Category: mental health
+ childhood, depression, family, feel-good, female friendship, fiction, friends, friendship, grief, loss, love, marriage, mental health, motherhood, review
Em & Me by Beth Morrey
A mother. A daughter. A secret waiting to be uncovered. The day that Delphine stands up for herself is the day that changes everything… For too long, Delphine has been unable to let go of the past, obsessed with protecting her daughter, Em, and clinging to a secret that has cast a shadow over their lives. When a chance encounter offers a way out, … Read More Em & Me by Beth Morrey
+ abuse, adventure, childhood, crime fiction, Detective novel, family, fiction, friendship, Ghost story, gothic horror, grief, Historical fiction, List, literature, London, loss, love, Magical realism, mental health, motherhood, murder, mystery, police drama, religion, revenge, review, secrets, short stories, short story, sisters, supernatural, thriller, twins
My Top 8 Books of 2022 Part Four
Here are my favourite eight books of the final quarter of 2022. One of these will make it into my top four books of 2022 (I just couldn’t cut it down to three this year). The Parlour Game by Jennifer Renshaw This is the book I have been waiting for! A gothic tale of sinister goings-on, mysterious disappearances, hauntings and macabre artefacts with special powers. … Read More My Top 8 Books of 2022 Part Four
+ alcoholism, anthology, brothers, family, fiction, Ghost story, gothic horror, haunting, marriage, mental health, mental illness, motherhood, mythology, paranormal, postpartum psychosis, review, short stories, short story, sisters, supernatural, superstition, witchcraft
The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights by various
Winter, with its unsettling blend of the cosy and the sinister, has long been a popular time for gathering by the bright flame of a candle, or the warm crackling of a fire, and swapping stories of ghosts and strange happenings. Now eight bestselling, award-winning authors – master storytellers of the sinister and the macabre – bring this time-honoured tradition to vivid life in … Read More The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights by various
+ fiction, lies, mental health, mindfulness, murder, mystery, revenge, review, secrets, therapy, thriller
The Sanctuary by Emma Haughton
Very few people get the opportunity to stay here.And some don’t get to leave … Zoey doesn’t remember anything about last night. But she knows something went badly wrong. For she is no longer in New York. She’s woken up in the desert, in a white building she doesn’t recognise, and she’s alone. When she discovers she’s been admitted to The Sanctuary, a discreet, … Read More The Sanctuary by Emma Haughton
+ family, feminism, fiction, girl's school, grief, Historical fiction, literature, London, loss, love, mental health, motherhood, music, psychiatrist, relationships, review, sisters, twins
The Crooked Little Pieces: Volume 2 by Sophia Lambton
Mind the gap between youth’s pedestal and looming adulthood. Two years have passed since Anneliese and Isabel braved the bombardment of the Blitz. Risks are resumed and revelations rattle as the past begins to rear its ugly head. Suffering sends Isabel on downward spirals; Anneliese falls victim to society’s expectations. Skeletons come tumbling from Susanna’s closet and for some the sex-and-death divide grows thinner. … Read More The Crooked Little Pieces: Volume 2 by Sophia Lambton
+ abuse, alcoholism, child abuse, childhood, domestic noir, eighties, family, female friendship, fiction, grief, loss, love, mental health, mental illness, obsession, relationships, review
Surviving Her by Jo Johnson
Nicky is the child with the hurting eyes and desperate ways. Rescue him.Claus is the man with the empty eyes and controlling ways. Rescue her. Broken by the death of her sister, Keziah can’t believe her luck when Claus, a beautiful psychologist saves her from a disciplinary disaster. Desperate to heal herself and restore her parents, she marries in haste. But her husband’s idiosyncrasies … Read More Surviving Her by Jo Johnson
+ childhood, crime fiction, fiction, Gothic mystery, grief, lies, loss, love, mental health, mental illness, murder, review, Scotland, Scottish Highlands, secrets, superstition, thriller
The Blackhouse by Carole Johnstone
From the author of the “dark and devious…beautifully written” (Stephen King) Mirrorland comes a richly atmospheric thriller set on an isolated Scottish island where nothing is as it seems and shocking twists lie around every corner. A remote village. A deadly secret. An outsider who knows the truth. Robert Reid moved his family to Scotland’s Outer Hebrides in the 1990s, driven by hope, craving safety and … Read More The Blackhouse by Carole Johnstone
+ female friendship, fiction, friendship, mental health, mental illness, psychiatric hospital, review
Stolen Summers by Anne Goodwin
All she has left is her sanity. Will the asylum take that from her too? In 1939, Matilda is admitted to Ghyllside Hospital, cut off from family and friends. Not quite twenty, and forced to give up her baby for adoption, she feels battered by the cruel regime. Yet she finds a surprising ally in rough-edged Doris, who risks harsh punishments to help her reach out to the brother … Read More Stolen Summers by Anne Goodwin
+ family, fiction, friendship, grief, loss, love, mental health, mental illness, Psychosis, review, sisters
The Beautiful Ones by Julia Sutton
Caitlyn Shaw has it all. Surrounded by loving friends and family, she is excited to begin her training to become a primary school teacher. Her dream job, one which she’s been working steadily towards her whole life. However in 2008 things start to go wrong. After suffering a traumatic event, Caitlyn’s idyllic life is shattered. She finds herself spiralling into an abyss of mental terror … Read More The Beautiful Ones by Julia Sutton
+ crime fiction, Detective novel, fiction, grief, journalist, loss, love, mental health, murder, obsession, police drama, police procedural, serial killer, thriller
A Life For a Life by Carol Wyer
Nobody can get into the mind of an erratic killer—except an unpredictable detective. When a young man is found lying on a station platform with a hole in his head, DI Kate Young is called in to investigate the grisly murder. But the killing is no one-off. As bodies start to pile up, she is faced with what might be an impossible task—to hunt … Read More A Life For a Life by Carol Wyer
+ abuse, bullying, childhood, dark humour, domestic noir, family, fiction, love, marriage, mental health, motherhood, obsession, rape, relationships, review, secrets, sisters, supernatural
Nasty Little Cuts by Tina Baker
WHEN YOUR MARRIAGE IS THIS BROKEN, YOU MAY NOT MAKE IT OUT ALIVE. A nightmare jolts Debs awake. She leaves the kids tucked up in their beds and goes downstairs. There’s a man in her kitchen, holding a knife. But it’s not an intruder. This is her husband Marc, the father of her children. A man she no longer recognises. Once their differences were … Read More Nasty Little Cuts by Tina Baker
+ childhood, crime fiction, diary, family, fiction, forgiveness, mental health, mental illness, murder, review, Scottish literature, secrets, thriller
Whispers by Billy McLaughlin
Ten years have passed since Isla Frost left the family manor. The past; a hidden memory comes to her in jolts. She blames one man for all that has happened. Her father, a cold brittle man who is now facing his mortality. Isla has returned to care for him. However, things are about to take a dark sinister turn. A body has been found. … Read More Whispers by Billy McLaughlin
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