What I've been reading: Banish and You Don't Want to Know

This book ticks all my boxes. A whiff of the supernatural, a whodunit, a teenage protagonist who has had to grow up before her time, and some eye candy.

The story is about Alyssa, who comes from a family of Wicca practitioners, but who doesn't believe because she thinks her mother's belief in the supernatural has made her an unbalanced alcoholic. After her ex-boyfriend suicides she moves in with her aunt to New York, determined to wipe the slate clean on her past, but starts getting creepy gifts. Either someone is trying to make her seem crazy or her she is being haunted by her ex-boyfriend.

Nicola Marsh has written a young adult thriller that is a page turner. There is a host of possible suspects, red herrings, romance, and family conflict. There had better be a sequel in the offing because I want more.

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Lisa Jackson is a favourite and I really enjoyed this story about Ava Gardener, a woman driven to the brink of madness by the loss of her toddler. After a stint in a psychiatric facility she is home to recover, but when she sees visions of her son she begins to doubt her sanity. Is she recovering lost memories or is there something more sinister at play?

The cover sucked me into this book and it perfectly captured the spooky mood and suspense. It featured a cast of cooky family members who provided lots of red herrings and I was kept guessing until the end as to the mystery. My only quibble is that the book seemed a big long winded and could have been pared down, but I kept reading to the end and was glad that I did.

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