Brilliant read, really worthwhile.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

With Prue’s mother being admitted to a Psychiatric Centre, her aunt wants her to come and stay.
Prue desperately wanted to know “who was her father”? She was sure he would be her saviour.

I loved this entertaining and intriguing story of Prue’s life. This book kept me enthralled to its psychological thriller twist ending.

Well this certainly kept me gripped until the end and now my head is whirling and I can’t honestly say whether I enjoyed the experience or not?! It’s a good book, though. A dark domestic thriller with extra helpings of family drama that will keep you guessing until the end.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Publishers Head of Zeus for this ARC to comment and review.

This read will have great appeal to readers of all ages. As an older reader I had my teenage self sitting alongside me remembering all those things that were so important then that are so important for the teenage Prue. Set in one of the remotest of the Shetland Islands, Prue, at the insistence of her Aunt Ruth goes to stay with her and husband Archie as well as the matriarch (Veronica) Ronnie after the death of Nana and hospitalisation of her Mother. The author introduces three mysteries, two related to her directly and one related to her island relatives.

Prue is reluctant to go, preferring to stay with her long-time school buddy for the time being until her final exam results are issued. However, with the insistence of Ruth she placates her by going. How disappointed Prue is on arriving at this desolate place having it set her in her head that Archie's family were rich and owned much of the island. What Prue encounters is a run down cottage that seems to be inhabited in every corner of the house with exotic plants. She is warned that many are not to be touched due to their toxicity.

Prue's life has been one of difficulty with a possessive Mother and unyielding Nana. She has never been informed of whom her father was, which is a constant thorn niggling at her and for which Aunt Ruth has made it clear that they would talk while she's on the island. Her mother's return to hospital has been brought about by the news of the release of the woman who abducted Prue's much younger baby sister some years previous. Nana and her mother fight which leads to Nana's death, her mother in hospital, leaving Prue by herself.

The bedroom, an old nursery, is where Prue is to stay but with the constant noises and weird things happening in this room, doors open after they were locked, the disappearance of her glasses and other noises best left for readers to discover, no longer able to tolerate the sleepless nights, Prue moves her bags into a study much to the chagrin of the others. Ronnie flaps about warning Prue not to touch any of the books that are packed onto shelves but of course as an inquisitive teenager she can't help herself and eventually goes through the whole collection. Many of the books give Prue insight into the household's mystery of a missing girlfriend of Archie's when he was a young man and another collection of books are loaded with money where she eventually discovers their origins.

Ronnie is a weird one, delving into all sorts exotic herbal concoctions and alcoholic drinks. Prue as a teenager of limited experience isn't used to drinking alcohol or alcohol laced with "whatever" concoction by Ronnie and as a consequence hallucinates along with any "weed" bought from Archie's arch nemesis, Charlie, brother of the longtime missing girl.

Prue strikes up a friendship with James, son of the hotel's owner who is a similar age to her and who helps to relieve the pressure from her strange relatives and surrounding mystery and Islanders' suspicions of the family, still considered interlopers.

Added to the complexity of the story is the dead girl's mother who is still unhinged with grief after all these years, a beautiful daughter who disappeared, the case still open with no conclusive proof of her demise or other and along with her son still believe that she was murdered by Archie.

After receiving high marks for her Finals Aunt Ruth decides on a celebratory dinner for Prue. The dinner and the entire evening completely blows up starting with Archie revealing that he has had discussions to sell the property. This completely unhinges Ronnie. She had insisted on creating the dinner adding her special ingredients, now needing time to collect her thoughts with this news from Archie heads for her special garden and plant collection. While waiting for Ronne to return Archie presses Ruth to reveal the mysteries of Prue's father and the death of her small baby sister with disastrous results for Prue, her imaginary loving father dissolves in disbelief and as for the death of her sister, the revelations are difficult to accept. Prue runs out of the house ending up at Charlie's where she intrudes on a meeting with his mates and in her poor state of mind gets herself involved. When this all goes pear shaped Prue, still in a confused state eventually finds her way back to the house but not before the black dog Ronnie hates presents her with a large bone. The house is in a mess, Ronnie's behaviour is weird and cold, Archie and Ruth are missing. Ronnie assumes Prue's behaviour is because of her special ingredient for the meal but rather Prue is suffering because of her own actions. Still, she is able to fool Ronnie into revealing all her secrets but of course now, Prue's life is in jeopardy.

