There wasn't anything wrong with this book except that I didn't enjoy it. The writing was good, the setting was interesting. I just wasn't into the story--I probably should have returned it to the library after reading the first couple of chapters and realizing that it wasn't the right time for me to read a ghost story.

Specifically, though, I thought the author gave too much away. There wasn't any mystery to the ghost; we knew what he looked like, what he'd done. There were some interesting reveals about his identity, and Nan's identity, but it lost some of the creep factor for me because there was zero uncertainty about whether there was a haunting.

As well as being a truly frightening ghost story, this book is a beautifully written tale of the connection between family members and in particular the special connection between siblings. The narrative voice is compelling and honest and the terror he feels as his brother is stolen away is palpable. The book is worthy of it's nomination for 2012 CBI awards and I wish the author all the best.

a great ghost story with a hint of changeling creepiness. I picked it up because of the great cover and it didn't disappoint me in the slightest.

Perhaps my knowing Celine makes me a bit biased but adored this book. I've never been a huge fan of novels about Irish families in general as I often find it very easy to criticize. But this book seemed to capture the essence of the irishness of the characters that both made it familiar to me but also universally accesible. The story is engrossing and I found that I had to slow myself down to fully appreciate all aspects of the novel. It was brilliant and fantastic and awesome and I cannot say enough about this book.

It took forever for me to get into this story. I thought what is this? Eventually when the story got to a part where I learned about the two set of brothers is when I began to enjoy it. Such a weird book though.

Yes, I know Celine to talk to but this doesn't stop me from being honest about liking this book.

Set in the early 70s this is the story of Patrick Finnerty and his family. His twin Dominick, his sister Deirdre, his mum, dad, grandmother who is slipping into dimentia and what happens when they have to move house when their house burns down (their grandmother is responsible)

It touches on issues of care falling on a single person in a family, and dealing with a dimentia patient. Then it takes a turn to horror. The two see figures that they describe as a goblin and the bad man, when Dom starts to behave strangely the adults see it as stress due to the enforced move and the loss of everything familiar but Patrick knows it's something else, a ghost trying to take over Dom, having forced Dom out.

Patrick has to rescue his brother and find out what the ghost wants. I liked it, the help from the grandmother was also interesting, as if somehow the dimentia helped her understand the situation better and the scenes between her and her old friend were very interesting and touching.

Kept me up, kept me reading, loved it.

Started out with a pretty good creep-factor, but as things were revealed and plot continued, the creepiness faded a little bit, and it became a tense story that had these ghosty elements. It was still really good, and there was one thing's resolution that I was really invested in -- not that it would go a certain way, though I had my hopes, but that I was desperate to find out for sure which way it would go. So good job, author.

Review to come.