The Moment Collector by Jodi Lynn Anderson

A key is buried under the front stairs of 208 Water Street. Scorched on one side, was it in a fire? Who lost it, and when?

From me, it’s a clue, a piece of the past. Because the yard of this house is a graveyards of moments, and everything left behind is a reminder: sand paper, a bracelet, a love note, some letter, a match, a movie stub, a postcard.

Published by Orchard Books in August 2014

Pages - 256

Summary

There's a ghost haunting 208 Water Street. She doesn't know who she was, or why she's still here. She does know that she is drawn to Maggie, the new girl in town, and her friends - beautiful, carefree Pauline and Liam, the boy who loves her.
But the ghost isn't all that's lurking in Gill Creek... Someone is killing young girls all across the county. Can the ghost keep these three friends safe? Or does she have another purpose?

*****

Although I enjoyed this story, I found myself confused about it for nearly three quarters of the book. It wasn’t until I reached the end, that I truly understood what was going on.  From the first few pages, we know a killer is on the loose in the little town, but we never ever find out who it is. It felt as though a certain aspect of the story was set up in the beginning but unfortunately not carried through to the end.  I couldn’t see the point of making such a big deal about the murders if they weren’t integral to the plot.

Out of all the characters in the book, Maggie was definitely my favourite. She was a bright young thing, who worked hard at her studies and did all she could to make her parent’s lives easier.  On arriving in town, she was soon befriended by Pauline, who annoyed the hell out of me. Pauline came across as flighty and immature. I felt that she used Maggie when ever she felt she needed a friend. It was pretty obvious from the start that Pauline would always win every outcome.

This story is told mainly in third person, apart from the sections where the spirit speaks in first person. Now I’m a big fan of using  a mixture of narrative points of view in one novel but I will be honest, I struggled with it in this book until the very end. By the time I reached the conclusion,  it finally dawned on me why it had been written in this way and completely made sense; however I felt that was a bit too late to appease my annoyance throughout the rest of the book. 

The ending was the saviour of this story. However I was quite shocked to discover the true identity of the ghost in the last chapter. This was an OK read with a really strong ending. If you enjoyed  A Certain Slant of Light, you would probably enjoy this one too.

While The Others Sleep by Tom Becker

Published March 4th 2013 by Scholastic Children's Books

250 pages

It began with a whisper, a secret shared in the hush of midnight.

It began with the rasp of a match, and a spark of light in the darkness.

It began with the hint of a smile on a child’s face.

Summary from Amazon

When Alfie Mandeville's insomnia threatens to embarrass his wealthy family he is sent to Scarbrook House, a sanatorium for wealthy children. Troubled by the eerie atmosphere and skittish patients, Alfie's condition gets worse, not better. He falls under the spell of the charismatic and cruel William Travers, who seems to delight in bullying the other patients. A mysterious sighting by the water tower in the woods stirs up turbulent memories of Alfie's time in India. And as he lies awake one night, Alfie is haunted by visions of a strange creature moving through the darkness at the edge of the patients' beds. Are his tired eyes hallucinating, or is starting to lose his mind? 

Reviewed by K. M. Lockwood

‘While The Others Sleep’ is a gothic horror story crossed with a psychological thriller suited to the 12+ reader. It has heaps of sinister 19th Century settings: a charred and blackened building, a wintry graveyard and a remote asylum, for example. The atmosphere is suitably claustrophobic and unsettling. 

The uncertainty around the true natures of the different adolescents in the Victorian sanatorium, and the mind games that they play is well done. The reader’s sympathies shift from one character to another which racks up the tension effectively. For my part, this was the most successful aspect of the story: not knowing who was the focus of all the evil goings-on.

It is only fair to warn readers that towards the end of the book there are some rather gruesome moments. They are definitely not suitable for the nervous or squeamish. There are also flashbacks to Imperial India and the merest touch of romance, but the general effect is something you’d imagine Hammer Films creating.

You will enjoy this novel if you like the kind of horror that say Alan Gibbons or Barry Hutchison write - but set in a spine-chilling era full of carriages, servants and séances. A touch of Edgar Allen Poe for teens.

Out of Sight Out of Mind by Evonne Wareham

It was  a dark and dirty alley and a very expensive dress.

Madison Albi hesitated. She really didn’t want to go in there. Not in a shimmery little cocktail number and a pair of strappy sandals. Hell, not even in boots and a protective suit.

Published by Choc Lit in March 2013

Pages - 336

Goodreads Summary

Everyone has secrets. Some are stranger than others.
Madison Albi is a scientist with a very special talent - for reading minds. When she stumbles across a homeless man with whom she feels an inexplicable connection, she can’t resist the dangerous impulse to use her skills to help him.
J is a non-person - a vagrant who can’t even remember his own name. He’s got no hope, until he meets Madison. Is she the one woman who can restore his past?
Madison agrees to help J recover his memory, but as she delves deeper into his mind, it soon becomes clear that some secrets are better off staying hidden.
Is J really the man Madison believes him to be?

*******

I had wanted to read this book, ever since I heard the premise. Reading minds would be the most amazing skill to have, and the main character Madison can do it with ease. The book is told from alternate points of view in third person, with other minor characters sporadically interspersed. The best way that I can describe this book is  a  strong contemporary with  hints of paranormal in it. If I didn’t know better, after reading this I would think that mind reading was very much the norm in our society. At times the prose went a little over my head. The scenes written in the laboratories lost me a little and I found I had to reread them to get my head around  the procedures Madison planned to carry out. The author has clearly carried out in depth research to create authenticity by providing such detailed descriptions.

Madison is a really strong female character who doesn’t take no for an answer. She is completely in control of all aspects of her life and she isn’t willing to let go. Jay comes across quite innocent at the beginning of the story; you can’t help but feel sorry for him, although I’m not sure I would’ve taken him home! As Jay finds his feet, his mysterious hidden past really makes him rather gorgeous. I mean seriously, he sets the book alight. No wonder Madison fell for him. His past is very cleverly written. The author had me visualising so many bad things before I found out the truth.

The romance between Madison and Jay just sizzles off the page when they finally get together. All the original coldness and aloofness, builds with sexual tension, until it finally melts away quickly.   This book is set in London, but it had such a cosmopolitan feel to it, I often felt like I was in New York instead. It was only when the characters spent time in Wales, that I remembered this book was set in the UK.

The first half of the book took me a while to get into, but once the romance began the story really took off for me. As information was revealed I was stunned by the twists and turns the plot took. We found out who the real Jay was at the same time as Madison and it really added to the drama of the book. The second half of the book is fast paced and a real page turn as you rush to find out how it will all end.

Oh and the ending! That was just perfect. Like the ending of a swoonsome romantic film. I loved it so much. It’s the kind of ending that stays with you.

On the whole I really enjoyed this book. Strong characters, unusual premise and roller coaster ending.