BLOG TOUR & REVIEW: The Lingering by Sji Holliday @orendabooks @SJIHolliday #TheLingering
The Lingering
by Sji Holliday
Thanks so much to Orenda Books for this stop on the Blog Tour and gorgeous review copy.
HAPPY PUBLISHING DAY!!!
Publisher: Orenda Books
Publish Date: November 15, 2018
Paperback
256 Pages
Standalone
Genres: Thriller, Paranormal
Married couple Jack and Ali Gardiner move to a self-sufficient
commune in the English Fens, desperate for fresh start. The local village
is known for the witches who once resided there and Rosalind House,
where the commune has been established, is a former psychiatric home,
with a disturbing history.
When Jack and Ali arrive, a chain of unexpected and unexplained
events is set off, and it becomes clear that they are not all that they
seem. As the residents become twitchy, and the villagers suspicious,
events from the past come back to haunt them, and someone is seeking
retribution…
At once an unnerving locked-room mystery, a chilling thriller and a dark
and superbly wrought ghost story, The Lingering is an exceptionally
plotted, terrifying and tantalisingly twisted novel by one of the most
exciting authors in the genre.
About the Author:
S.J.I. (Susi) Holliday is a pharmaceutical statistician by day and a crime and
horror fan by night. Her short stories have been published in many places
and she was shortlisted for the inaugural CWA Margery Allingham prize
with her story ‘Home from Home’, which was published in Ellery Queen
Mystery Magazine in spring 2017. She is the bestselling author of the
creepy and claustrophobic Banktoun trilogy (Black Wood, Willow Walk and
The Damselfly) featuring the much-loved Sergeant Davie Gray, and has
dabbled in festive crime with the critically acclaimed The Deaths of
December. Her latest psychological thriller is modern gothic with more
than a hint of the supernatural, which she loved writing due to her
fascination and fear of ghosts. She is proud to be one of The Slice Girls has
been described by David Mark as 'Dark as a smoker's lung.' She divides her
time between Edinburgh and London and you will find her at crime-fiction
events in the UK and abroad.
My Review:
I don't even know where to begin with this book! I love that the synopsis is fairly vague so that you have no idea what to expect going in and I certainly wasn't expecting THAT.
Jack and Ali are having some marital issues.. so what's the best way to try and solve that? Why, pack up your bags and move to a commune. Seems legit. There's something interesting about this commune though - they're located on an abandoned psychiatric home, The Rosalind House. There's a history of abuse, ghosts and witches as a background. Again, seems legit! However, once they get there, things start happening and well... welcome to crazy town.
I was expecting this to read more like a cult book and that's not what I got. What I got was a semi-thriller/paranormal read and I'm not hating on it! Honestly, I wasn't all that hooked for the first 40% or so of the book. However, I was intrigued (albeit puzzled as to why the crazy cult phenomena I was expecting wasn't happening). Then BOOM, shit takes a left turn at Albuquerque and I was hooked.
Look - bring me an asylum with ghosts and I'm going to read it. This novel delivers on this with an underlying, ominous tone that keeps your mind at high alert to not miss anything. Ali and Jack are characters where you have no idea what's happening with them until quite a ways into the story line... and I appreciate the bait.
The Lingering title is suitable for many things that happen within the novel. The characters are fascinating, the eerie feel brings about an atmosphere of hesitance and paranoia and the unexpectedness of what the story brings is compelling and certainly unexpected.
Certainly a suitable read for those who love a psychological thriller mixed with some paranormal.
Jack and Ali are having some marital issues.. so what's the best way to try and solve that? Why, pack up your bags and move to a commune. Seems legit. There's something interesting about this commune though - they're located on an abandoned psychiatric home, The Rosalind House. There's a history of abuse, ghosts and witches as a background. Again, seems legit! However, once they get there, things start happening and well... welcome to crazy town.
I was expecting this to read more like a cult book and that's not what I got. What I got was a semi-thriller/paranormal read and I'm not hating on it! Honestly, I wasn't all that hooked for the first 40% or so of the book. However, I was intrigued (albeit puzzled as to why the crazy cult phenomena I was expecting wasn't happening). Then BOOM, shit takes a left turn at Albuquerque and I was hooked.
Look - bring me an asylum with ghosts and I'm going to read it. This novel delivers on this with an underlying, ominous tone that keeps your mind at high alert to not miss anything. Ali and Jack are characters where you have no idea what's happening with them until quite a ways into the story line... and I appreciate the bait.
The Lingering title is suitable for many things that happen within the novel. The characters are fascinating, the eerie feel brings about an atmosphere of hesitance and paranoia and the unexpectedness of what the story brings is compelling and certainly unexpected.
Certainly a suitable read for those who love a psychological thriller mixed with some paranormal.
★★★★
Thanks for the Blog Tour support x
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