calistaw's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
andreacaro's review
2.0
DNF @ 43%. I really wanted to get through this because it talks a lot about Manx Halloween which I find pretty interesting, but I was incredibly bored. There was nothing very thrilling about this thriller. Anyway, I'm doing an unhaul and I was tired of this sitting on my shelf.
2 stars for the Manx Halloween stuff, though in my honest opinion, it was pretty sparse.
2 stars for the Manx Halloween stuff, though in my honest opinion, it was pretty sparse.
thebooktrail88's review against another edition
4.0
For the locations of the book, please visit - Dark Tides booktrail
Dare you dance during Hop-tu-Naa, the Manx Halloween? Dare you anger the spirits?
The Isle of Man is awash with folklore and a history like no other. Take Hop-tu-naa for example, a Celtic festival which takes place on 31st October like Halloween although this festival dates back much earlier. The name pronounced Hop two nay – translates as This is the Night…..
The phase of the year when the veil between our world and the spirit word is said to be tissue thin
This is indeed the night that spirits return to the island and spook the inhabitants who live there. This was the night Claire’s mother’s died. The house she was working in at the time of her death has always appeared as a haunted and chilling presence on the island. Owner Edward Caine is as eerie as his home –
The house frightened me. It always had. Perhaps the effect should have been worse in the dark of Hop-tu-naa but the truth is I could have been standing in front of the Caine mansion on a bright and warm summers day and I’d still have experienced the same penetrating chill…
Many years later and Claire is playing a game of dare -the dares over the years have grown ever more dangerous. What once started as a dare to drive to drive out to woodland and wait to see what happened next leads to the idea that they should go up to the Caine house and leave a footprint leading away from the house (in Manx folklore this has bad connotations) The dare does not end well.
Now the dare hangs over the entire island as those involved seem to be dying at an alarming rate….And the words of the Hop-tu-naa song continue to haunt….
‘…..Jinny the with flew over the house,
To fetch the stick ,
To lather the mouse…’
Who is behind the Hop-tu-naa? And what will come of it? Dare you risk finding out?
kaygee_reads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
cleogold1990's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
theawkwardbookw's review
3.0
Want to see more from me? Check out my youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCferU-BCL2dlFjWdD0rS75Q
When Claire Cooper was 8 years old, her mother disappeared on Hop-tu-naa, the Manx equivalent of Halloween. Claire has always had her suspicions about what happened to her mother so 10 years later, she and 5 of her friends take part in a dare on Hop-tu-naa that ends terribly. Year after year, this dare keeps coming back to haunt the 5 friends.
The story is told in two timelines, the past and the present which I thought was very well done. I loved how the prologue of the book eventually shows up again further along in the story. It was interesting to see the story progress over the 20 years it takes place in. The killer is quite predictable from about 1/3 into the story so that was a bit disappointing to me. I really liked Claire as a main character and thought her actions and choices were very relatable. I also really enjoyed reading some chapters from the killer's perspective, it definitely brought a spooky feeling while reading. I loved the mystery behind what happened to Claire's mother and definitely didn't figure it out by the end so that was a positive for me.
Overall, it was entertaining but not anything overly memorable in my opinion.
When Claire Cooper was 8 years old, her mother disappeared on Hop-tu-naa, the Manx equivalent of Halloween. Claire has always had her suspicions about what happened to her mother so 10 years later, she and 5 of her friends take part in a dare on Hop-tu-naa that ends terribly. Year after year, this dare keeps coming back to haunt the 5 friends.
The story is told in two timelines, the past and the present which I thought was very well done. I loved how the prologue of the book eventually shows up again further along in the story. It was interesting to see the story progress over the 20 years it takes place in. The killer is quite predictable from about 1/3 into the story so that was a bit disappointing to me. I really liked Claire as a main character and thought her actions and choices were very relatable. I also really enjoyed reading some chapters from the killer's perspective, it definitely brought a spooky feeling while reading. I loved the mystery behind what happened to Claire's mother and definitely didn't figure it out by the end so that was a positive for me.
Overall, it was entertaining but not anything overly memorable in my opinion.
saragalisteo's review against another edition
4.0
Un thriller muy interesante que engancha desde la primera página, aunque los primeros capítulos de la Claire adolescente me han parecido más flojos. Menos mal que enseguida el libro ha recuperado el ritmo y no he querido dejarlo hasta llegar al final.
