The description of this book sounded intriguing, mysterious and compelling. A 15 year old girl, Lana, goes missing for 4 days and thankfully reappears and, despite some scratches and bruises, appears well. This is just the start of it though as, much to her parents’ despair, she claims to have no memory at all of where she was and what happened to her over that period.

The focus of the story is on Lana and her mother, Jen. We see things through Jen’s perspective and are party to her worries over her daughter and her increasing paranoia. Whilst I fully appreciate the how upsetting this whole situation must be (their daughter has a history or mental health problems, mainly depression), I found Jen more and more difficult to read. Dare I say I found her irritating? I hate to sound unkind but, alongside the seriously slow burning nature of this novel, I just found her and the book itself, a tad frustrating.

I kept reading because I Wally did want to know what had happened to Lana, so I guess I was fairly invested in the book to that end. What I found though was that when the truth was revealed, I felt a bit cheated as there wasn’t really much twist to it. It’s what you would think very likely to have happened. I don’t mean in any way to take away from the seriousness of it, it just felt rather predictable.

I don’t want to sound totally negative, this book contains some beautifully descriptive prose, I think it’s a really not my cup of tea but I can see from other reviews that it very much other people’s! If you enjoy a very slow burning tale then you may well love this book, it just (sadly) wasn’t for me.

Many thanks to #NetGalley for sending me an advance copy of #WhistleInTheDark in exchange for an honest review.

The story follows Jen, mother of two daughters born 11 years apart, both of whom present different challenges to their parents. The elder daughter seems settled, but there are surprises from her. It is the younger daughter, Lana, who is central to the book; on a holiday with her mother she disappears for four days then, when found, has no memory or explanation of what happened or where has been. The core of the book is Jen's troubled relationship with Lana and her search for the truth about the missing days. Thought provoking but enjoyable.

A haunting and beautiful story about depression and perception, this is about one woman's struggle to cope with her own demons whilst trying to discover the truth about her daughter's disappearance.
Thoroughly compelling, full of emotional twists and turns - this will make the perfect book club title, and I'm confident it'll be a best selling title.

Although I enjoyed reading this book, it wasn’t all consuming and was quickly forgotten.
I couldn’t quite get close to the characters, none of them very likeable however the suspense was edgy and tense at times.
A dark thriller, with a decent plot and flowing script, a bit slow at times and certainly not one of my favourites.
I would check out this Authors’ other works though as the premise had a much better potential given the chance and I liked the writing style.

Thanks to netgalley, the author and publisher for the ARC of this book. I won't be leaving a negative review on Amazon or any other site, but I really didn't enjoy this book. None of the characters were sympathetic in any way,except maybe the father. The 'plot' was unreasonable; there was no reason that the girl wouldn't say where she had been. A'whiny' overlong novel.

I loved Elizabeth is Missing and was really looking forward to reading this book. I am sad to say that it was not an enjoyable read at all. I found the floating back and forth did help define the characters well but it seemed to disjointed an did not flow easily when reading. I did feel sorry for all the family and could easily see the situations and emotions really happening. The book was rushed in the last 10% to tell you what had happened and this ended the story nicely but seemed so out of place and unreal.
My expectations may have been too high after reading Elizabeth is Missing and this book does not hit the right notes for me.

Not for me this one, though I loved Elizabeth is Missing. I felt that I had complete apathy for the characters, and therefore the plot. It also really plodded along from about 20% to 90% and I rushed through it to get it finished rather than because I was captivated.

I have not read Elisabeth is Missing, and was much surprised to find out on the day that I started the book that EH was going to give a talk in late May. Suffice to say the book was not what I anticipated from the blurb. I think I expected a mystery. I was to be disappointed there. The book, however, did not disappoint on any other score. Wittily written with warm and humour it is a tale of parental despair when faced with the worst kind of unhappiness that can befall your child. As a mother and teacher it was a difficult read - the helplessness that the main character feels when faced with her daughter's despair is all-consuming.
This is a story of communication, listening and accepting - mostly that sometimes all we need to do is trust, that sometimes just being there is worth everything, that we do not need to do things, even though the act of doing is therapeutic in itself. It also shows that in the dark of the depression there can be a breakthrough and that a chance event can propel a person back to valuing life. As such it is a story of hope and coping, of being a parent, loving and just being there.

A well written and compelling read. A dark read in places and the author has a good understanding of mental health. Recommended.

I struggled with the book a bit altho I did love the idea. A bit of a thriller, a dram all rolled into one. Central to the plot is the mother and daughter relationship . Teenage daughter goes missing, like any mother she’s trying to figure out what’s happened as any mother would seeing as Lana is claiming not to remember. I read it but I wasn’t hooked.

I was looking forward to this new title by the author of 'Elizabeth is missing' which was brilliant. Whistle in the dark is an invitation to look at family ties - what makes up a family and the social and emotional effects when the daughter briefly goes missing only to return a few days later with no answers to where she went, who she went with and what happened. The reader is given 'clues' and follows the mother's own investigations into what really happened.. I found this 'mystery' very interesting and am looking forward to reading another book by Emma Healey.

I'm afraid I didn't get on at all well with Whistle In The Dark. Plainly a lot of other readers did and I'm in a small minority, but I found it rather clunky, needlessly slow and not very original in its insights.

The book opens with Jen and Hugh's daughter Lana arriving at hospital after having gone missing for four days while on holiday in the Peak District. Lana insists that she cannot remember anything about what has happened and we are left guessing about whether this is true or not. Oh, and their other daughter chooses that day to announce that she is pregnant by donor insemination and that she has split up with her (female) partner.