What a read! Full of twisty and dark family secrets some of which will shock you to the core. Prue just wants to know what secrets her mum, nana and aunt are hiding but at what cost?

I loved the engaging narrative and the way the twists were revealed. I would definitely recommend to thriller lovers it had me hooked!

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book, after I enjoyed People Of Abandoned Character so much.
This one is even better, deserves to sit alongside authors such as Catriona Ward, Jess Kidd and Laura Purcell.
Prue is a confused and unhappy 16yr old, sent to stay with her Aunt and Uncle on a remote Scottish island due to her Mother’s latest mental health crisis. She is searching for answers about who she is and why her closest relatives seem so reluctant to disclose the truth to her. The effervescent Ronnie, with her house full of exotic plants and way with cocktails seems to be her only confidante, but even that relationship has an edge to it that prevents Prue feeling truly at ease.
There are rumours of murder, of Laird v Townspeople bad feeling running down the generations and she starts to spiral into a haunted scrabble for secrets that appear to be buried, literally.
Where does Prue come from and why does the gauche awkwardness stop her settling into the life a 16yr old should be enjoying?

On its surface, The Gone and the Forgotten by Clare Whitfield, is about Prue, a 16 year old girl who spends the summer at the eccentric home of her Aunt Ruth and Uncle Archie on a remote Shetland island following her mother's failed suicide attempt.

Once on the island, Prue's main objective is to get Ruth to tell her the name of the father she's never known. Prue quickly realizes that this may be a fool's errand and instead turns her attention to investigating whether or not her Uncle Archie murdered his long missing girlfriend, as the other island residents suspect. Little by little Prue begins to learn the truth about the island, her family, and her past until her world crashes down on her again and again and again.

This slow burn pulled me in immediately and had me wanting to pull away as I reached the middle, before it ultimately forced me to stay up long into the night anxiously reading to find out what happens next.

The writing is superb, the characters are largely unlikeable aside from the heartbreaking and sympathetic Prue, and the twists and revelations trickle in until you find yourself flooded by them in the most captivating way.

If you can make it past a few unsettling bits in the middle and reach the end, you'll be rewarded by another dark masterpiece by Clare Whitfield. I hope she never stops writing.

I have very mixed emotions about this. I think there was a predictability to the piece, and a sort of wavering overall aesthetic, but it was also quite explosive and entertaining. I can't imagine that it'll be a book I'll remember the rest of my life, but it wasn't a bad read either. I found Prue's inner dialogue to be very entertaining, and overall the story does have a grip. I wouldn't not recommend if someone directly asked, but I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it either.

The Gone and the Forgotten, Clare Whitfield

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: General Fiction (Adult), Mystery & Thrillers

I loved, loved People of Abandoned Character, so went in to this with high expectations. Sadly I struggled with this book.

Prue is a strange girl, acts older at times and very much younger at others. Maybe its the weird upbringing she's had, with a somewhat odd family. She's spending the summer on a remote island with her aunt and uncle, though she'd much rather stay with her best friend. Unlike many 16 yr olds who would plead to stay with friends, she accepts the family wishes, putting her own aside. She seems unable to challenge anyone in the family – but then they are a very different family to most.

The story meanders at times, with Prue sometimes seeming like a child, much younger than 16, and at others much older. Ruth I'd expected to be a kind and loving lady, but she seems very detached, almost cold, for someone who insisted Prue spend the summer with her.
I felt the whole book was a bit like that for me, expectations that didn't match actions, characters that didn't meet the ones I'd expected in my head, serious one moment, then veering towards juvenile.
It seemed everyone had secrets, some more serious than others, and poor Prue caught up in the middle. At times I could feel she was trying to do the right thing but scared, at others she just seem to veer ahead regardless of consequences.

