can't help but wonder what the point of everything was.
It's a solid book, probably just not for me - Ang
🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑 - 2 stars
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