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A review by bluefairybug
The Return of Frankie Whittle by Caroline England
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
4.0
I love the cover of this book, as soon as I saw it I got spooky abandoned mental institution vibes. Which isn't exactly the setting for the book, but it's close enough. The pages were lovely and thick, and the font was the perfect size for me.
I really enjoyed the dual POV telling of this story, and loved both Frankie and Nina. I found it a real slow burn, with some fantastic scene setting for the first half and then a real ramp up of the storyline. I was drawn in instantly by the mystery of the prologue and just raced through the book to find out how we got to that point in the story.
The writing felt genuine and flowed nicely, although Frankie 'rotating' to look at someone/something was slightly irksome. Saying she turned or turned around would feel more natural I think. That's definitely personal preference though. Occasionally some parts of speech felt either too old fashioned, or too young for characters in their 30s, but then again Toby is of a very different social class, and maybe 30 year-olds in Manchester do say Peng!
I found the plot to be engaging and intriguing with a great level of edge of the seat mystery. The Pavilion seems too good to be true, and as the old saying goes, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. There were some potentially upsetting scenes including baby loss and su1cide, but I feel they were handled very sensitively.
I don't think I've read anything by Caroline before, but I'm definitely keen to read more in future.
I really enjoyed the dual POV telling of this story, and loved both Frankie and Nina. I found it a real slow burn, with some fantastic scene setting for the first half and then a real ramp up of the storyline. I was drawn in instantly by the mystery of the prologue and just raced through the book to find out how we got to that point in the story.
The writing felt genuine and flowed nicely, although Frankie 'rotating' to look at someone/something was slightly irksome. Saying she turned or turned around would feel more natural I think. That's definitely personal preference though. Occasionally some parts of speech felt either too old fashioned, or too young for characters in their 30s, but then again Toby is of a very different social class, and maybe 30 year-olds in Manchester do say Peng!
I found the plot to be engaging and intriguing with a great level of edge of the seat mystery. The Pavilion seems too good to be true, and as the old saying goes, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. There were some potentially upsetting scenes including baby loss and su1cide, but I feel they were handled very sensitively.
I don't think I've read anything by Caroline before, but I'm definitely keen to read more in future.