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Interesting and atmospheric thriller. Enjoyable to read and well written. Loved the setting. I’ll definitely read more by this author.

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3⭐️ Atmospheric and haunting. Moody historical fiction involving lost children and dark secrets.
Enjoyable read.

Thanks NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

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As a super fan of atmospheric gothic fiction, I was excited to dive into this debut novel. Let me just say, the author was quite successful in delivering a tension filled tale!

It had all the things I was looking for: a mysterious cast of characters, an ambiance that is heavy yet picturesque, and just the right touch of supernatural elements to subtly raise the hair on your arms. My advice? Run, don't walk, to add this chilling ghost story to your shelves!

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The Guest Children is a deeply atmospheric, slow-burning ghost story that lingers long after you finish reading. Centered around the unsettling mystery of two missing children, the novel draws you into its shadowy world and holds you captive with an unrelenting grip.

Set in an isolated lodge tucked away in the dense woods, the setting itself becomes a character—evoking a chilling sense of solitude and unease. As the story unfolds, the tension steadily rises, weaving a delicate balance between the supernatural and the psychological. The boundaries between dreams, memories, and reality begin to blur, leaving you questioning what is real and what is imagined.

With its haunting mood and masterful storytelling, this book is perfect for readers who enjoy eerie, thought-provoking tales that reveal their secrets slowly but surely.

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I really enjoyed this book. I loved the historical and geographic settings, engaging story, and compelling complex characters. Sad when it was over.

The book is spooky and atmospheric. The picture painted of the orphan children's passage from England to Canada by convoy is harrowing. The pace of the events at Glass Point Lodge keeps one turning the pages. The reader is left guessing whether this is is an account of a haunting, a murder mystery, or some other dark story loss, trauma, and struggle for survival.

I definitely recommend this one. Would be a particular good one for the cottage owing to the setting.

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The Guest Children
@patrick_tarr
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Some of us unconsciously hold on to the most painful parts of our memories in hopes of changing what's done.
But we can't.
Not even if we try.
So we hold on to the next best thing--the ghosts.

~
The Guest Children was a curious book. The synopsis and the cover caught my attention.

I love horror. So I went ahead and read this one.

This book did not disappoint. Just when my attention started to drift, the story pulled me right back in.

Took me a while to finish, but it definitely was worth it. I love the original story. I haven't read anything like this one. I was heartbroken and relieved at the same time.

~
The story follows Randall, who has been tasked to look for the Hawksby siblings, Frances and Michael. He accepts the job because of the generous pay. He needs the money for him and his brother, Edward, to survive.

His journey to Glass Point Lodge had been anything but smooth.
His conversations with the guests bring more questions than answers.
Where are the children?
Has anyone in the lodge harmed them?

If he wants to go back home alive to Edward, he needs to figure out who is telling the truth and who is lying about the children's circumstances. All while trying to keep his sanity.

~
Highly recommended for readers who love historical fiction with a haunting edge. Grab this book when you can! Out in August!

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Patrick Tarr has been able to keep me up a few nights with his novel The Guest Children, both because it is well-written and I wanted to see what happened to the characters, but also because it was creepy. It was hard to tell if the characters were seeing reality or things they alone were experiencing.

Two children whose parents passed away during WWII are sent from England to stay with relatives in Canada for the duration of the war. As if it was not bad enough to have no parents, their aunt and uncle live in a remote part of Canada where the children are fairly isolated. Their home is an Inn, but no one is traveling or staying there in part due to the war. It seems there may be other reasons as well.

After the war ends, no one has heard anything about the children other than that they arrived safely. Relatives hire a man to go in search of the children since there is no phone at the Inn and this was well before the age of cell phones and social media. He is dropped off at the beginning of some dense woods and told to stick close to the water, then the driver speeds off.

He does reach the Inn after being lost and waking up, to find himself wet and full of sand. The rest of the story is confusing to him because he does not understand what is happening. The few guests at the Inn will not talk about the children, and maybe they don't really know anything? There is much revealed by the end of the book, it is worth the time to read it, but don't read it in the dark.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the prepublication copy to read and review.

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i really liked this little twist on the take of what happened to the young children during the war. because all we hear about is the thanks, praise and moments where they got to be saved by being sent out to the country or wherever. they couldnt be safe in cities, right? well what if we dont know what happened to all the children? because not every child can be going to a better home. not every children will ever be heard of again though?
the mystery surrounding the plot was so well done. the eerie sense to the pages came off really well for me.
because there is more darkness than war to uncover in the deep woods of Canada.
this book definitely got me going on the creepy vibes in parts. and i was intrigued to know exactly how it was going to unfold and come together.

