Set during the summer of 1976 and in the present day this is a slickly told and rather ghostly tale. The main protagonists are Loo and her older sister, Bee whose fractious relationship forms the basis of the action. The story is told as ‘then’ when the sisters live in a remote farmhouse with their family and experienced unsettling and unnerving events and ‘now’ when a group of students visit the now abandoned farmhouse having heard about its paranormal history.

The author has developed a really tense atmosphere, particularly with the images of the deserted farmhouse with all its creaks and bangs and the effect it has on the ‘ghost hunters’. The clever descriptions of ‘something just being out of sight’ are especially creepy.

All the characters are well drawn and authentic. If you are like me, there is one who will irritate the hell out of you but that is the skill of the writing. This was an intriguing read but maybe not as alarming as I thought it might be. A good book for a cold autumn evening.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

* spoiler alert ** 
Some genuinely creepy moments in this book,over both timelines.
Questions that needed answering,the main one being,where the heck is the dad during all the goings on? 
The escalation of the haunting really did get me wondering what would happen next,especially with the hints that Bee possibly hadn't made it.
Very good book,interesting twists in the story,and a satisfactory ending.

I do think those who like more horror will find there isn't quite enough here but I found The Wayward Girls had  reasonable level of creepiness for me so that I quite enjoyed the story without being scared witless! 

Amanda Mason blends the two time frames of 1976 and 'now' convincingly making the concept of layers that is such an important element of the story a very strong feature. The heat of the 1976 time adds to the oppressive nature of events and to Bee's passionate and volatile nature.  

I did find the numbers of characters quite tricky to follow at times although both Loo and Cathy were strongly depicted and convincing.

I thought the plotting became slightly repetitive and feel the book needs editing further to give a tighter narrative. 

I won't be reviewing on my blog as I can't award more than 3 stars and I feel it would be unfair to the author as others will love this story, but for me it didn't quite thrill me or engage me enough.

This is a great, great book. It was unsettling, tense and surprisingly emotional. The writing was beautiful and i was left thinking about this for hours after i finished it. Every character was so fleshed out and played an important part, i loved this book.

I really wanted to love this one but unfortunately it was a DNF for me as it just didn’t grip me enough for me to care about the characters or what happened to them.

Although this book was something that gripped me with the synopsis, I wasn't gripped by the contents of the book. This means I sadly had to DNF this book. I know of people that I will be recommending this and its style to when it is released in September but sadly it wasn't for me.

There has been a lot of hype built up around this book, so not sure if I set my expectations to high due to this.

The story alternates between then and now. In the past it centres around Lucy (Loo) and her family and a house which has some strange going ons within it. In the past we get to see what life was like when Lucy and her family live there with people interested in whether the house is really haunted or not.

Present day we see Lucy, torn between work and checking on her mother who is in a care home. She obviously wants to forget about the past but yet again there are people who want to solve this particular mystery once and for all.

There are quite a few characters to keep track of which threw me a bit and took me a while longer to get used to. Whilst there is a build up of suspense, for me when the revelations come, it just fell flat. Whether it's because I read so many psychological thrillers and I was expecting some shocking twist or not, I'm not sure, so could be my own fault that I didn't enjoy this one as much as I had hoped to.

At times it feels a bit like a ghost story and think at times I was expecting it to turn into something like The Poltergeist. It is an intriguing and in parts chilling read. It will keep you guessing as to what secrets are kept hidden in the house. A solid read but didn't meet my expectations. Probably more down to me than the author's writing.

I so wanted to love The Wayward Girls, and while it is definitely creepy and unsettling, I found it didn’t grip my attention the whole way through. Good writing and interesting characters, it just wasn’t for me!

I was approved an eArc of this on netgalley by Bonnier Zaffre publishing in exchange for an honest review. 

The Synopsis-

The Girls meets The Little Stranger in this dark and captivating debut about sisterhood, family secrets, and a dangerous game that becomes all too real.

