I really enjoyed The Gone and the Forgotten by Clare Whitfield. It was my first book by the author and I will definitely read her first novel and anything she writes in the future.
The main character Prue goes to stay with her aunt on a Scottish Island after her Mum needs to spend time in hospital following a suicide attempt. I really liked 16 year old Prue. I also appreciated the fact that the book was set in the 1990s. Relatively simple times for a teenager without the internet and so on. I don’t think the story would work if it were set today, which I liked.
It wasn’t an easy read, and I felt tense and often worried about Prue. But I am very glad that I read it and it gave me a lot to think about.

The Gone and the Forgotten is a completely different story to Clare's first one - People of Abandoned Character, which is fascinating to see that the author can excel in a coming-of-age story as well as the historical fiction!

Prue has family issues. A lot. Her mum has tried to kill herself, her grandma passed away and she doesn't know her father. It's a secret. One summer her aunt Ruth invites her to a small island where she lives with her husband Archie and his grandmother. Prue, hopeful that she'll finally learn the truth goes on a trip... and finds herself in a place with even a bigger mystery... A mystery of a missing girl, being supposedly killed by Archie 20 years prior is hanging in the air.

Is she living under the roof with a murderer?

Prue's trying a lot of things that teenagers do, making friendship she shouldn't have, and ones that are valuable. She makes mistakes, trying to find out who she is and what she wants in life. Most of all she wants to learn the truth, which she might come to regret after all...

The writing was great, the story flows and you can't put the book down. It's darker than I expected and building up to the reveal is perfect. A creepy in parts, hopeful and easy in others, made me think about all the carefree things I've done in my life.

I'll definitely buy anything that Clare Whitfield writes, I can't wait to discover what she's going to bring us next!

Talk about family drama, sheeesh.

After Prue's mother attempts to commit suicide, she is forced to live with her aunt on a remote island. After years of wondering who her father is, Prue has a plan, she is going to convince her aunt to disclose who the mystery man is. It seems as though Prue's aunt has other intentions and wants to keep the past the past.

This book has A LOT going on. At times I was a bit confused as to where the storyline was going but it did wrap up nicely and tied up all lose ends. This was an enjoyable read and I do believe it has a wide range of audience that would really love this book.

The Gone and the Forgotten, is surely a book you will NOT forget.

16 year old Prue’s mother has just attempted suicide so she is shipped off to a remote island in the Shetlands for the summer holidays. She’s staying with her Aunt Ruth and Uncle Archie, a man she has only met a few times. Prue is hoping to find answers to the past, namely; who is her father and why is she forbidden to discuss him?

While on the island Prue learns about the mysterious disappearance of a girl called Evelyn O’Hara twenty years ago. Her uncle was the only suspect, there were rumours they were dating at the time of the disappearance and she vanished on her way to visit him. As Prue gets closer to her Uncle and spends more time on the island, she gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets the island hides.

The setting of this book was perfect and you were given such a sense of desolation and isolation with undercurrents of sinister happenings. The descriptions of the island itself and the house Prue stays in were done so well and the eeriness they invoked really added to your sense of unease.

Prue really felt like a teenager, along with all the angst and drama that brings and while she didn’t always make the smartest decisions, the motivation for those decisions still felt authentic. Ronnie, Archie’s grandmother was one of the standout characters. An elderly, plant obsessed, strong willed woman who takes Prue under her wing.

The plot carried itself along at a good pace culminating in a finale with enough twists and turns to keep you satisfied. There are quite a few themes going on in this novel; secrets, family, grief, guilt and also stories involving sexual abuse and drug abuse. Even with all that, Whitfield doesn’t get bogged down and manages to weave everything together in a fitting way. I found the ending to be slightly predictable and some of the writing at the beginning to be slightly stilted, especially the dialogue of Prue. This improved as the book went on however and overall it was an enjoyable and creepy read.

The Gone and The Forgotten is the second novel by British author, Claire Whitfield. At her Aunt Ruth’s insistence, Prue MacArthur reluctantly travels from South Croydon, London to the tiny island of Noost, in the Shetlands for her summer vacation. With her Nan gone and her mother in rehab after a suicide attempt, her preferred option, staying with her best friend Subo’s family has been rejected. The main draw for her is that her aunt has promised to reveal what she knows about Prue’s father.

