Series: Becky Moran #1
Published by Caffeine Nights Publishing on April 6 2018
Genres: Horror, Paranormal
Pages: 180
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Becky Moran has built a career claiming to talk to the dead. A successful clairvoyant medium, a Cambridge graduate with her own radio show ‘Medium Wave’ and a team dedicated to crafting the celebrity myth – because Becky Moran is a fake. Until, one night, something supernatural, inexplicable, breaks through live on air as she is broadcasting. Becky Moran discovers the paranormal is real, the dead can indeed speak and she is being pursued relentlessly towards a battle for her very survival.
‘This thing has no defined shape. Whatever energy exists within it, it cannot settle on a shape. The strands of darkness curl out and then wrap back inwards. The bulk of the shadow becomes concave, then bulbous, the height building in on itself but lacking any skeletal structure to wrap itself around. There are no eyes, no clearly defined head shape. It is creating itself from darkness, like a swirl of ebony ink dropped into a vat of putrid water, spreading silently….’
Wow! Where do I start! This book literally gave me goosebumps! Becky the “Cambridge Medium” who can’t actually see ghosts, has a successful well planned Friday night radio show called ‘Medium Wave’, with the support of her team.
Her friend and business partner, a drunk gay playboy Hugh, the producer who is a non-believer Olly and the charity mothball smelling assistant Sarah. This is the family that keeps it all together.
When she touched she hears a thrum thrum thrum sound and an overwhelming smell of decay. No one just her. The description that Rose uses literally had me freaked out (plus I did read it in the dark – doh!) The dark entities that are trying to get to Becky, chanting, ‘we are here’ – I am sorry what?! I am out of there! As soon as it all started, it was over (thank god!), but now Becky can really see the ghosts and no one is particularly happy, especially Hugh as she tells him first and she can see his dad. (I want to meet Becky)
The story shifts on to one of it subplots – which are all amazing! – Max and this blasted mirror! He is an elder antique dealer who has a shipment from Poland and in it a mysterious mirror that no one knows where it came from. As you expect no one believes his claims of it being haunted, even when things happen. The scenes described are horrifying and that woman! I mean I would hate to see her at the end of my bed screaming at me! I was reading these bits eating my breakfast basking in the sunshine and I was covered in goosebumps! Safe to say I avoided mirrors for the rest of the day….just in case a handprint appeared.
We follow Becky further with her abilities, filming a pilot for her tv show, where other people experience what she does. An explosive interview with Bert where there is an evil entity attached to the “power of the unicorn” man (Dark entities and unicorns please no!). We watch her struggle to adjust, adapt and accept her new abilities. Some of these scenes were moving, warm and resolute, other bits were scary and damn right petrifying.
About 70% way through the book, it had all quietened down and we had a nice steady pace with not much going on as it became the norm, just preparing for her live theatre show. And then… I mean I felt like I had just been punched in the gut! Boy did Rose blindsight you. My jaw dropped, I mean did it just happen. What the hell Rose!!!!What an impact and a start of another turbulent journey. (I literally can not say any more – SPOILERS!)
When we got to the end of the book, I felt I could finally breathe, a sigh of relief. But no! It was short-lived, with a bloody huge cliffhanger (which I kind of suspected was coming and was so happy it did) of unfinished business.
When I finished reading the book, I took to Twitter to shout about this book, luckily Rose saw my tweet and replied. She made my day when she confirmed we had another 2 books in this series to come. Yay! More Becky and what a debut of a book…..until then I will be staying away from mirrors and radios!
*Thank you so much to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources and the author Rose Zolock for a copy of this book in return for my honest and unbiased review*
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
[…] Well I kicked off the month with my man Mr Reacher with The Enemy, then we had Not that I Could Tell, Think of me Demon, Tribal Affairs, Crazy in Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop and one of my favourite spooky books…Medium Wave. […]