Cover design and internal illustrations by Holly Ovenden
Published by Everything With Words
Black Gables is a deliciously dark, spine-tinglingly spooky and gloriously gothic mystery that swirls with danger, frights and secrets … an absolutely riveting read.
Twelve-year-old Rosella Frawley’s mother has lost her memory after an accident so the family have returned to the place where she grew up, Black Gables, in the hope that the familiarity of her childhood home will trigger her memory to return. But Black Gables is not a place for hope …
Rosella starts the local school, Black Gables, named after its entrance: the black gables of the workhouse that had once stood there. She immediately feels the suffocating atmosphere as fingers of thick, greenish fog reach from the lake that edges the school. There is no laughter as children arrive, and Rosella reluctantly enters the school as a strange assortment of teachers appear, expecting work to be completed in silence. And then she meets the seriously sinister headmaster, Mr Edge …
And so begins an intriguing, creepy mystery with a lyrical and surreal quality that held me completely enthralled as Rosella tries to make connections with the past and discover the secrets of Black Gables and the lake ghouls. Could Mr Edge be communicating with these ghouls? Will Rosella’s determined efforts to seek the truth put her in danger? And, is everyone at the school quite what they appear?
This is an intensely eerie, chilling and dark mystery that sent shivers down my spine and kept me eagerly turning pages – sometimes from behind my fingers! Black Gables feels like a place both lost and hidden in time, yet waiting for a renewal which creeps ever closer with an inexorable feeling of foreboding as Rosella gets more and more entangled in her search for the truth before time runs out.
The portrayal of the teachers and students is just incredible! I absolutely felt the sense of the macabre and the strangeness which emanates from them with their old-fashioned clothing, draconian attitudes, unusual appearances and assortment of creatures. I loved that rather unsettling feeling with a few of the characters as I didn’t know if Rosella should trust them, but hoped she could. Mr Edge is a particularly sinister character not least because, whilst everyone adulates him, creepiness oozes from him.
Rosella is an incredibly sympathetic young girl who is struggling to deal with her mum not recognising her daughter, and hoping desperately that the family’s return to Black Gables will help her mum’s memories return. She senses something is not quite right with the school and refuses to become another compliant student. Instead, she is determined to discover the truth that hides in the lake and shows great courage in standing up for herself and others as she pursues her investigation.
The perfect spooky season read … visit Black Gables … if you dare!
Thank you to Mikka at Everything with Words for inviting me to be part of the Blog Tour, and for providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
Do check out the other stops on the Blog Tour:
Book Craic 