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A lot of atmosphere and suggestive imagery - reminiscent of The Shining. A very long buildup, a very long denouement, with many, many storylines and characters being juggled, diluting the immediacy of any one of them. A lot of energy is put into delaying revealing what is 'really' happening at the cost of. plot construction which feels flat. Characters feel thin, more like types than people.

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This book takes us back to 1940.
Two children are evacuated to Canada (Frances and Michael Hawksby).
The two are sent to live with their aunt and uncle at their Lodge.
Michael tore pages out of his journal and left them at all of his stops on the way to their aunt and uncle's.
The children arrive because their luggage with tags is at the lodge. Neither Frances nor Michael is seen again.
Randall, a man who lives in London and cares for his younger brother, loses his job. He finds a job looking for a detective of sorts to find Frances and Michael Hawksby.
This book is so creepy, eerie, quiet.. suspenseful, and tense!
The lodge, isolated, so remote, is the perfect setting - the atmosphere is so spooky!
I think this is a slow burn, but it's done in a good way!
Dreams and reality start to blur - the book just keeps you engaged through and through.
I don't typically like any kind of historical fiction, but I loved this book.
This book was so unique.
The plot is well structured. The pace is a bit slow, particularly in the middle of the book, but it gets better, and the ending... NO WORDS FOR THE ENDING! JUST WOW!
The characters were all well-developed. I didn't necessarily connect with them, but they were so well written.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I think if the pace were a little bit more accelerated, I would be able to give it 5 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.
This is perfect for your Fall TBR!
Happy Reading!

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An atmospheric and gripping read that had me hooked right from the very start, I couldn't put it down and finished it in almost one sitting.

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When Randall Sturgess is hired to go up to the wilds of Canada and find out what has happened to two young WW II orphans, he figures it’s an easy way to make money. Strapped for cash, he’s responsible for the care of his mentally disturbed brother, Edward. But what Randall finds in the woods seems very strange and suspicious: a group a people living in a run-down lodge, who are harboring some dark secrets.

This book is so atmospheric. I kept thinking what a great book it would be to bring to a cabin by a lake, or to a little cottage on the shore. Really creepy in parts, I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good gothic novel.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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London, 1940 - During World War II, London was bombarded with bombs, killing thousands of people. Many children were left orphaned and the country decided to send affected children abroad to Canada for safety. In "The Guest Children," Frances and Michael are two such children, so-called "Guest Children" sent to live with their aunt and uncle in a remote part of Canada. However, shortly after their arrival, the children disappear under mysterious circumstances.

Years later, Randall Sturgess and his brother, Edward, are barely getting by when the war ends. When they were children, they were also sent to Canada from London under a similar adoptive program. As an adult, Randall decided he needed to care for his brother, who has some struggles, instead of enlisting for the war. He's had to put odd jobs together to get by and the men live a mostly isolated life. Randall eventually loses a stable job and agrees to take on an investigative assignment in order to keep a roof over his and Edward's heads. Frances' and Michael's surviving family in London hire Randall to find out what happened to them.

Wracked with guilt around leaving his brother for this assignment, staying home from the war and the terrible circumstances in which he and Edward fled their adoptive home, Randall travels north toward the lodge where the children disappeared from. Along the way he starts to encounter strange visions, gets lost in the woods and isn't quite sure how he got to the lodge. Its current inhabitants are eclectic and odd, with each of them hiding something. The woods and lake surrounding the area cause Randall to question his very sanity. Nobody is willing to be honest with him about the children until he starts finding clues that lead him to believe they might have never left at all. As he's putting the pieces of the mystery together, it's a race against time as each day he spends at the lodge his suspicion that he'll never be allowed to leave grows stronger.

This novel has a good mix of mystery, suspense and the supernatural. It was a little confusing for me in the beginning to see where the story was going, but after the first few chapters it started to make sense. The narrative switches from third person to first person and feels disjointed at first. It's atmospheric and well written and does a pretty good job of making you feel like you're with Randall and the children in this creepy forest where things that should be long forgotten haunt you. I didn't see the twist at the end coming.

Overall, the story is quite good and kept me guessing and wondering the whole time. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a good psychological mystery with a solid dose of supernatural elements.

Thank you to Net Galley and Crooked Lane Books for the eARC.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an ARC of The Guest Children.

I'm not usually one for historical fiction but I'm glad I gave it a shot because it really added to the eerie vibe of the story. I was hooked immediately from the first chapter, then the middle felt a bit monotonous, but the ending was very strong and emotionally powerful. I often find myself let-down by the ending of horror books but it was my favorite part! Overall, a unique and chilling story.

