Digital Reads Reviews

One of the most different book I’d read in my life, left completely open to interpretation.

The story went thus, Cassandra, a 7-year-old novelist had disappeared. One year later her niece and nephew were given the key to her home and told to read her last manuscript in order to get her wealth.

Then came the story as written in the manuscript, where Cassandra had been taken in by the faerie called PepperMan who sucked her blood when she was a child, continued even when she became pregnant at 14, and lived with her until the end. The PepperMan helped in the murder of her husband and her faerie daughter had a hand in the murder-suicide of her father and brother. Believe it as a story written by a novelist or think about the truth behind the story.

My first book by author Camilla Bruce, the story creeped me out with the entire idea of the PepperMan sucking the blood of a young child. The interpretation filled me with the horror of what the child might have gone through and how her mind tried to find its stability via the instability of an unbelievable tale.

You would think that such a topic would trigger my nightmares, but the author cleverly bypassed that by writing it as a tale from the fertile mind of a novelist. It read like a fantasy in most parts. Only the shadow in the depths of the murky psyche trying to find its ray of light was open to interpretation.

The prose, written as a fictional story, was stated as a body of facts of Cassie’s life which made reading easier. There were many things in the book that hit me hard. The author kept my thoughts a swirling mess all through the book. I raced through the book, it was 200 odd pages, to know if my interpretations were right. Were they?

Read it if you dare to, it would just surprise you. That was my breakfast read… A surreal one.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley and the publisher, and this is my journey into its pages, straight from the heart!! STRICTLY HONEST AND UNBIASED.

All my reviews can be read here

Everyone knew bestselling novelist Cassandra Tipp had twice got away with murder.

Even her family were convinced of her guilt.

So when she disappears, leaving only a long letter behind, they can but suspect that her conscience finally killed her.

But the letter is not what anyone expected. It tells two chilling, darkly disturbing stories. One is a story of bloody nights and magical gifts, of children lost to the woods, of husbands made from twigs and leaves and feathers and bones . . .

The other is the story of a little girl who was cruelly treated and grew up crooked in the shadows . . .

But which story is true? And where is Cassie now?

Publication Date: 5th March 2020