I loved this ghost story. It's so creepy and chilling, in an atmospheric setting. I was completely immersed in Elspeth and Mary's story that I raced through it. I felt as though I was there in that old house with them. I have added Rebecca's next book to my shopping list.

I will start off by saying the narrator for this book was amazing! I loved her accent. Sadly that's all I can say, and it seems I am in the minority. I think because I listened to this book and probably started it at a time when I should have concentrated more. I wanted to love this book, I truly did. I found myself so confused with the characters and who was who. By the time we got to the crux of it, I didn't have a clue. I did find a couple of scenes very tense especially when you hear the lullaby at night in the corridors, was a bit unsettling. However, because I haven't a Scooby who was doing what and why, it fell flat for me - as I say I am in the minority so it is most definitely a reader error. I was looking forward to something terrifying me and it didn't happen. When we got to the end of who and the why, it was sad, but also a bit of a letdown for me.

I think I will read this book instead at some point and try to get more understanding and enjoyment.

3.5 stars
Elspeth, devoid of any family of her own, relocates to the remote Scottish island of Skelthsea to become nanny to a troubled child, Mary, who has refused to speak since her twin brother's death. Elspeth turns to the islanders to find out the answers but no one is willing to speak up.

Nor can anyone explain the strange dolls appearing in the abandoned rooms or the faint whistling that can be heard in the night.

The Whistling is a beautifully written gothic novel. The mysterious island of Skelthsea along with the approaching winter that threatens to cut off the island’s connection to mainland creates an ominously haunting atmosphere. As the winter's stronghold increases, so does the sense of foreboding permeating the story. Further, the strange events that keep on happening had me intrigued throughout the novel.

It was a slow-burn which means I was a little bit impatient to reach the end. Overall, it's a spooky yet evocative novel, which I had a good time reading.

This was an interesting read by an author that I was not familiar with having never read their work before. I always enjoy a new to me author and I wasn’t disappointed.
I found the characters interesting and really had a depth to them with lots of details described for me to portray them in my mind and really get inside them.
The story line took me to a place I wasn’t expecting and kept me intrigued right until the end.
I would recommend to anyone interested in this genre and will be reading more.

A slow burning gothis horror that wasn’t bad but not great.
I found the setting intriguing and eerie, Scottish Isles are perfect for this type of book!
The characters were a bit hit and miss, especially Elspeth, I’m not sure how I feel about her to be honest.
The novel was well written but the pace was too slow for me, creepy though it was.
I will read more from this Author as there’s a real potential here.

The Whistling is set on the remote Scottish island of Skelthsea where Elspeth travels to become a nanny to Mary.
Elspeth is immediately drawn into the mystery of what happened to Mary’s twin William and the previous nanny.
This is a beautifully written and atmospheric Gothic novel, full of mysterious characters and strange happenings in the house. I was completely immersed in the mystery and would recommend this excellent novel.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Brilliantly creepy and spooky read, I believe it’s a retelling of the turn of the screw, brilliantly written so atmospheric!

What a fantastically creepy and mysterious read The Whistling was!

Grief stricken Elspeth Swansome takes a job on the remote island of Skelthsea to escape her past. What she finds there is a crumbling house and a young girl named Mary who has refused to speak since her twin brother William died. Immediately Elspeth feels there is something off on the island, a ghostly presence that wishes her harm. She can't leave Mary and return to the mainland, so she must face whatever comes her way.

The Whistling had so many things I love in a ghost story. A strange child, a remote island, undercurrents of witchcraft and, of course, an element of mystery mixed in there.

Sometimes in stories like this I find the heroine a little wishy washy, but that wasn't so with Elspeth. She was naïve yet still had a backbone and a distinct personality but was still flawed, which made her enjoyable to read.

A brilliantly chilling story and a must if you love a good ghost story like I do!

I believe the author has just released a new book, so I will definitely pick that up.

I was excited for this one – I love seeing modern writers tackle gothic, and I was intrigued by the blurb for this, keen to see which direction it took. Unfortunately, it did not take an interesting direction, and instead trod a well-worn path, ignoring any mildly intriguing possibilities along the way.

Elspeth takes a job as a nanny on a remote Scottish island. Not because she has any experience in this, but simply because she wants to and she’s lonely. Her charge, Mary, has not spoken since her brother died. Her employer keeps the family’s secrets close to her chest, and the other islanders are just as mysterious, until it becomes relevant for plot reasons to tell Elspeth anything actually useful.

There are a lot of women in this book, and they’re all poorly written. None of the characters seem to have any personality outside their assigned roles, the story itself is full of cliché after cliché. The way it’s written feels way too forced to make it sound “historical” without actually managing to do so. It read like a fanfic of The Haunting of Bly Manor, taking it back to the general era of The Turn of the Screw but based on a skimming of the book itself.

Elspeth comes across as selfish and idiotic, taking whatever anyone tells her at face value and never actually questioning why so many people think an actual child is Quite Literally Evil. The vast majority of what appears in this book has been done before, but in better ways. I was really hoping to see something more here, but instead Elspeth seems to find out information, proceed to ignore it or take the wrong thing from what she’s discovered. She treats Mary poorly, and almost every interaction between the two has Elspeth demanding Mary speak, though one does have her admitting to the poor kid she knows her brother and former nanny had both ‘gone bad’, without any consideration how the kid might feel about that.