Bus, car and ferry trips finally deposit her at Dynrost House, the Anderson family home, where she meets Veronique Charlotte Lewthwaite MacNair Anderson, aka Ronnie, who is the grandmother of Uncle Archie, Aunt Ruth’s new husband. Ronnie has filled Dynrost House to bursting with plants that she regards as her children, and from which she formulates skin care products, medicines and cocktails.

Prue is given Archie’s old nursery as her bedroom, but is kept awake by the sound of dripping, a wardrobe with lively doors, and lights that keep failing. Nightmares about a certain incident when she was seven plague her, too. And she later discovers the room housed a suicide victim.

The islanders share rumours with Prue about Archie’s involvement in the disappearance of seventeen-year-old Evie O’Hara, some twenty years earlier, as well as various tales of other strange happenings at Dynrost House. All are wary of its inhabitants.

Prue is frustrated that Ruth keeps putting her off about her family secrets, but she is used to “the MacArthur family policy of stoic silence on all unpleasant matters”. She fills her days helping Ronnie in her greenhouse and hooks up with eighteen-year-old James, a barman at the hotel.

The uncle she barely knows turns out to be an artist of provocative paintings featuring teenaged girls, but seems to offer sound advice about what troubles her, and Prue begins to doubt this charismatic man could be a murderer, especially when she comes across the victim’s letters to him. But can he really be trusted?

There is such a lot going on in this novel: family secrets, drug use and trafficking, gossiping islanders, grooming and seduction, grief and guilt, all against a backdrop of a gothic manor and insular neighbours. Most of the characters range between quirky and downright crazy; the house is creepy; proper care for this vulnerable protagonist is sorely lacking.

Prue appears to be an unreliable narrator, indulging in rather a lot of alcohol and drugs for a sixteen-year-old; she is also affected by other substances of which she is unaware; and has been taught by her mother at an early age to compartmentalise unpleasant memories, some of which spill out when she is under stress. That given, her poor decisions shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Whitfield’s descriptive prose is evocative and several mysteries draw the reader in and keep the pages turning; all are resolved to jaw-dropping or chilling effect. A gripping read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Head of Zeus/Apollo.

Having really enjoyed Clare Whitfield's debut novel People of Abandoned Character, I couldn't wait to read her newest novel - I wasn't left disappointed!

Full of family secrets, questionable characters and a hell of a lot of shocking behaviour, it's a dark coming-of-age novel, revolving around Prue, a young girl who's searching for answers.

Teenage angst, family drama and an absent father who nobody will talk about, it's easy to see how Prue has trouble with her own identity. But the truths she so desperately seeks, end in her being mixed up in a whole heap of trouble -which makes for such a creepily engrossing read!

A remote coming of age self discover in the remote Shetland Islands?
Yes, please!

The claustrophobic and daunting, always judged feeling here was strong!

However, I found the plot and the characters not easy to read and follow, but maybe this was just not the right book for me.
I really really got put off by a lot of unrelatable and unlikeable characters, which I do not enjoy.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC!

An absent father. A missing girl. Buried family secrets. Is the truth worth searching for?

Moving up to an island in Shetland, this is a novel about relationships and families. There are a few dark secrets here and there's some claustrophobic moments.

Great writing but I liked her first book more.

Prue hopes that the summer she's going to spend on a island in the Shetlands with her aunt Ruth and uncle Archie will give her the chance to get information about the father she's never know but it turns out there s a bigger mystery. She's 16 and she's coping with a mother who has serious mental health issues. Not easy but she's coping and she finds Archie to be a good egg. One problem- he's long been suspected of murdering his girlfriend Evie, Did he do it? Prue sets out to get answers to both questions. Set in 1993, it's a tale of family secrets and lies that rides on the well written characters. Thanks to netgalley for the ArC. A good read.

🌊Too many unsympathetic characters😒

2.5🌟 stars
This story missed the mark for me. I picked it up because of the Shetland Islands setting and the secrets and mystery aspects. Although the writing style itself was fine, I found it dragged out way too long and the majority of the characters turned me off, including Prue, the young female lead who's cajoled into spending the summer with her aunt on a remote island north of Scotland in the Shetlands while her mother is in rehab after an attempted suicide.

