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drjoannehill's review against another edition
4.0
I like time slip stories and this is a good one that holds a lot of tension for the majority of the book. It's also well situated in the injustices of the asylum system of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This is juxtaposed with a slightly less developed story of the difficulties for a new boy in a boys' boarding school in the 1990s, based in the building that was once the asylum.
The ending is quite neat though and was at odds with the issues that characters faced in the rest of the book, everything ties up a bit too neatly.
The ending is quite neat though and was at odds with the issues that characters faced in the rest of the book, everything ties up a bit too neatly.
aleksandranowacka_x's review against another edition
5.0
i really fell in love with these characters. the ending was beautiful. overall, just such a well written, beautiful book. the prose was pretty and the story itself was so interesting.
lisamshardlow's review against another edition
5.0
Set in dual timelines in an old building that was once an insane asylum and 90 years later is a boarding school for boys. In 1903 a woman and her 5-year-old daughter are found drifting out to sea in a wrecked boat off the coast of Cornwall. The woman has been badly beaten, and is in a coma, and the little girl doesn’t know her own name but soon becomes known as Harriet. Both are taken to All Hallows, an insane asylum in Dartmoor, in the hopes that they will both recover from their ordeal. Harriet is taken to an attic room and put into the care of Nurse Everdeen. In 1993, two motherless and rebellious teenage boys, Lewis and Isak, are banished to All Hallows boarding school after their families are at their wits’ end as to what to do with them. The boys find themselves housed in an attic room, where the past refuses to stay hidden. As they learn more about the history of All Hallows, the fate of little Harriet, and Nurse Everdeen’s fight to keep her safe, it becomes clear that there are restless ghosts still present.
This was absolutely gripping from start to finish! I loved all of the characters, and I found both timelines very intriguing. I wanted to know exactly what had happened to Harriet and her mother, and I didn’t want to stop reading until I had the answers. Equally, I also wanted Lewis and Isak to find out the truth. I really loved the relationship between Harriet and Nurse Everdeen - Harriet definitely helped the nurse to love again (after losing her own child 50 years before), and the friendship between Lewis and Isak - they were two lost souls who became bonded over the loss of both of their mothers. There was also a slight supernatural element throughout the story, which I really enjoyed as well.
I don’t think that there was anything that I didn’t love about this, it kept me on the edge throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed it! For all of these reasons, I give this book 5 out of 5 stars!
I highly recommend this to anyone who loves a good mystery, mild gothic horror, historical fiction, thrillers, and a touch of fantasy/sci-fi.
This was absolutely gripping from start to finish! I loved all of the characters, and I found both timelines very intriguing. I wanted to know exactly what had happened to Harriet and her mother, and I didn’t want to stop reading until I had the answers. Equally, I also wanted Lewis and Isak to find out the truth. I really loved the relationship between Harriet and Nurse Everdeen - Harriet definitely helped the nurse to love again (after losing her own child 50 years before), and the friendship between Lewis and Isak - they were two lost souls who became bonded over the loss of both of their mothers. There was also a slight supernatural element throughout the story, which I really enjoyed as well.
I don’t think that there was anything that I didn’t love about this, it kept me on the edge throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed it! For all of these reasons, I give this book 5 out of 5 stars!
I highly recommend this to anyone who loves a good mystery, mild gothic horror, historical fiction, thrillers, and a touch of fantasy/sci-fi.
jessicafarmer80's review against another edition
4.0
4⭐️ I listened to this on audiobook and really enjoyed it! It was much deeper than I had anticipated in regards to a mother’s love and protecting your child - whether a child from birth or that you have grown close to and consider like your own.
hanners87's review against another edition
4.0
Started out with some nice supernatural suspense but then ended too abruptly.
emkayreads's review against another edition
5.0
I was so engrossed!
With Characters that are so real and a story that keeps you guessing, this has been another expertly crafted story.
With Characters that are so real and a story that keeps you guessing, this has been another expertly crafted story.
marilynw's review against another edition
4.0
The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas
Narrated by Helen Barford and David Thorpe
All Hallows has a long and unpleasant past. For years it was an asylum and at first all the patients were treated the same, with dignity. Later came different management and there were rooms set aside for the wealthy, complete with flowers, fine food and drink, and personal attention from the staff. By this time the rest of the patients were treated by being drugged into a stupor, bound, chained, and stripped of their clothes and all their dignity, until there was little left of them, body or mind. This was the way things were in 1903 when an unconscious woman and her young daughter were brought to the asylum in very bad shape.
