Pine by Francine Toon

Published: 2020, Penguin

Genre: Fiction

Themes: missing person, witchcraft, Scotland, rural community

My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤❤

So, this is my recommendation for your holiday read. (You'll thank me for this later!)

You know that point on Boxing Day when it is just starting to get dark and you realise it's all over for another year, and you are pretty much done with Christmas now. You had piccalilli with your cold cuts at lunch, and then remembered too late that pickle wasn't going to mix well with six strawberry creams and the last segments of your chocolate orange. On top of that, your Nan is telling everyone for the eleventy billionth time that all they had for Christmas in her day was half a walnut and a puncture repair kit, but they were gratefull!

This is the point when you need to get away and re-set your brain with a decent gothic spine chiller. Snuggle down in a quiet corner in your new oversized hoodie and enjoy the much under-rated pleasure of feeling spooked (but not so badly that you'll have to sleep with the light on).

The story takes place in rural Scotland, where the nights are properly dark and the old granite houses creak and drip as the wind and rain stirs the trees at the edge of the forest. Lauren is nine years old, and her mother mysteriously disappeared when she was a baby, but sometimes Lauren feels a presence in the house that causes the temperature to drop and strange noises come from empty rooms. Her Dad drowns his sorrows in drink all too often and folk in the village whisper as they pass by. There is something that everyone seems to know about them but no-one is willing to talk to Lauren about her mother.

Once you start reading this, you will probably not want to stir when they call you to come and watch some celebrity Christmas special, or even when your Mum decides to make snowballs with an ancient bottle of advocaat found lurking at the back of the drinks cabinet. You will want to make sure young Lauren is going to be ok in the dark before you stop reading, and when you close the book you will wish you had thought to pull the curtains, because something creepy could be lurking outside!

Comments

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