This girl first appeared as the dependable, responsible daughter who saves her despairing, depressed mother's life.
But on the island and absent responsibility she goes off the rails and eventually gets her aunt to reveal family secrets that are not at all pleasant. I liked Prue less and less as she used people, lied, got into regular substance abuse and put herself in situations that she knew would lead to a bad outcome. And is her behavior to be blamed on others? Not the way I read this character, no matter how they befriended or groomed her. Ronnie, Ruth and Archie had different character flaws but they were also not individuals who made me care about the outcome.

I also found the huge confessional info dump at the end just too much too late. I had already, anyway, figured out how things stood far before the big reveal.

Thanks to Head of Zeus Apollo and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

I have really chewed over my review for this one for a long time. It was well written, the twists and turns kept me guessing, but ultimately it just wasn't for me.

In the aftermath of her mums attempted suicide sixteen-year-old Prue is forced to spend the summer in the remote Shetlands with her aunt, Ruth, and new uncle, Archie, Prue arrives determined to find some answers about who her dad is and what's behind her mums breakdowns. But she soon finds herself caught up in a web of family secrets far bigger than she bargained for.

Thank you Netgalley and Head of Zeus for giving me an opportunity to review this ARC.

‘A lot has happened, Prue, and you’ve dealt with it incredibly well.’

Summer, 1993. After her mother attempts suicide, 16-year-old Prue agrees to spend the summer holidays on Noost, a remote island in the Shetlands with her Aunt Ruth and her husband Archie. Although reluctant to stay with her aunt at first, Prue hopes that her aunt will shed some light on the past. Prue has grown up not knowing who her father is, and her mother has forbidden any discussion about his identity. Prue is also dealing with the recent death of her grandmother as well as the death years earlier of her baby sister.

But when Prue arrives from London, she finds that Ruth is reluctant to talk. Prue also finds out that Archie is the only suspect in the disappearance of his then girlfriend, local girl Evelyn O’Hara, twenty years earlier. Evelyn was on her way to meet Archie when she disappeared. Within days of arrival, Prue has more questions, and no answers at all. Ruth seems unwilling to talk and the house she is staying has its own mysteries. Archie’s grandmother Veronique (Ronnie) tends her abundance of obscure plants and tries to interest Prue in their various properties.

Prue is missing her friend Subo back in London and while she becomes close to James, a university student, home for the holidays helping his mother run the local hotel, she is determined to find answers to some of the mysteries surrounding her.

What follows is a very twisty and complex psychological thriller. I did work out a couple of aspects of the story but not others. Did I enjoy the story? Mostly, although there was too much family drama (and too many secrets) for me to suspend my disbelief enough to flow with the story.

The mysteries will be solved by the end, and I imagine some readers will find the story more satisfying than I did.

‘We’re rather good at keeping secrets, aren’t we?’

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

This was an interesting story describing a family that cannot possibly exist - Can It?
Prue is a sixteen year old having just taken for final school examinations before further education. What a start to life that Prue had, her baby sister murdered and the jailed murderer being released, her mother attempting suicide and now in a mental hospital, her grandmother, Nana, has just recently died and now she is having to stay with her aunt Ruth on a remote Scottish Island. Once there she discovers that the villagers all believe that her Uncle Harry killed his girlfriend many years ago and they still hold bad feelings for the family and when she arrives at the house it is to meet Ronnie, the madcap grandmother of Harry.
What a lovely set of characters that are all well described as is the scenery and village life on the island.
It was easy to detect the person who really did the 2 murders but Prue really wanted to know her father's name as well. I certainly did not guess that.
I felt that Prue was a very young 16 year old with too many hang ups in her life and it was obvious that throughout her life she had never had any one to guide her with a firm hand.

