I found this book something of a mixed experience, though ultimately I did end up enjoying it and to the point where I would recommend it to others. I suspect it will be one of those marmite books where some people love it and others don't get on with it at all.

Personally, I found it took me a long time to get the multiple intertwined storylines straight in my head. There are several perspectives told concurrently, but they aren't concurrent in time. I kept forgetting 'when' I was at any given point in the book.

I could also see the twist coming a mile off. The big secret wasn't a secret at all; it was obvious to anyone who knows anything about human nature, or has read pretty much any other book about an isolated community – and if not, the clues were there to see. But that didn't spoil the book for me, really. I don't think it's so much about the secret as it is about what on earth motivates people to keep it.

As for what I loved? I loved the atmosphere conjured by the author, the vivid picture of a place where traditions old and new coexist – sometimes uneasily. And I LOVED the priority given to women's voice and women's experiences. In a very male-dominated society, the women were the heart of the book, and it was their strength and weakness that drove the story forward.

Sometimes a difficult read, but one that will definitely stay with me.

A good creepy ya thriller. Really good writing and creepy atmosphere and twists I would never have seen coming. Fantastic. Five stars xx