The Ice Twins

Hello everyone,

Last Friday as I was packing up my belongings to move back to university my Mam came upstairs to help me choose which books to take. I always like to take a few books to read for pleasure and then switch them out when I come home for weekends. She had just finished The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne and thought I should take it with me and give it a try.

I had never heard of this author before, but I’m always keen to try new things, you end up discovering so many wonders that way. The front cover of the book is quite haunting and hinted at a horror story or maybe a crime novel, however, when I read the blurb it leaned more towards a psychological thriller!

*I promise there won’t be any spoilers in this review*

The story follows a young family who have identical twin daughters and a happy dog, the picture of domestic bliss, but right from the beginning there was something strange about the girls. The uncanny thing about the Moorcroft twins is that their level of similarity is absolute, other than personality there is no real way to distinguish between them, not even genetically via DNA. When they are both living this isn’t a problem, but what happens if one of them dies? What happens when the surviving twin proclaims they buried the wrong sister?

As the story unfolds you learn more about Kirstie and Lydia and what really happened on the day of the accident. Throughout this book I wavered between thinking it was a crime novel, a ghost story or simply a tale of mental instability. I had so many questions! Is the girl Kirtsie or Lydia? Is she mad? Is she seeing ghosts? What is really happening on that desolate Hebridean island?

S.K. Tremayne manages that perfect concoction needed to create a truly gripping story and subtly blur the lines between insanity and the paranormal. I would give this book 5 stars and highly recommend it to anybody who loves a good old spooky story! In fact I am already lending The Ice Twins to two people!

Have you guys read it? Do you like spooky stories? Let me know in the comments below :-) 

xoxo

Review - Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children

Hello everyone,

I have finished reading Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. Oh my God, I could not put this book down, I read it across two days and loved it. The blurb reads:

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of peculiar photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar children. As Jacob explores its decaying bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that Miss Peregrine's children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow - impossible though it seems - they may still be alive. 

I originally saw this book in the horror section of my local book shop and picked it up because the cover art was so intriguing. I then realised it was actually a photograph, one of many that feature in the book. I am so glad I picked it up!

Jacob is a sixteen-year-old boy bored of his mundane life in America with a head full of fantastic stories of magical children and gruesome monsters. He believes these are stories made up by his Grandfather to entertain a child and detract from the real horror of the Nazis...How wrong could he be? All the stories his Grandfather told him are true, but he only begins to realise this after the brutal murder of his Grandfather. His dying words about the island of his childhood haunt Jacob and spark off his journey to find answers, turns out he finds more answers than he wanted. He stumbles across more photos of the peculiar children and they lead him to the children themselves. Children that haven't aged in decades, children running from a terror...

This book has everything, spectacular narrative from Jacob, a thrilling story line, love lost and terrifying monsters. To add to the draw of this story are the chilling black and white photographs dappled throughout the book. 

My only slight nit pick is that this book was in the horror section and I picked it up expecting a chilling ghost story, but it turned out to be less scary and more fantasy! So I would give it 4.5 stars. It does, however, have the potential to become a scary story in the next books. Much to my delight on reaching the end I found out that it is from a series and I will most definitely be picking up the next one soon! 

Have any of you read this book? Let me know in the comments below :-) 

xoxo