My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Time taken to read - 3 days (on and off)
Pages - 373
Publisher - Harper
Blurb from Goodreads
A year after one of their identical twin daughters, Lydia, dies in an accident, Angus and Sarah Moorcraft move to the tiny Scottish island Angus inherited from his grandmother, hoping to put together the pieces of their shattered lives.
But when their surviving daughter, Kirstie, claims they have mistaken her identity—that she, in fact, is Lydia—their world comes crashing down once again.
As winter encroaches, Angus is forced to travel away from the island for work, Sarah is feeling isolated, and Kirstie (or is it Lydia?) is growing more disturbed. When a violent storm leaves Sarah and her daughter stranded, Sarah finds herself tortured by the past—what really happened on that fateful day one of her daughters died?
My review
Angus and Sarah Moorcroft have been through the mill, it's been a year since one of their twin daughters died. Moving to a remote island in Scotland seems the best plan of action, Angus can get work, Sarah can fix up the house and do some work on the side and most importantly, their surviving twin Kirstie can move on. But when they get to the island, Kirstie has some news, she states she is Lydia and her parents have gotten it wrong. Things get spooky, the relationship between Angus and Sarah becomes strained and Kirstie or Lydia's behaviour is becoming increasingly disturbing.
So the whole creepy thing with Kirstie claiming she is Lydia begins early on and draws the reader in, it could happen, did they get it wrong? Then we see the strain of the past year taking its tole on the marriage, Kirstie becomes more erratic and the reader questions what exactly is going on. What happened to Lydia or Kirstie, which one died peeked my interest and kept me reading, I also liked the pictures dottered throughout the book. What I didn't like was how it took, what seemed an age, to get to the mystery of what was happening. The main characters weren't very likeable, both mother and father got very caught up in themselves rather than their surviving child. I felt some questions were left unanswered and some of the actions of the adults very unbelievable.
So many people loved this book so I am in the minority, certainly give it a go and see how you get on. I found it did have spooky elements and some suspense but there was more about this book I didn't enjoy than that that I did. 2/5 for me this time, I would read this author again as I don't think it was the writing that was my issue, more the story path itself.
The plot of this one sounds intriguing.
ReplyDeleteI am usually OK with unlikable characters.
However, I think that a story such as this only really works for me if it is realistic. The behavior of the characters being unrealistic might get in the way for me.