THEN

1976. Loo and her sister Bee live in a run-down cottage in the middle of nowhere, with their artistic parents and wild siblings. Their mother, Cathy, had hoped to escape to a simpler life; instead the family find themselves isolated and shunned by their neighbours. At the height of the stifling summer, unexplained noises and occurences in the house begin to disturb the family, until they intrude on every waking moment . . .

NOW

Loo, now Lucy, is called back to her childhood home. A group of strangers are looking to discover the truth about the house and the people who lived there. But is Lucy ready to confront what really happened all those years ago?

My Review-

Then-

Lou was such a sweet character who really wanted to make everyone happy, she tried to be grown up enough to play with Bee and Dan and wanted to impress the adults but in an innocent way. She was incredibly naive, which is expected of someone so young and she doesn't understand a lot of what is happening around her and has a lot on conflict.

Bee was Lou's older sister and she was a bit of a live-wire, she was a pranskter and very controlling. Lou never had a say when she was around, she was incredibly emotional and very turbulent. She was fourteen years old so she was going through a lot, personally and she didn't handle situations incredibly well, she was a very angry character which added a lot to the story.

Their other siblings aren't a huge part of the story, they are always there, especially Florian and the baby to add more of a chaotic family feel to this story but they do not really play massive roles within the plot. Dan is the eldest and again isn't a huge part of the plot until the very end when you realise what has been happening. 

The parents Cathy and Joe and very different personalities. Joe isn't present throughout the novel which causes the family a lot of stress, Cathy is lonely and struggling by herself and the children resent her. Cathy was the character I felt for the most, she is by herself in a town that ostracises them with 5 children to care for alone, she is terrified for herself and her children and just wants help. 

The three people that attempt to 'help' the family are Isobel, a local journalist and photographer, Michael, a professor that investigates the paranormal and his assistant Simon. Isobel genuinely wants to help this family, she creates a close bond with Cathy and they spend a lot of time together trying to figure out what is happening. Michael is more interested in finding some conclusive evidence than he is about helping the family and keeping the girls safe. Simon thinks he is helping, he doesn't really understand that they might me putting the girls at further risk and he does develop a bond with the family. 

The setting of this book is really immersive, its the middle of summer in the countryside and whilst its warm there is something chilling happening all the time. The story is a contrast to the summer feeling of this book. It's so descriptive and sometimes I felt that I was there sitting with them under the tree having a picnic, or I was in the room with them looking out the window. It made this much more intense and being a massive wuss, I was terrified for 90% of the book. 

Now- 

Lou is a lot older now and has her own life, she is called back to where she grew up to her mother Cathys care home where she has recently had a fall. Whilst there she meets three students hoping to figure out what happened all those years ago. 

Nina is the main investigator, she is incredibly headstrong and often incredibly insensitive to the situation. She doesn't understand that she could be opening up old wounds for the family and much like the investigators of back then, is more interested in discovering something. She works alongside Lewis who is much more sensitive and although he is really hoping to find something, he is much more understanding towards Lou and her concerns. 

Hal was one of my favourite characters in this, he is initially a skeptic and I found his scenes the scariest. He seems to attract bad things and it was incredibly unsettling at times. He was just bought in as the camera man and has no interest in paranormal investigation and he bonds with Lou over their shared increased discomfort of the situation. 

The setting is a lot different in this part of the book, its mostly set in the care home and then back at the house which are both incredibly eerie. It was dark and unsettling and not as inviting as the past and it was interesting because it was clear that something serious had happened and it wasn't until later in the book that the two timelines make sense and you understand what is really going on which I loved.

The plot of this is incredibly interesting and the twist at the end, although I had a small idea that maybe that was what was happening, it was still a shock. I really enjoyed the ending of both perspectives and liked how they lined up and finally brought understanding to everything. It was a really interesting book.

The only thing I disliked is that the ending was a bit rushed, I kept having to stop and reread some pages to make sure I hadn't missed some crucial information. 

Other than that though, it was a really interesting book and scared the crap out of me. If you like scary stories set in the hot British summer, and love the story of the Enfield Haunting you should definitely read this.

My Rating- 3.5 stars

UK Release Date- September 5th 2019

POSTED ON MY BLOG AND GOODREADS- will post to Amazon on release date
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