Pine

I really enjoyed the first half of this book. The creeping dread was palpable: an isolated town populated by misfits and weirdos, where you can fell the mulch underfoot, smell the rot in Lauren's ramshackle house, shiver at the dreich Scottish weather and sympathised with this poor bullied child with the disinterested father. When a mysterious lady in white keeps appearing but no one can remember seeing her it just adds to the tension and the atmosphere.

As things start to escalate in the second half of the book, things take a turn. Mysteries are just easily discarded, which is unsatisfying (the constantly locked front room contains nothing of interest, and is just unlocked one day, meh; the mother's ghost is just hard for people to contemplate, so they forget, according to the mad old lady down the street who also sees her) and the denoument seems rushed. It all feels like a bit of a let down after the incredible, subtle effects created in the first half.

I'd probably give it 3.5* but rounded it up because I have so much good will from the incredible set up. I just wish it had just maintained that level to the end.