Books 2014 - Frost Hollow Hall by Emma Carroll

[byslantedlight]

Winter 1881. In the middle of a frozen lake a girl is skating. She's not supposed to be here. No one is. Not since Kit Barrington drowned at Frost Hollow Hall ten years ago. But the dead don't scare Tilly Higgins. The ice is thin. It cracks. Suddenly she's under the water, drowning. Near death, a strange spirit appears to her, a boy so beautiful Tilly's sure he's an angel. But he's a ghost. A very troubled ghost. And he desperately needs her help...

I must be honest, I bought this more for the cover than anything else, although I did think it would fit the Readers Imbibing Peril challenge nicely - but I ended up thoroughly enjoying the story. It's a very real book, beautifully written - I could hear Tilly, and see and feel where she was at every moment, and completely see other people through her eyes too. The story isn't just a ghost story either, Tilly has her own story - people who encounter ghosts are, after all, ordinary people with other things going on in their lives too, and Tilly's was wonderfully created. I don't want to spoiler it at all, so I'm not going to say anything more, but my heart dropped moments before hers did, every time, and lightened just before hers did too - it was that well done. And having not expected it to be particularly frightening, I found myself putting it down rather than read it in bed in the house by myself the other night - it was quite shiversome!

Very, very recommended...

(Four books, any length, that you feel fit (the very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature.)
Lord John and the Hand of Devils by Diana Gabaldon
The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman
The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles
The Heresy of Doctor Dee by Phil Rickman
Frost Hollow Hall by Emma Carroll