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A review by always_need_more_books
The Story Keeper E/a/I by Anna Mazzola
3.0
My second book my Anna Mazzola - I really enjoyed her first, The Unseeing so I was keen to read this when the opportunity came up.
Set in 1857 on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, Audrey Hart applies for a job with Miss Buchanen who wants to collect the folk and fairy tales of the people of Skye and write them down. Audrey is qualified for the post being able to speak Gaelic and having a love of the regional tales from travelling there with her mother as a child. And for some reason we don't know at the beginning, she is also keen to get away from her father and stepmother in London. The people of Skye are suspicious and hostile towards strangers - the Highland Clearances have left devastation and poverty.
Then Audrey discovers the body of a young girl washed up on the beach, and she soon discovers another girl has disappeared under suspicious circumstances. The people of Skye believe they are victims of sprits who take the form of birds.
Audrey is sceptical, believing the girls have been abducted but she soon starts to believe there is something more supernatural is the cause.
This was a rich and evocative gothic tale. Based on a real case from the 1880s, in which a series of young children and adults disappeared from the East End. Eliza Carter, returned briefly before her final disappearance to tell her friends that the fairies had kidnapped her and forbidden her to return home. She was never seen again.
I really enjoyed the dark fairy tales mixed in with historical facts and each page is richly atmospheric. At times I found it a little slow going and it took me a while to warm to the characters but overall it is a great spooky tale mixed with true life historical happenings.
Thank you to Anne Cater for inviting me on the blog tour for this book.
Set in 1857 on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, Audrey Hart applies for a job with Miss Buchanen who wants to collect the folk and fairy tales of the people of Skye and write them down. Audrey is qualified for the post being able to speak Gaelic and having a love of the regional tales from travelling there with her mother as a child. And for some reason we don't know at the beginning, she is also keen to get away from her father and stepmother in London. The people of Skye are suspicious and hostile towards strangers - the Highland Clearances have left devastation and poverty.
Then Audrey discovers the body of a young girl washed up on the beach, and she soon discovers another girl has disappeared under suspicious circumstances. The people of Skye believe they are victims of sprits who take the form of birds.
Audrey is sceptical, believing the girls have been abducted but she soon starts to believe there is something more supernatural is the cause.
This was a rich and evocative gothic tale. Based on a real case from the 1880s, in which a series of young children and adults disappeared from the East End. Eliza Carter, returned briefly before her final disappearance to tell her friends that the fairies had kidnapped her and forbidden her to return home. She was never seen again.
I really enjoyed the dark fairy tales mixed in with historical facts and each page is richly atmospheric. At times I found it a little slow going and it took me a while to warm to the characters but overall it is a great spooky tale mixed with true life historical happenings.
Thank you to Anne Cater for inviting me on the blog tour for this book.