The ending is a real bang, excellent, everything coming together at once, all the secrets out and though I saw some of it I didn't see all.
I like to be surprised, that was good, but the rest of the book really didn't grip me. I found myself skimming huge tracts to get to a part that interested me, and overall it was just an OK read for me. Not one I'd ever reread.

Stars: Two and a half, some interesting parts but it wasn't a story I really enjoyed.

ARC supplied by Netgalley and publishers

In 1963, after her mother attempts to commit suicide, Prue is sent to live with her Aunt Ruth and Uncle Archie. They live on a remote island in the Shetlands. Prue hopes to reconnect with her relatives. Prue hopes to figure some of the questions that bothered her like who her father is. Prue discovers that her relatives are not fans of the “townies” those who live on the mainland.

It also doesn’t take long for Prue to find out that her Uncle Archie is the prime suspect involving the disappearance of a girl twenty years ago. Prue will hear many different people perspectives on what happened that night. As she starts digging into her family’s past, she is not prepared for the skeletons she finds.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

The premise of this book was extremely promising, and something I’m sure I’d enjoy if I gave it another chance later. Unfortunately, though, I gave up reading this time after only two chapters.

I had a very difficult time connecting to the protagonist; she was distant and hard to get a read on, even in the midst of what should be a very difficult time. Her dialogue was stiff, and it mostly seemed - at least in the chapters I read - to be used as a space to info-dump for the readers rather than connect with her friends and family inside the narrative. This all led to the writing feeling bland, which did little to pull me into the plot.

This isn’t to say things would not pick up later, and I won’t discount the book as a whole yet. I will, however, say that on first try as an ARC, I did not finish it - though I will give it another try when a copy comes available through my library.

Believe me, there is no way you will anticipate the ending of THE GONE AND THE FORGOTTEN. Whitfield creates a twisty tale with characters you will have both compassion and pity for. Prue is 16 and has always lived at home with her fiercely overprotective and depressive mother and her sweet but somewhat addled grandmother. While nothing was ever good in their home, things became dramatically worse when Prue's baby sister, Holly was abducted when Prue was a child. It drove her mother around the bend and nothing has been good since. When Prue's grandmother dies, Prue is sent to live with her Aunt Ruth, who she adores on the desolate island of Noost. Ruth has promised to finally tell Prue who her father is, information she has sought for her whole life. While on Noost, Prue begins to express different parts of herself, guided by her Uncle Archie's grandmother, Ronnie. She helps Ronnie with her magnificent garden and concoctions but soon comes to see that even Noost is not a happy place. Mysteries abound, primarily surrounding whether her Uncle Archie killed his girlfriend when they were both teenagers. When Prue finds letters hidden in books, she tries to solve the mystery but becomes entangled with the locals, most of whom seem to despise her family, Whitfield does a great job of creating a sense of place; you can almost hear the ocean waves and smell the salt air. While THE GONE AND THE FORGOTTEN does not uplift, it certainly intrigues.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

Sixteen-year-old Prue just wants the truth. With her mother in a mental care facility after a suicide attempt, she is sent off to stay with her Aunt Ruth and Uncle Archie in the Shetland Islands. The island is remote, run-down, and creepy. The house is infiltrated with strange plants and surrounded by gardens. Archie's grandmother also lives there, and Ronnie is a character. As she ventures out and meets locals, she learns that the Anderson family also holds secrets. Archie is suspected of murdering Evie O'Hara, his girlfriend, 20 years before. Will Prue find the answers to her questions? And if so, will she like what she discovers?

This was a book with a decidedly creepy atmosphere. There were times it was a bit slow and dragged on, and sometimes it was hard to decipher if it was in a flashback or just exposition. That disrupted the flow of the story some. Overall, though, I enjoyed this book a lot. There was a decent twist in there as well.

