Actual rating: 3.5 stars
This novel tells the story of a tragic summer through the eyes of 15 year old Rachel, who lives alone with her mother and has a gift for precognition. This summer, things are beginning to change. Mr Bowen has arrived to stay at their house, her best friend Marcus is growing apart from her and strange lights have appeared in the sky which Natasha knows spells trouble. But the problem is, no-one wants to listen to her predictions.
This is a very atmospheric novel, with beautiful, lyrical writing. I really loved the melancholy mood of the novel and the writing style. The characters had depths to them - they had well-explored backgrounds, distinctive personalities and were flawed. I enjoyed reading about them, and if you like mostly character-driven novels you’ll enjoy this one. However, I did feel like the novel moved quite slowly and personally there wasn’t enough going on in the plot for me. Overall, not an awful lot happened, which disappointed me slightly. This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy the novel, as the narrative was engaging, but if you’re looking for a book with a lot of events and big plot points you should look for something different.
This novel tells the story of a tragic summer through the eyes of 15 year old Rachel, who lives alone with her mother and has a gift for precognition. This summer, things are beginning to change. Mr Bowen has arrived to stay at their house, her best friend Marcus is growing apart from her and strange lights have appeared in the sky which Natasha knows spells trouble. But the problem is, no-one wants to listen to her predictions.
This is a very atmospheric novel, with beautiful, lyrical writing. I really loved the melancholy mood of the novel and the writing style. The characters had depths to them - they had well-explored backgrounds, distinctive personalities and were flawed. I enjoyed reading about them, and if you like mostly character-driven novels you’ll enjoy this one. However, I did feel like the novel moved quite slowly and personally there wasn’t enough going on in the plot for me. Overall, not an awful lot happened, which disappointed me slightly. This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy the novel, as the narrative was engaging, but if you’re looking for a book with a lot of events and big plot points you should look for something different.