Prue’s baby sister was murdered, her mother is in a mental hospital, her father is unknown, her Nana has just died, and her uncle is suspected of murdering his girlfriend many years ago. That’s a lot of problems for anyone, let alone a sixteen-year-old girl who has just finished her GCSEs. Because of the situation with her mother and Nana, Prue has to stay with her mother’s sister, Ruth, and her husband (the aforementioned uncle), Archie, on the island of Noost, notionally the most northerly of the Shetland Island. The house, Archie’s ancestral home, is also occupied by his grandmother, Ronnie. The house, buried deep in the woods, is ancient, spooky, full of secret passages, strange noises, dodgy electrics and filled with a plethora of obscure plants. The latter are the pride and joy – “my children” – of Ronnie, archetypal Wise Woman or Mad Woman (or possibly both). Prue has several missions: find out what really happened to her sister; discover who her father was; solve the mystery of her uncle’s missing girlfriend; and get reconciled with her mother. Oh, and lose her virginity – a promise she made to her best friend back home!
So at heart this is a coming of age story; young girl overcomes adversity and becomes a woman. But it is also a mystery story, in fact at least three mysteries need to be solved. At times it seems as if it might be a ghost story, at others it is clearly a psychological thriller. Such complexity can be quite challenging for the reader, who must engage with this often bewildered or confused protagonist. It starts quite slowly and feels a bit like what I imagine YA books are like (I’m way outside that demographic) but picks up pace and is moving quite rapidly by the end. All mysteries are finally resolved and, in retrospect, can be seen as inevitable.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

A page turner, eery and gothic. A complex family, a teenager who want to know more about her root. A complex family and a fascinating and chilly summer in the Shetland.
I loved the storytelling and the story kept me hooked.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

For Prue, there are too many secrets being held by her dysfunctional family, making this not just a coming of age story but one of many revelations. The characters are well described from Prue’s own relations to the small group of quirky islanders who all have their part to play in the dramatic ending. The author gets inside Prue’s head with good effect, and balances that against those around her with something to hide. A very good psychological mystery, although not such a surprise ending to me!

An exceptional book! The perfect combination of a coming-of-age story with a crime novel. I really enjoyed Clare Whitfield's first book, and although this one is very different it has the same quality that makes you want to keep reading and never put it down. All the characters felt very well developed and it was nice to read about a teenager who actually comes across as believable as a teenager. Prue is a great protagonist and you really feel as though you're uncovering the mysteries with her. 5 stars easily, and I can't wait to see what Clare writes next! Thank you to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Enjoyed the book and would give it 3.5 stars. I had to keep reminding myself that it's 1993 not 2022. Not that it matters, because I'm pretty sure that island will be the same no matter what year. It's in the middle of no where and not even one of the main Shetland Islands. The Anderson Family home was scary, the people who lived inside didn't help, either did all the plants. I'm pretty sure every character in this book was crazy, at least everyone in Prue's family or associated with them. Prue made horrible decisions. She ignored every warning sign. She didn't have any great role models in her life and her mom put her down about everything. Every bad thing that you can imagine, happened to Prue. Most of it occurred while she was visiting her aunt. Agree with Prue that recorders were created to torture parents. I have heard Hot Crossed Buns to last me a life time. I'm not really sure why Ruth insisted Prue came to stay with them for the summer. Ruth ignored her and never wanted to answer Prue's questions. Plus, she knew what type of man her husband was. Didn't Ruth see anything wrong with Ronnie constantly giving Prue alcohol? Prue would have been safer if she stayed with her friend's family. When Prue finally learned the truth about the identity of her father, I was shocked. Definitely didn't expect that, no wonder everyone kept it a secret. Then throw in the truth about Holly and what happened to her all those years ago. The only thing Prue's family was good at, was keeping secrets. They had so many, I'm not sure how they kept track.

Definitely recommend the book. I couldn't stop reading because I had to know what was going on in that creepy house and if Prue ever got answers to her questions. Look forward to reading more books by the author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Head of Zeus through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Whoa! What a ride. It was very fast-paced. The writing style kept me hooked and I didn't find myself losing any interest. I enjoyed getting to know each of the characters and how real the story felt. The author did a great job painting the setting, so it was easy for me to visualize the scene played out before me. I recommend giving this one a chance!

An awkward teen, Prue reluctantly spends the summer with her Aunt in the Shetlands. Her grandmother has died and her mother has had another episode and is in mental care. Prue's past is haunting: a missing sister and the identity of her father is a secret. She is desperate to know who her father is and why his identity has been kept from her, so spending the summer with her Aunt and new Uncle may give her the answers she's looking for.

On the island, she meets quirky characters and some others shrouded in mystery. There are dark family secrets and several twists that make this story hard to put down. Clare Whitfield's writing starts out slow but catches your attention after a couple of chapters to where you can't put this book down.

Thank you to Head of Zeus, Apollo and NetGalley for this digital ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.