It creates a close, tense setting that ramps up the tension and adds a sense of claustrophobia that I absolutely love. Hovering over the entire family is the spectre of the recent death of Charles Hallowell, father and husband and anchor to normality. There’s something about imagining a child with an American accent that doesn’t make them unsettling at all, but give them a posh British accent? When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Still a fantastic YA novel that mixes grief, horror and romance, dripping with gothic atmosphere and characters I won't forget.

We Can Be Heroes is a vivid, striking novel about all-too-common violence in America, and the ways it shapes lives in a small town. The story follows Marin Blythe, who is moving into Lovelace House as a nanny following her mother’s tragic death. McCauley's writing is as gorgeous as her story is gruesome, filled with a creeping dread that gets into your bones and holds you in thrall.Marin’s yearning for a place to belong informs most of the narrative, which starts off with her as the outsider looking in but shifts as she slowly but surely carves her way into becoming part of the family in unexpected ways. Much more fantasy oriented than I expected instead of horror but since it’s YA, I should’ve known that.

The other characters all have quirks and I love that we slowly get pieces to a puzzle that Marin is trying to figure out. To access your ebook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly on your browser by logging into Glose. I assumed it was present day, especially since there is a line referencing the band, Paramore but then other little details like how they dressed, manner of speech, and way of life felt archaic at times. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him. I’m currently revising my next book, another YA with horror elements about a group of girls stranded on an island in the Pacific Northwest with a monster.

It was my safe place, and writing just came naturally from that, from a place I loved and wanted to stay forever. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Although I don’t know why, but the house and its inhabitants would have seemed way creepier if they were British. i don’t know what exactly makes creepy kids such a good horror theme, but i think this part of the book was so good. It’s sort of the opposite of worrying about whether a beloved pet in a story dies—what if a beloved pet comes back?

It's usually done well, but because I've seen so many different iterations of it, an author has to do something really unique for a book about grief to truly win me over. The sheriff who never really investigated her father's death is sitting across the gallery from her.

but marin still can’t shake the anxiety about all the strange happenings around the house, and has to wonder if this job is worth it. The pacing and characterisation was spot on and there wasn’t a moment I was bored or felt like scenes were unnecessary. I am drawn to stories about haunted houses, and their haunted occupants, with dark forests holding dark secrets in the background, family mysteries, deaths, and more than a hint of the supernatural at play – so this novel, McCauley’s début title with Magpie Books, ticked all those boxes and more than delivered. I don’t want to give anything away in this review, for there are several delicious twists and reveals to enjoy in the latter half of the novel – one of which was a real shocker, at least to this reader.You feel so creeped out by what is happening because it feels like the characters have no way of getting help as they are isolated in an old house. It was advertised as a novel for those who are fans of The Haunting of Bly Manor, one of my favorite horror TV shows (albeit I love Hill House more), and the inspiration was very clear. She finds herself falling for Evie, but realizes that something is going on that she doesn't understand. I hate cold, muddy, windy, rainy environments, and yet, more than anything, I want to spend some time at Lovelace House. A little young but the relationship was done very tastefully and there was an innocence about it that I appreciated.