Sadly this book just was not for me. This sat on my kindle for quite some time - twice I have attempted to read and twice I did not finish.

Thankyou for the opportunity but I will not be providing feedback on any commercial sites for this book.

Please note this is a 3.5.

This book has a gorgeous tone. Australian gothic is hard to pinpoint and extraordinarily difficult to balance, but the author strikes this perfectly in this book, with atmospheric descriptions and characters who could have stepped out of a whole 1800’s genre that doesn’t really exist at present. I loved the whole world it created, and the small town claustrophobia was wonderfully crafted as well. The undertone of nastiness and cult mentality came across incredibly well too.

The initial mystery was also fantastic, pulling the reader in hook, line, and sinker. I anticipated some form of historical fiction, and, in a way, that is indeed what this book delivers. I went into it expecting no fast paced thriller but something more literary fiction and that’s what this book was like. I really enjoyed it for that reason too, so that was nice.

But sadly that’s where I end my praise for this book. The first half was wonderful because it had that mystery and cohesion, but then it ended up going in a lot of different directions and I just lost it. The plot unspooled in front of my eyes and it just ended up lacking all the substance that the first half had. I really wish that this went a better direction with the final half, but I did enjoy what this book tried to do- it just seemed to lose its way.

Set in the early 1990's on a remote island off the coast of Western Australia, this book started with such promise for me. I was intrigued by the story of a small community, isolated from the mainland, and the disappearance suddenly of a young teenager from school.

The writing style was beautiful and captivating and I was genuinely enjoying this but then unfortunately for me something got lost around the half-way mark. I started to lose focus and the story line seemed to take off on a strange tangent that I just couldn't digest.

Religion features heavily in this book but in a frightening cult-like way where the towns people literally seem to become possessed by this need to be saved by something greater than they can understand.

The story is narrated by Hannah who has returned to the island as her mother is terminally ill. I was drawn into Hannah's story, which seemed to be begging me to understand why things on the island had happened the way they had. I felt as though as long as I stayed with Hannah all would make sense in the end, but again, unfortunately for me, it didn't, and the ending left me with more questions than I started with.

Thank you Pan Macmillan Australia and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this.