The book develops primarily into an examination of the relationship between insecure, emotionally clumsy Jen and Lana, the classic rude, recalcitrant teenager with a history of depression, self-harm etc. for good measure. There is also some sisterly infighting to help things along. Meanwhile Jen intrudes further and further into Lana's life to try to find out what has happened to her as the narrative jumps back and forth in time (as seems near-compulsory these days) and a rather tame story eventually emerges.

I'm afraid I found it dull and unoriginal. The relationships and characters seemed very familiar to me from other books and the story certainly didn't hold my attention. It seems to me that there was an awful lot of Creative Writing but not much in the way of worthwhile content. Plenty of others have enjoyed this very much, but I'm sorry to say that I really didn't.

(My thanks to Penguin Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)

I am afraid this book was just not for me . I did not like the characters or the story. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.

Whistle in the Dark begins with Jen and her 15 year old daughter, Lana, in an ambulance. Lana has been found after being missing for four days, and she either doesn’t know, or won’t tell anyone where she was.

Lana was already a troubled young woman before she went on holiday with her mum to the country. At the artist’s retreat they’ll meet a mixed bag of characters, each of whom would be a perfect candidate for some kind of abduction, runaway, or malicious act. Jen begins to suspect most of their fellow artists of being involved in Lana’s disappearance.

Jen and her husband Hugh are relieved to have Lana home again, but anxious to know what happened. Hugh seems to take everything in his stride and gives Lana the space she needs to recover, whilst Jen goes through every emotion imaginable wondering what might have happened to her young daughter.

As with Emma Healey’s debut, Elizabeth is Missing, this book isn’t about solving the mystery. It’s about the journey and exploring changing relationships within the family whilst trying to uncover the truth. She carefully approaches the subject of teenage depression and explores Jen’s mental health in the aftermath of her daughter’s disappearance. I found they both had believable experiences, and it was almost a relief to read of Jen’s own struggles. Many books focus on teenage depression itself, but don’t necessarily acknowledge or explore the struggles of the parents while trying to help them through it. As a result, it felt like one of the most honest tales of teenage depression I have read in a long time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It deals with a mother-daughter relationship which is real and gritty and not in the usual 2.4 children kind of way. This book dips into mental health issues which still seem taboo to some people in this day and age. It was very well written and I could totally relate to a lot of it through family experience. The story really draws you in so much so that you feel like you've been put through a wringer by the end. Looking forward to reading more from Emma Healey.

There's slow burn and then there's SLOW BURN. I really enjoyed 'Elizabeth Is Missing', Healey's first novel, but there was something so deathly boring about the way this book moved that I found it entirely different to what made her first book so interesting. The most significant event of the whole book is pretty much summed up in the first few chapters, leaving the rest of the novel to explore mundane moments of ordinary life, with little to suggest that, perhaps, something might be happening. Oftentimes, the characters fell back too heavily on cliché- the moody, barely-coherent teenager, the lesbian sister who spends most of her time not really doing anything, the mother prying until you physically want to push her away and tell her to stop. I think, to some people who are more engaged with slow burning literary fiction, this would really catch your attention. However, it doesn't quite have the charm and wit that Elizabeth Is Missing had.

For me Whistle In The Dark was a slow burnt drawing you in aptly an always asking the ame question where was Lana, and what happened to her. I needed the answers so kept reading to the end. I did enjoy this book but found it slow moving at times.

Thank You to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book.

I haven't read Emma's first book, but after reading this one I think I will add Emma onto my list of Authors to read.

This is a dark and sad read which follows the story of Jen and her family. I really liked how Emma managed take you on the journey of what happened to Jen's daughter, I found it very moving at times.

I recommend this book.

Really enjoyed this book! Just as good, if not better than, Elizabeth is Missing. Good to see mental health portrayed in fiction too.

Whistle in the Dark is Emma Healey’s second book. It focuses mainly on Jen, whose 15 year old daughter, Lana, goes missing in the Peak District for four days. As Lana has longstanding mental health concerns including depression, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts, Jen assumes that the worst has happened. When Lana returns unharmed, but unwilling to discuss what happened whilst she was missing, Jen struggles to cope with her daughter’s unwillingness to talk. The book covers the months following Lana’s disappearance, and the way it affects the family and their individual beliefs and realities.

After reading Healey’s debut novel Elizabeth is Missing in 2015, I was excited to have the chance to read Whistle in the Dark before the publication date. The synopsis was intriguing and I was keen to know what had happened to Lana, and why she refused to talk about it. Unfortunately, after the first few chapters I began to lose interest and got frustrated at the lack of clues as to what had happened to Lana. I found the relationship between Lana and Jen difficult to connect with, and was irritated by the way Lana treated her mother. More infuriating was that Jen put up with Lana’s behaviour.

Despite this, I found Healey’s portrayal of teenage children and their parents to be an interesting one. I felt she had a good grasp of Lana as a sullen teenager, and although irritating, Healey clearly showed Jen’s desperation to become closer to her distant daughter. It made me fearful of the secrets that can separate children from their parents, leaving parents worried about what they might not know.

There was a lovely passage in the novel where Jen reads a self-help book that has been annotated (probably) by a mother who read it before her. Within these scribbles, Jen recognises her own fears, and imagines a woman who has already walked the path that she now finds herself on. This was a clear demonstration of the power that books have to give us hope and strength, or to finally feel understood.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Whistle in the Dark.