Author: Simone St. James
Genre: Thriller
Source: Ebook - Netgalley
Rating: 3 out of 5 paws
The body of a young woman was found dead at a placed called Idlewild Hall, a boarding school for troubled young women. Rumors are that the school is haunted. Twenty years later Fiona cannot stop thinking about the events that surround her sister's death at Idlewild Hall. Her sister's boyfriend was convicted of murdering her, but Fiona has the feeling that something isn't right about the situation and something else had happened. During renovations to the old school, secrets arise that may shed some light on the rumors that surround the school. Secrets that someone meant to keep hidden. What lies behind the walls of Idlewild Hall.
When I picked up this book, I was excited to read it. I have never read Simone St. James' work before and this one sounded so interesting, so I dove right it. I admit I struggled to get into the story at first, it seemed to take a while to lead up to the climactic portion of the story. I wanted to give up on the book, but am glad I didn't.
The ghost story aspect of it felt weak and didn't live up to what I was expecting from it. I wanted more than what we were provided, and there was potential for more, but I don't think it was explored enough. The beginning is slow going but it does pick up the pace and gets a little more interesting. There are parts of the book where the story gets rather dark, but St. James handles this in a professional manner and makes it interesting rather than cringe-worthy. It jumped back in time and back to the present a bit and sometimes I had a hard time following along, even though it does tell you the time frame prior to beginning that sequence. Breaking up of these sections gave the book a sort of broken feeling. It might have been better accomplished with Fiona finding journals or letters from each of the girls rather than flashing back to them.
There seems to be a lot of different storylines with the four girls who lived at Idlewild Hall, but there were times when I wished it would have focused on Fiona or her sister's story more and told the rest of the girls' stories through them. Sometimes too many characters tend to take away from the story and I almost feel like that happened here with this novel as well.
I love the supernatural and ghost stories and I felt like the idea was there, the pull/lure to bring readers into it, but I wasn't all that impressed with the writing style. I would recommend it for those who enjoy a ghost story, thriller, even mystery. Others have enjoyed the story immensely, it just wasn't the book for me.
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