Something wicked this way comes...She thought she’d be safe in the country, but you can’t escape your own nightmares, and Lis London dreams repeatedly that someone is trying to kill her. Lis thinks she’s being paranoid - after all who would want to murder her? She doesn’t believe in the local legends of witchcraft. She doesn’t believe that anything bad will really happen to her. You never do, do you? Not until you’re alone in the woods, after dark - and a twig snaps... Hollow Pike - where witchcraft never sleeps.
After falling in love with Under The Skin, I knew I had to read my way through Dawson's back catalogue. Although fairly creepy and out of my comfort zone, Dawson's writing just has that something that makes me want to keep coming back.
Set in a sleepy little English village, haunted by its bloody history, it was the perfect setting for things to get a little out of control. As it was so remote, so small, and everyone knew everyone's business, Lis and her friend had very few places they could turn as thing go pear-shaped. Never knowing who to trust, as good guys become bad and vise versa.
As I said, the story and the mystery was fairly creepy but I'm a sucker for witches! The never knowing who to trust, what was happening and why, that was what made it scary; the witches themselves were practically harmless, as we discovered, it was just the threat of them that makes people nervous. Ironic and clever that all this is happening alongside the reading of The Crucible!
Dawson created a great teenage voice with Lis. Her bullies and her crush, everything felt very real and dramatic, as it should with teens. Add in the extra thrill of prophetic dreams and murder, and you have one very scared but determined protagonist! All in all, a fantastic story with everything you need for a good mystery, from the misunderstood bad guys to the righteous killer.
Published 2nd Feburary 2012 by Orion Children's.
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