bethpsbookshelf's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0
raven88's review against another edition
5.0
I’m a confirmed fan of Chris Ewan’s crime writing to date and Dark Tides does not disappoint! Beginning with one of the creepiest opening chapters it has ever been my pleasure to read- lone female Claire Cooper- a scary deserted cottage- Halloween 2014 (or Hop-tu-naa as it is dubbed on the Isle of Man) and the scene is set for a slowly escalating tension filled read. Cleverly, throughout the course of book Ewan takes us through a succession of Halloween nights, flipping backwards and forwards between timelines. Consequently, we trace the events in Claire’s life from her younger years, and the traumatic events that have followed her over each Halloween, beginning with the unsolved disappearance of her mother, possibly at the hands of her sinister employer Edward Caine, who I kept picturing as Mr Burns from The Simpsons (insert Homer Simpson shudder here) and his equally weird son Morgan. Following the disappearance of her mother on that fateful Halloween night, Claire grows up slightly introverted until her acceptance by the ‘cool’ gang comprising of Rachel, Callum, David, Mark and Scott, whose increasingly dangerous Hop-tu-naa stunts over the years prove to be their undoing. Particularly when in a dangerous prank they turn their attentions on Edward Caine to avenge Claire’s mother’s disappearance, which ends in extreme violence and find themselves in a killer’s sights…
Thanks to the skilful manipulation and presentation of each timeline, culminating in the present day with Claire now employed as a police officer, Ewan never loses the reader’s concentration. So many authors fall at the first hurdle with time shifts, either confusing when the action is taking place, or not placing enough points of interest in each timeline to hold the reader’s interest. I positively relished entering each different Halloween so see who would perish next, and loved the disparate and, at times, wonderfully gruesome ways in which Claire’s cohorts are despatched to the other side. Equally, the identity of the avenging angel is well-concealed and a few of my theories fell by the wayside as the book progressed, as Ewan twists the plot into another direction and chain of guilt.
Another real strength of the book is the control of the characterisation, and I liked the way that the gradual ageing of the characters was completely authentic as they progressed from impulsive teenagers to twenty-somethings, with the inherent responsibilities or foolhardy actions that many of us experience in our journey from teenage years to adulthood. Claire is wonderfully understated as a central character but her incredible ordinariness is a continual pull for our emotional engagement with her right the way through the book. You find yourself genuinely rooting for her as she balances the demands of her professional life with the haunting demons of her past. As her circle of friends decreases, these vying tensions in her life come to the fore, ratcheting up our fears on her behalf, while she attempts to identify the killer.
I must confess that my only knowledge of the Isle of Man has pretty much been accrued from watching coverage of the TT Race and reading Ewan’s previous books, and to be honest I love the way that Ewan employs his setting as an additional creepy character in the book. The locations of each Halloween prank are beautifully sinister and darkly realised, and I loved the sense of menace that he attributes to the more desolate areas of the island, in much the same way as Peter May’s atmospheric rendition of the Hebrides. Top tip. Don’t go and live on an island. It’s dangerous. (Well, if crime writers are to be believed!)
So I’m pleased to report that Ewan has come up trumps again following the equally compelling Safe House and Dead Line. Dark Tides is tense, engaging, spooky and at times purely terrifying. A nice little chiller- thriller for the long winter nights. Recommended.
Thanks to the skilful manipulation and presentation of each timeline, culminating in the present day with Claire now employed as a police officer, Ewan never loses the reader’s concentration. So many authors fall at the first hurdle with time shifts, either confusing when the action is taking place, or not placing enough points of interest in each timeline to hold the reader’s interest. I positively relished entering each different Halloween so see who would perish next, and loved the disparate and, at times, wonderfully gruesome ways in which Claire’s cohorts are despatched to the other side. Equally, the identity of the avenging angel is well-concealed and a few of my theories fell by the wayside as the book progressed, as Ewan twists the plot into another direction and chain of guilt.
Another real strength of the book is the control of the characterisation, and I liked the way that the gradual ageing of the characters was completely authentic as they progressed from impulsive teenagers to twenty-somethings, with the inherent responsibilities or foolhardy actions that many of us experience in our journey from teenage years to adulthood. Claire is wonderfully understated as a central character but her incredible ordinariness is a continual pull for our emotional engagement with her right the way through the book. You find yourself genuinely rooting for her as she balances the demands of her professional life with the haunting demons of her past. As her circle of friends decreases, these vying tensions in her life come to the fore, ratcheting up our fears on her behalf, while she attempts to identify the killer.
I must confess that my only knowledge of the Isle of Man has pretty much been accrued from watching coverage of the TT Race and reading Ewan’s previous books, and to be honest I love the way that Ewan employs his setting as an additional creepy character in the book. The locations of each Halloween prank are beautifully sinister and darkly realised, and I loved the sense of menace that he attributes to the more desolate areas of the island, in much the same way as Peter May’s atmospheric rendition of the Hebrides. Top tip. Don’t go and live on an island. It’s dangerous. (Well, if crime writers are to be believed!)
So I’m pleased to report that Ewan has come up trumps again following the equally compelling Safe House and Dead Line. Dark Tides is tense, engaging, spooky and at times purely terrifying. A nice little chiller- thriller for the long winter nights. Recommended.