#lockdownreading

Day 23 #MarchoftheWriter

 Fav place to read? I suffer from chronic insomnia. I’m lucky if I get 2/3 hours sleep a night/morn. I finally switch off and take off my work hat in the early hours of the morning. Then the rest of the time, until I close my eyes, or not is spent reading.My second pastime, and if you’ve been following my blogs, you know what and where I do my reading.When I’m in the car when I’m out for coffee…

Author: Will Maclean

Published by: William Heinemann

Pages: 406

Format: Hardback

My Rating ★★★★

Tim and Abi have always been different from their peers. Precociously bright, they spend their evenings in their parents’ attic discussing the macabre and unexplained, zealously re-reading books on folklore, hauntings and the supernatural. In particular, they are obsessed with photographs of ghostly apparitions and the mix of terror and delight they provoke in their otherwise safe and boring childhood.

But when Tim and Abi decide to fake a photo of a ghost to frighten an unpopular school friend, they set in motion a deadly and terrifying chain of events that neither of them could have predicted and are forced to confront the possibility that what began as a callous prank might well have taken on a malevolent life of its own.

My thoughts:

The Apparition Phase is an unsettling literary ghost story set in the early 1970s. Tim and Abi Smith are teenage twins growing up in a lower middle-class household in the early 1970s. They are obsessed with ghosts and all things supernatural. Their knowledge of ghostly apparitions caught on camera, inspires them to create a ghostly photo of their own - a fake one of course, echoing the girls who said they’d taken photos of The Cottingley Fairies in 1917. Of course, terrible consequences ensue.

With their fake ghost photo, Tim and Abi accidentally release some kind of malevolent spirit into the world, which soon leads to Abi going missing.

This first section of the book is spellbinding. In particular, there was one scene – in which Janice lashes out at the twins with what seems to be a prophecy or possession – which is truly chilling, almost cinematic in its intensity, and sure to remain lodged in the reader’s mind.

The blurb gives the impression that Part I is the backbone of the entire story. So, I was surprised to be yanked from all that sublime scene-setting into Part II, which, it turns out, sets the tone for everything else. Set a few years later, it involves Tim joining a group of ghost hunters at a country house called Yarlings.

Tim struggles to cope with Abi’s disappearance, their parents begin to grow apart, and before long Tim is being hauled off by a bunch of hippy paranormal researchers to take part in some kind of ‘scientific research project’ at a big old haunted house in the Suffolk countryside. He finds himself gathered in the apparently haunted house with a bunch of other disturbed teenagers.  

During his time there, Tim’s world opens up, but we never lose sight of his grief, and alongside him we are caught up in the romance, hope and terror of the ghost hunt, the ever-shifting dynamics of the quickly intimate group, and the question of what might really be going on behind the scenes.

It’s a stunning literary debut with excellent narrative, and a truly engrossing, unsettling storyline with lots of twists and turns along the way. It surprised me that this definitely felt like a young adult novel, despite the narrator’s adult prose. For me, I initially felt that the ending was the weakest part, but then I read the epilogue and was convinced otherwise. Do not skip the epilogue!  

Like all great ghost stories, The Apparition Phase questions what is real and what is simply a trick of the mind – and whether there’s really a difference between the two. Full of gothic suspense, this was a creepy and gripping read. I was totally engrossed and absorbed the book in a couple of days.

Overall reaction:

Author: Dorothy Koomson

Published by: Headline Publishing

Pages: 550

Format: Hardback

My Rating ★★★1/2

Verity is telling lies…

And that’s why she’s about to be arrested for attempted murder.

Serena has been lying for years…

And that may have driven her daughter, Verity, to do something unthinkable.

Poppy’s lies have come to haunt her…

So will her quest for the truth hurt everyone she loves?

Everyone lies.

But whose lies are going to end in tragedy?

My thoughts:

I can’t imagine Mum’s face when I tell her.

When I start to explain what I’ve done…

And why I had to do it.

My phone starts to flash with a silent incoming call.

The S.O.S I was desperate for.

‘What’s happened?’ he asks. I thought there’d be comfort in his voice but no, it makes it terrifying.

‘He’s at my flat,’ I whisper.

‘I think I killed him.’

From the bestselling author of Tell Me Your Secret and The Brighton Mermaid comes the haunting sequel to the Sunday Times bestseller The Ice Cream Girls.

I read this as part of a Tandem read along, so I’d firstly like to say thanks to Tandem and Headline books for my copy. This time the story is based mostly around Verity. However, the original ‘Ice Cream Girls’, Poppy and Serena, also appear a lot and are still very much central to the plot.

All My Lies Are True takes us back to Serena and Poppy’s worlds, and this time Serena’s daughter, Verity also. Over all these years, her mother has kept this huge secret from her, but this time it’s Verity’s turn to keep a deadly secret. It’s interesting to see how things unfold. I loved hearing from Serena and Poppy again, as well as Verity now too. I remember wanting more from her after reading The Ice Cream Girls, and this new sequel works really well to not only build on the original story, but also to revisit some key moments from the previous book to shed light on some of the details and allow readers to see things from a newly-informed viewpoint. I was especially pleased that the author further explored the controversial questioning that took place in the court case when Serena and Poppy were young. I found these moments frustrating in the first instalment, and sadly I still can’t help but feel the whole prosecution process has been pretty unrealistically portrayed in both books. Nevertheless, Koomson has done a good job in fleshing out those parts a little more and adding to the drama. I found those scenes entertaining despite the improbability.

The book is clever, gripping and powerfully told. Plus, I didn’t guess the ending to this one as I had with the first book! It had me guessing right up until the end. I liked exploring the characters even more and learning more about how they were still trying to work out life after Marcus, as well as following Verity and Logan’s complex journey together.

I enjoyed Koomson’s writing. The storytelling here is a well-balanced combination of moving moments, irresistible suspense and compelling narrative drive. All My Lies Are True is a thought-provoking novel about the enduring effects of deception. It is full of heart and truth and makes for a very compelling and enjoyable read.

If you've already read The Ice Cream Girls you really need to get yourself a copy of this book. Thank you again for including me in this read along, I loved every second!

Overall reaction: