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kastygian's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.75
jaymelou's review
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
wunkymatts's review
3.0
There were some wonderful glimpses of brilliant ideas in this book, but it never quite knitted together. The introductory part was too long, it almost felt like a separate story and would have worked better being woven into the narrative of the house and the ghost hunt. Also, Tim's a bit of a twat, isn't he? I thought, with him banging on about how clever he was all the time, eventually this would be explored, especially with the comments about class in the blurb, but it never was. Some comments made by the other ghost hunters also echoed this view, so perhaps this is just a hang up of Maclean's.
The slow start seemed to infect the rest of the book, so the parts that should have been ramping up the tension fell flat. There was real potential there, but it was not realised. If Maclean has just stuck to the ghost hunt story this book would have been a lot more satisfying.
And the ending...why would you put you father in the most terrifying place you can think of for his last days? No, nope, do not believe it.
The slow start seemed to infect the rest of the book, so the parts that should have been ramping up the tension fell flat. There was real potential there, but it was not realised. If Maclean has just stuck to the ghost hunt story this book would have been a lot more satisfying.
And the ending...why would you put you father in the most terrifying place you can think of for his last days? No, nope, do not believe it.
skyliner's review against another edition
3.0
This was compelling enough to keep me going but I was expecting to feel more of an atmosphere to it. I never felt scared and maybe I wasn't meant to, I definitely enjoyed the first half more when it felt spookier but the writing was good and it conjured the era pretty well. Felt more like a companion book to Edward Parnell's Ghostland (maybe in that there was an element of 'hauntology' by numbers to it, like he'd read Ghostland and then formed a ficitonal book from some of the bibliography). It also felt like ideas for two separate books that weren't fully formed so were fused into one instead. Not a bad book by any means but I am really quite puzzled by the amount of five stars, maybe I'd rate it higher had this been my first introduction to all that hauntology stuff of the UK in the 70s and I can see why people are saying they think this is YA.
franklyfrank's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
pinksy's review
4.0
As a ghost story this was good. Plenty of things that go bump in the night and seances.
It got a little confusing but I was keen to see Tim find out the truth about sister Abi and how come something that they did as children changes everything!
It got a little confusing but I was keen to see Tim find out the truth about sister Abi and how come something that they did as children changes everything!
spookybookz's review against another edition
5.0
I absolutely loved this gripping ghostly tale of belief, grief and the unexplained. I Loved the authors writing such an easy read I couldn’t put it down. So much more to this than a ghost story, I really felt for the main character and his journey through this hard era of life he was experiencing. Wasn’t sure how the story was going to end but I loved the closure it was brilliant! 5 star read