All Hallows is a boarding school in 1993. It's worse for wear and there has been some flooding so when thirteen year old Lewis is sent there, it's darker and danker than ever. At least Lewis becomes friends and roommates with surly Isak. While repairs are made on the bigger group room where the boys will eventually sleep, the two of them have a room of their own, under an old attic that has the strangest noises coming from it.
I really like Lewis. He can hardly keep his mind on anything related to school or adults. It's always going off on tangents that are interesting to him and to me. Both he and Isak are smart and creative even if their grades don't reflect it. Once they realize something strange is going on in the school they spend most of their spare time in the library or their room reading about the past of All Hallows and it's staff and residents.
The story alternates between a female narrator for the 1903 timeline and a male narrator for 1993 and most of the chapters are very short. I really like how the story was done because I never had a chance to lose the thread of either timeline. In the earlier timeline we spend time with the little girl, Harriet, and Nurse Emma, who is to take care of her while her mother recovers from her injuries. Old Emma thought her heart had hardened after her little boy died fifty years ago but she was wrong. Harriet breaks through that barrier and Emma would do anything to keep Harriet safe.
The two timelines are going to meet although it takes two creative and curious boys to allow it to happen. I like how the story is told and how the story is resolved. I definitely want to read more by this author.
Published 2021 by Boldwood Books
Narrated by Helen Barford and David Thorpe
All Hallows has a long and unpleasant past. For years it was an asylum and at first all the patients were treated the same, with dignity. Later came different management and there were rooms set aside for the wealthy, complete with flowers, fine food and drink, and personal attention from the staff. By this time the rest of the patients were treated by being drugged into a stupor, bound, chained, and stripped of their clothes and all their dignity, until there was little left of them, body or mind. This was the way things were in 1903 when an unconscious woman and her young daughter were brought to the asylum in very bad shape.
All Hallows is a boarding school in 1993. It's worse for wear and there has been some flooding so when thirteen year old Lewis is sent there, it's darker and danker than ever. At least Lewis becomes friends and roommates with surly Isak. While repairs are made on the bigger group room where the boys will eventually sleep, the two of them have a room of their own, under an old attic that has the strangest noises coming from it.
I really like Lewis. He can hardly keep his mind on anything related to school or adults. It's always going off on tangents that are interesting to him and to me. Both he and Isak are smart and creative even if their grades don't reflect it. Once they realize something strange is going on in the school they spend most of their spare time in the library or their room reading about the past of All Hallows and it's staff and residents.
The story alternates between a female narrator for the 1903 timeline and a male narrator for 1993 and most of the chapters are very short. I really like how the story was done because I never had a chance to lose the thread of either timeline. In the earlier timeline we spend time with the little girl, Harriet, and Nurse Emma, who is to take care of her while her mother recovers from her injuries. Old Emma thought her heart had hardened after her little boy died fifty years ago but she was wrong. Harriet breaks through that barrier and Emma would do anything to keep Harriet safe.
The two timelines are going to meet although it takes two creative and curious boys to allow it to happen. I like how the story is told and how the story is resolved. I definitely want to read more by this author.
Published 2021 by Boldwood Books
shirin_mandi's review against another edition
5.0
"if you love someone, they never really leave you.
Nothing that existed could ever be gone. She must be somewhere and I thought that if I looked hard enough, I would find her…"
I was reading this book with two other books and this was supposed to finish after others. I was supposed to reading it a little before sleep or on the subway. But not only did I finish it first also I found myself listening to it stared on my laptop but wouldn't do my work! I know I know this isn't related to the book so get to the story.
An aged nurse, Emma in the asylum, All Hallow in 1903, and a man, Lewis in 2020 who remembered when he was young in a boarding school, same old asylum in 1993.
"It was because of Isak and me, and everything that happened in those last months of 1993 when I was thirteen and Isak was fourteen and we shared the same bedroom at All Hallows. The time that began at the very point when my whole world had fallen apart."
This was a historical fiction story about two friends who are curious about the history of All Hallow but, this is not all, a mysterious child, skull, bones, ghost, murder, place for torture, and a nurse who was buried on the wrong side of the graveyard.
This was a heartbreaking and suspenseful story. I enjoyed the relationship between mother and son and two friends. The characters are touchable and pleasant. I loved it.