4 stars

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What a thoroughly chilling novel with a incredible sense of atmospheric dread! When two young British children lose their parents during the War, the are sent to their aunt and uncle to a remote Canadian resort. Things quickly take a dark turn when the young brother begins taking walks alone at night near the lake recounting chilling tales of a pale boy with blue lips. We race head way into terror when the young boys beloved teddy bear that was lost at sea makes a startling reappearance as a living (?) creature luring the children into the woods. The hunt for the missing children takes us deeper and deeper into the eerie world of the resort and it creepy inhabitants. When an outsider arrives on a mysterious mission to find the children, we learn the chilling truth behind their disappearance and who or what haunts the guests that never seem to check out.

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If your looking for creepy this is it. Great story. Its kinda sad too. Lots of emotions in this story. Highly recommend it.

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“Our father died in the Great War…orphans or paupers like us were pulled from destitution and sent to the colonies (in our case, Canada) to find purpose in labour…Mrs. Sturgess fed and clothed us-her husband made us work ourselves into exhaustion before and after school.” These are the recollections of the fictitious Randall Sturgess.

In 1940, Frances and Michael Hawksby were among the Guest Children evacuated to Canada by the British government during the early days of the Blitz. Frances, eleven and Michael, nine were sent to reside in the remote Glass Point Lodge owned by their aunt and uncle. Michael dragged his stuffed bear Stanley through London’s brick dust and rubble. Each child carried their tagged suitcase. Finally Canada bound, by ship, Michael would “tear out pages (of his leather journal) to write tiny folded notes…leave a note at every stop on the journey…like Hansel's crumbs…”. Muffled explosions…U-boats stalking their convoy…Michael’s distress when Stanley falls overboard. Frances and Michael do arrive at Glass Point Lodge as evidenced by their tagged suitcases recovered from a cloak closet, however, the children were never seen again.

With WWII ending, Victory Houses were constructed to provide temporary housing for returning soldiers. Randall now lived in London with his younger brother Edward. Unbalanced and paranoid, Edward needed constant care. As a result, Randall had been unable to enlist. The brothers, just scraping by on Randall’s meager paycheck, lived in a miniscule dwelling. Financially devastated when he lost his construction job to a returning veteran, Randall noticed a job listing in a discarded newspaper. A private detective was needed to search for Frances and Michael Hawksby. They had disappeared not far from the farm where Randall and Edward Sturgess were housed during the Great War. “These children reminded me of things I’d tried to leave behind long ago…I would be taking myself back to the landscapes and memories of our childhood.”

A creepy, ghostlike atmosphere prevailed especially in the “dark, shrouded moonlight”. Isolated Glass Point Lodge was abutted by the forest where “trees sway(ed) their branches and sigh(ed) like restless human beings.”

-Michael saw Stanley…his size and his bright, black eyes were wrong…but “when his old friend Stanley waved him forward Michael did what he was told.” Frances was fearful that Michael was speaking to “Tatty Old Stanley.”

-Michael and Frances climb a wooden staircase attached to an outcropping of rock…the beach below…a shoddy wooden playhouse…visuals of mom and dad inside…dusty and dead…dressed in their night clothes. “It’s not them…but we must pretend it is. We must.”

-”Something big stalking with musical clinking of its footsteps was setting (Frances) on edge.” Uncle Simon had told both Frances and Michael not to go outside…talk to no one.

-Randall Sturgess’ feeling of malaise surfaced as soon as gruff Mr Schust started to row him out to Glass Point Lodge. Most nights Randall would fight a war, in his dreams, searching on an imagined beach.

The few permanent residents of Glass Point Lodge were reluctant to leave despite many deprivations. Why did they choose to stay? Randall seemed drawn to this lodge with its spectral, shadowy presence. Was it wise to continue searching for clues of the disappeared children? It might be better to leave while he can!

A totally immersive, creepy mystery with many twists and turns. Highly recommended.

Thank you Crooked Lane Books and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Creepy, quiet, and full of tension.
The Guest Children is a haunting, slow-burn ghost story that pulls you into the mystery of two missing children and doesn’t let go. Set at a remote lodge deep in the woods, the atmosphere is eerie, the tension builds with every page, and the line between dreams and reality starts to blur.
3.5–4 stars for a chilling, thoughtful read.

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Two children are sent out of London during the Blitz, after the war, their uncle sets out to find them, only yo discover they have been sent to Canada and are living with a very unusual family who have a habit of collecting people. Eerie and strange

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3.5 stars. This book turned out better than I expected. I mentally gave up on the story about halfway in, but I was drawn back into in at around three quarters of the way in. There were definitely parts that got in the weeds and could use some editing, but I thought it was okay overall.

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