I found this book in a bargain book sale at Polhill and thought that it looked interesting. The front cover proclaims: “She lives in their dreams. They die in hers.” I thought that it was going to be a supernatural thriller, when in actual fact, it turned out to be more of a horror story.
Susan Marley is beautiful, but lives in a squalid apartment, and engages in prostitution in order to provide the bare essentials of life. Her younger sister Liz lives at home with their mother. Liz is in her final year at High School and finds being the sister of Susan is not easy.
The story is mostly told from Liz’s viewpoint, although in some ways the story is more about Susan, who dies during the course of the book.
After Susan’s death, things in the run-down mill town of Bedford start to go really seriously wrong, but we’re kept guessing about why this is and what’s going to happen. In fact, I’m not quite sure what the outcome was, even now I’ve finished the book!
This book was a struggle to read, but I kept at it and did eventually finish it, although the number of crosswords and killer sudoku puzzles I worked went up during the reading period, which I think must have been about a month!
Sarah Langan is unlikely to be on my list of authors to search for on my next visit to the library.
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