A solid 4 stars , kept me guessing what was going to happen next , really enjoyed the plot and the characters . Read the book in 3 days would recommend

Prosperina Fuchsia Pine, or Rina, is twelve years old and living on her commune with her mother, Lullaby, and brother, Emesh. Until her mother takes her to, and leaves her with, her Aunt Agatha in the village of Sorrow Spring.

This novel creates a very sinister feel to the village, in the vein of The Wicker Man, you know something is going on under the surface. There’s a sense of foreboding and danger.
I enjoyed the book to start with, but I did find it overlong and my interest waned later on.

I was pleased to accept an invitation to read and review this. It started off really well as a girl, Rina, is left with her aunt by her mother, with no explanation, and is parted from her brother. This is in 1978. She begins to realize that her mother is not coming back and that her aunt and other people in the village are acting oddly.. She begins to be pulled into strange rituals (trying to avoid spoilers as the plot reveals itself slowly) and the threats build up. The other timeline in the present day involves Rina's niece who begins to search for her, putting herself in danger. I did get confused by the plot at times and did not think the violence was merited outside of the rituals. The link with the recent pandemic was a nice touch. I think the book could have been edited to reduce the length as I got bored towards the end waiting for the resolution.

This was really good and I flew through it within a couple of days. The atmosphere and setting is creepy while the plot keeps you turning pages wanting to know what’s going on. The characters were well written although most of them are horrible! This would be a great Halloween read

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for this ARC. My thoughts are my own.

To be honest, whenni started this book I didn't know what was going to happen....a gee chapters in and I couldn't put it down.

It's not an author I've heard of before so i was nervous and bot sure I it was going to be my cup of tea.
How to describe this book it was horror,supernarural, folk lore/historical a mixture of everything.

Nothing is given away or where the story is heading...a girlnis dumped at her Aunts house in a village...no explanation of why and if her mum's is going to return..we like the child are left wondering what's going on and how could a mum do this....
Slowly but surely the story unravels and just when you think everything is answered there another twist.

If you like a book with twists and turns this tour book. I hope this gets the publicity it deserves as it was such a gripping book. I will definitely e reading more from this author in the future.