The prose is repetitive and overladen with telling – that is, we’re constantly told about various things, such as one of the maids hating Elspeth, but we never actually see evidence of it. Elspeth fumbles her way through a thin plot that ends in an overly cliché manner, and this was a book I found myself feeling frustrated at more often than not. I’d recommend actually reading The Turn of the Screw instead if you haven’t already, or revisiting it if you want to read something similar, though there are also plenty of excellent gothic titles to choose from out there and if you are looking for something gothic to read this spooky season, I’d suggest one of them instead.

A gothic, atmospheric read. What’s not to love about a story that takes place on an isolated island where a nanny comes to take care of a child, where family secrets threaten their lives? All of what makes a good Halloween story is there. Highly recommended.

Elspeth Swansome is escaping her past in Edinburgh and taking up a post as a nanny on the remote Scottish island of Skelthsea (it’s fictional, but I would really want to visit it if it was real!).

Elspeth is going to nanny Mary, a child who is clearly suffering from trauma. Her twin, William, is dead and her former nanny has disappeared. Elspeth is told that if she can’t get Mary to talk, she will be institutionalised.

I loved this - it’s the right kind of spooky, and you can’t beat a haunted house: lullabies are sung by someone who isn’t there, poppets keep appearing in random rooms, and whistling can be heard at night. It all added up to a book that sent shivers down my spine!

The characters were sometimes likeable, menacing, disconcerting and some most definitely had something to hide!

I listened to this on Audible, and the narrator, Lois Chimimba, kept me glued to my headphones. Her different accents were all spot on, and helped me to tell the different characters apart. I was never confused as to ‘who’ was speaking.

The tension built and built to the climactic ending - a truly delicious ghost story!

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I had been looking forward to reading this and I wasnt disappointed. It was well written and I enjoyed it.
Elspeth starts a job on an island off the coast of Scotland, looking after a little girl Mary, who lives with her Aunt.
It is eerie, atmospheric and quite scary.
I will certainly read more from this author and would recommend this book to others.

An atmospheric ghost story with so much more intrigue. Witchcraft, small town, gossip and mystery all ravelled in.
Elspeth answers the call to be a live in nanny to a young girl whose parents have died, twin brother has recently died and the ex nanny up and left leaving poor little Mary mute. Elspeth although recently bereaved herself, believes she has the love to coax Mary from her grief and talking again. But when strange things start to happen in the house, everyone is suspected by Elspeth. Who is creeping in the corridors and chilling the darkness?

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin for this and sorry for the delay in reading.
This was not my normal genre of book but I have to say I enjoyed it. Different and not what I expected, Well written and a good story. Would love to read more by this author.
Thank you.

read over Halloween for a bit of a spooky read and this did not fail. It's very atmospheric and from the start it captures the imagination. almost a bit Stephen King in atmosphere and the eeriness stays with me many books later

A classic Gothic horror-mystery, The Whistling has a brooding, claustrophobic atmosphere that gave me vibes of both Rebecca and The Woman in Black – there is a creepy house, a suspiciously sullen maid, strange noises and creepy children.

I particularly enjoyed the mystery element of the plot; the author did a good job of offering up plausible alternatives – could Elspeth be the one who is mad or hallucinating? Is this really paranormal activity, or could it be caused by human trickery and spite?

The events and atmosphere are sinister enough to create cold frissons if read at night, and I was as haunted by the eerie Iskar setting as much as by the ghostly apparitions and hints of witchcraft.

Quick and easy to read, and yet well-written and compellingly creepy, this Gothic mystery is ideal for fans of the genre.

Thank you to Michael Joseph Penguin Random House UK and NetGalley for the complimentary copy of The Whistling by Rebecca Netley.

I had not read a ghost story in many years, and this book reminded me of the classic ghost stories I've read in the past. The book had my attention from the first few pages.

A whistle in the night gets Elspeth's attention. A silent child, Mary who cannot articulate what has caused her to stop speaking. As the story unfolds, Elspeth is not sure who to trust and who to turn to. The islands are not revealing anything they know. And what about the dolls that mysteriously appear?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and looking forward to reading more from Rebecca Netley.

*Review Copy

Set in 1860, 'The Whistling' centres around Elspeth Swansome, a young woman who has taken a job as a Nanny on the remote Scottish island of Skelthsea.

The child, Mary, has not spoken a word since the death of her sibling and the disappearance of their former Nanny. Locals are wary of Elspeth - but also of the family she's working for. To quote one, "All is not well".

When Elspeth learns of a whistle that can summon the dead, she is shocked - because she has heard it.

A gothic drama that unravels slowly, this won't suit anyone who likes a quick read. I liked the writing style, but I felt that it dragged a lot in the middle section. It's 378 pages - it could have lost 50 of them and still been a solid creepy story.

If you like this sort of sweeping, atmospheric, dark, brooding, historical novel, then you may enjoy this. For me there were too many people to keep track of (I kept mixing the locals up with the staff) and it was fairly obvious to me what had happened before Elspeth arrived. I also didn't really feel any major connection to Elspeth and would have liked to have known her more as a person, rather than just a Nanny.

Thank you to Penguin Michael Joseph for the ARC.

A good old fashioned Victorian gothic tale, it didn't blow me away but I was entertained nevertheless. All the necessary elements were there, draughty old house, mist, gloom and ghostly shenanigans, the mystery kept me turning the pages, and the ending was decent. The main character Elspeth, was frustrating at times, she spent a lot of time hesitating and quivering, but that's pretty much par for the course with this type of story. A solid debut novel from Rebecca Netley, I'm interested to see what she does next.