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He came out and ran swiftly and noiselessly in the other direction, and in a moment the steps were after him. He reports seeing a woman in his bedroom, he finds bones in the garden, he denies having drawn spidery streaks of red lipstick on his bedroom walls, and denies being responsible for the little white pebbles Kendra finds around the house. The stairs he knew were at the end, and with the steps close behind he descended them in blind haste.
The Toll House by Carly Reagon | Goodreads
I'm not a fan of authors spelling out characters' thoughts and feelings as though taking down dictation. He started up with a smothered exclamation as the light went out suddenly and something struck him on the head. And I would recommend it now, but with the small caveat that you might be a bit bored for 100 pages. Under Meagle's guidance they turned off at last to the right, and, after a walk of a quarter of a mile, saw the gates of the house before them. He laughed again and walked on; and the heap in the fireplace put out its head tortoise fashion and listened in horror to the retreating footsteps.
One of the best aspects of the dual timelines is the manner in which in the reader discovers more surrounding the house and makes both sections equally gripping.
The Toll House by Carly Reagon | Hachette UK The Toll House by Carly Reagon | Hachette UK
We have been walking for ten days now without an adventure--except Barnes's discovery that ditch-water smells longest. On top of that, the shift between present tense for the narrative of 1863 and past tense for 'now'/'six months ago' was unpleasantly jarring.
You may laugh as you like, but it really seemed to me that I heard a door open below and steps on the stairs. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. He sprang forward too late; Lester, with his face buried in his arms, had rolled over on the floor fast asleep, and his utmost efforts failed to awake him.
The Toll House by Carly Reagon | Hachette UK
At the end of the day, The Toll House is a solid, well written family drama/romance with added ghosts, and if that is your thing, you will be well rewarded and left wondering what I’m complaining about, but I just wanted to be a little more scared.Meagle led the way with the candle, and, first melting a drop or two of tallow, stuck it on the mantelpiece. The ability to tell a complex tale, whilst engaging and entertaining a reader, is the true art of a storyteller. I really felt for Kelda, not just because of what was happening in the house but because of her own past. The ones that match the darker nights, the ones to curl up in front of a blazing fire with a hot cup of tea by your side.
The Toll House: A thoroughly chilling ghost story to keep you
Steve Oram plays a narrow-minded English petrol station owner who’s moved to Wales to get away from the bloody foreigners: “Wales is the only place that the English have left. The studio has a sofa bed, a flat-screen TV, an equipped kitchen with a dishwasher and a microwave, a washing machine, and 1 bathroom with a shower.
I loved the whole dual narrative structure as the story initially opens with Kelda and her son Dylan move into an old toll house - it's certainly a house with some history! I had to pause in the wee hours of the morning even if I wanted to finish it because I was more than a little freaked out with what was going on. Kelda and her young son move into the toll house for a fresh start but not all is as it seems once she finds a death mask hidden behind a wall. James Herbert was always my go to and although his writing may not in certain circles be described as ‘literary’ fiction, there is no doubt in my mind that he could tell a good story and indeed, no other author has terrified me as James Herbert could.
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