"Pain can be alleviated. Human beings are an optimistic bunch, but it’s disingenuous to think there will always be a happy ending."
Many thanks to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas, I have given my honest review.
Nothing that existed could ever be gone. She must be somewhere and I thought that if I looked hard enough, I would find her…"
I was reading this book with two other books and this was supposed to finish after others. I was supposed to reading it a little before sleep or on the subway. But not only did I finish it first also I found myself listening to it stared on my laptop but wouldn't do my work! I know I know this isn't related to the book so get to the story.
An aged nurse, Emma in the asylum, All Hallow in 1903, and a man, Lewis in 2020 who remembered when he was young in a boarding school, same old asylum in 1993.
"It was because of Isak and me, and everything that happened in those last months of 1993 when I was thirteen and Isak was fourteen and we shared the same bedroom at All Hallows. The time that began at the very point when my whole world had fallen apart."
This was a historical fiction story about two friends who are curious about the history of All Hallow but, this is not all, a mysterious child, skull, bones, ghost, murder, place for torture, and a nurse who was buried on the wrong side of the graveyard.
This was a heartbreaking and suspenseful story. I enjoyed the relationship between mother and son and two friends. The characters are touchable and pleasant. I loved it.
"Pain can be alleviated. Human beings are an optimistic bunch, but it’s disingenuous to think there will always be a happy ending."
Many thanks to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas, I have given my honest review.
kazza27's review against another edition
5.0
Thank you to Rachel at Random Resources tours for my invitation to the tour and for my copy of the e book in return for a fair and honest review.
Lewis works for an architect and he is asked to visit All Hallows on Dartmoor for a client. What he does not let on is that he has a history with All Hallows. He was sent there to school by his father and step mother after his mother dies. We know from the outset that it was not a happy place for him and something traumatic happened there.
We go back to 1993 when Lewis is sent to All Hallows and there he meets Isak.
The second timeline of the story is about a young woman who is found with her child in the sea and is also taken to All Hallows but this time it is in 1903 when it is an asylum. The child is called Harriet and Nurse Everdeen is sent to look after her and her mother. No one knows what happened to Harriet and her mother, but she is badly injured.
The two stories run concurrently and it was easy to follow and switch between All Hallows in 1903 and 90 years later.
All Hallows gave me the chills, and poor Lewis he has had such a tough time and going to the awful school is the final straw for him. Brutal and unrelenting the school believes it will break any boy who does not adhere to the rules. Lewis makes a shocking discovery which leads him to investigate who Emma Everdeen was and why she was at All Hallows. Isak and him become engrossed with her story.
This is a really compelling read, it is dark and atmospheric. I could imagine the bleak and gothic setting on Dartmoor which is full of legends of ghosts and folklore. It particularly resonated with me as I have lived with Dartmoor in sight my whole life and my maternal grandmother was born in Scarborough so also have connections to North Yorkshire. It is a story full of mystery and suspense and it’s a great winter read for long dark nights!
5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Lewis works for an architect and he is asked to visit All Hallows on Dartmoor for a client. What he does not let on is that he has a history with All Hallows. He was sent there to school by his father and step mother after his mother dies. We know from the outset that it was not a happy place for him and something traumatic happened there.
We go back to 1993 when Lewis is sent to All Hallows and there he meets Isak.
The second timeline of the story is about a young woman who is found with her child in the sea and is also taken to All Hallows but this time it is in 1903 when it is an asylum. The child is called Harriet and Nurse Everdeen is sent to look after her and her mother. No one knows what happened to Harriet and her mother, but she is badly injured.
The two stories run concurrently and it was easy to follow and switch between All Hallows in 1903 and 90 years later.
All Hallows gave me the chills, and poor Lewis he has had such a tough time and going to the awful school is the final straw for him. Brutal and unrelenting the school believes it will break any boy who does not adhere to the rules. Lewis makes a shocking discovery which leads him to investigate who Emma Everdeen was and why she was at All Hallows. Isak and him become engrossed with her story.
This is a really compelling read, it is dark and atmospheric. I could imagine the bleak and gothic setting on Dartmoor which is full of legends of ghosts and folklore. It particularly resonated with me as I have lived with Dartmoor in sight my whole life and my maternal grandmother was born in Scarborough so also have connections to North Yorkshire. It is a story full of mystery and suspense and it’s a great winter read for long dark nights!
5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