This book was full of drama and twists and turns throughout! It was a good and quick read. However, it lacked character development that I typically like in a book. However, I would recommend this book to friends.

Well...wow. That did not go at all how I expected it to. The expression your secrets make you sick? Yikes and a half. And poor Prue..how much can be heaped on to one soul? It was engaging but incredibly disturbing and overwhelming sad. Women just victims in different ways; I hope their resilience is rewarded at some point. I've read Mexican Gothic so I figured out some plot points ahead of schedule but where that book failed, this book succeeded.

This is an intriguing, well designed plot. Prue is sixteen, affected by various family issues, not least her mother’s mental health. Living in London, Prue is persuaded to spend the summer with her mother’s sister and family in a remote Shetland island. Prue hopes this might be a chance to maker her aunt tell her who her father was, a piece of information always denied to her by her mother. Eventually she gets that information but discovers there are other family secrets which she tries to uncover. The story is divulged gradually which enhances the readability. The lonely island atmosphere is well used as a sinister backdrop. The psychological issues damaging Prue and others in the family give the book an extra edge. I recommend it.

Highly recommend!! This book is a definite page-turner! You'll be left thinking about the story long after you put the book down. First book to read by this author but definitely not my last!

An often harrowing story that grips. to the end.

It's the summer of 1993, and in London, teenager Prue is experiencing the aftermath of her mother's recent suicide attempt. Before she knows it, it has been agreed that she will temporarily relocate to the Shetland Isles, and join her Aunt Ruth and Uncle Archie, a man she barely knows. Reluctantly, she agrees, since it will give her the opportunity to renew her relationship with them, as well as discover more about the past she is forbidden to discuss, including the identity of her Father.

We're then drawn into a dark story full of secrets, fears, murder and deceit. Families and entire villages harbour resentment, suspicion and hate, as Prue discovers that her uncle was the only suspect in the disappearance of a local girl twenty years ago. As long-buried secrets are revealed, we see how people experience things in different ways and how they relate to others.

The story is told partly from Prue's perspective, in flashback, which does allow us to see how certain elements of the story developed. This is an ofttimes harrowing, disturbing and bleak story and while the characters are nicely drawn, some have few redeeming features and they can be difficult to sympathise with. All have hidden motives, and as the story develops, Prue struggles to separate fact from fiction.

The story moves along well enough, although did drag a little in places for me. Parts I found hard to read, others highly entertaining and even suspenseful. But even when I found then going hard, I still wanted to keep going.

Other reviewers have described this as a coming-of-age story, but I'm not so sure. It's a story of family, and how we deceive ourselves and others and how we bury things better brought out into the open. In all honesty, I didn't entirely enjoy the story, but have to admire its intensity and depth. And the ending...

I was pleased to receive a NetGalley ARC to review, and I suspect I'll be queuing for a real copy when it's published, just to give it another go. The book won't be for everyone, but I certainly recommend giving it a go.

Rounding up to three stars

I found this quite a strange book.
It would go from serious subjects,to feeling like a teenage magazine story in seconds.
At times I really enjoyed Prue's inner dialogue,at other times I wondered at every action of every character in that particular moment.
It gathers momentum and has quite the explosive final quarter,some of which was quite predictable,but some was a good surprise.
Very much mixed feelings for me.

As someone who looks for relatable aspects of characters to connect with, this was a bit of a hard read.

Every character in the book is dead-set against any sort of open communication or honesty, even with themselves. It makes for good mystery - because nobody knows anything about any of the people they’ve surrounded themselves with. It also makes it hard to root for any of the characters, because you can’t connect with them in any real way. Even the narrator seems entirely detached from everything that happens to her, good or bad.

If you’re looking for a horror read, this is for you - it’s filled with sharp twists and turns that grow faster and closer together as the end approaches, throwing you off balance and keeping you constantly on the lookout for the true villain - and unsure if you can even trust what you’ve learned so far.