The Wayward Girls

The Wayward Girls
Amanda Mason
****

Somewhat against her better judgement, Loo revisits the house she lived in as a child. In 1976 her bohemian parents uprooted the family and moved them to a run-down cottage in the middle of nowhere. The children were allowed to run wild and free but things start to happen in the house which result in Professor Michael Warren coming to investigate the possibility of paranormal activity. Many years later the notes from the case are discovered by a group of people who have an interest in the paranormal and they want to complete the investigation. Loo (now known as Lucy) reluctantly agrees to meet them at her childhood home which, as luck would have it, is empty. This story follows the current investigation in parallel with filling in the background story from 1976.

Not being a great fan of things relating to the paranormal, I approached this book with some trepidation and a preconceived notion that I was not going to enjoy it. In fact, I was determined that I wasn’t going to like it but, to my surprise, I found myself gripped from the start. This was largely because the author portrays the family as very ordinary people and she writes about them in a very accessible way. There are no flowery explanations or lyrical descriptions. It just tells it as it is in no-nonsense prose. This straightforward writing style certainly worked for me. Writing a book which covers two timeframes can be confusing for the reader, but the author tackled this very successfully by changing the main character’s childhood name of “Loo” to a more grown-up “Lucy”. This was a simple, but effective gadget which many authors could learn from given that the current literary trend seems to be to shun a sequential narrative and choose to jump around between timeframes instead. Finally, another one of my pet dislikes is an ending which does not tie up all the loose strands. In this book you are left slightly unsure as to what happened but surprisingly the author managed to convince me that this was OK as well.

Overall I would probably have preferred it if the book’s raison d’etre was something other than the paranormal. Other than that I have no real criticisms.

I loved Amanda Mason as a writer, and would happily read more of her books. However, this would depend to some extent on whether she continues to focus on the paranormal in her writing. I would however, happily recommend this book to anyone. It was a good read.

Supernatural thriller set along two timelines. Well written, if a little slow. The story is full of twists and turns that keep you guessing.

Oh my goodness, you’ll be sleeping with the big light on! Really spooky stuff here. Not too often does a story come along that your spine is tingling and you jump out of your skin at every noise in the house! Well, Wayward Girls is exactly that ! I don’t normally go for paranormal books because I’m a wimp but I really enjoyed the story here as well. As much as I had the hebejeebees reading it, it was a real page turner and I couldn’t wait to see what happened next.
I loved the cover of the book, the colours and the girl in braids. I love that it’s written in two different time periods. I really don’t want to spoil the book for you, it is so good! The end has a couple of loose ends so I think there could easily be a series. It’s a very exciting, spooky, scary read, so give it a go ! Oh, and keep the big light on !

I have really enjoyed this book, I was born and raised in the same town as Amanda Mason (author) so I did feel an extra connection while reading the book as the story is set around the North Yorkshire Moors. An excellent ghostly tale about a family living in an old farm house in the 1970's, life is tough for the family, their mother Cathy has a large family to raise and her Husband Joe is a struggling artist who eventually has to look for work elsewhere leaving the rest of the family to battle through the strange events happening at the farm. The two girls, Bee and Loo start to experience noises in their room and buzzing in their head, Loo seems to be the one who is connecting with the presence and when a team of paranormal behaviourists stay with them on the farm things start to escalate!
An excellent page turner, would definitely recommend.