Commuting to and from London, Fareham, Swansea, and a few other locations plays a not-insignificant role in the book, a little more description of this would be helpful, or even a map. I'd like more contextual details about nearly everything: living and working around London in the late 1980s along with the mechanics of developing for the ZX Spectrum. I also appreciate the short length of the book as it is makes up for any issues that would need a good editor to clean up in a longer text. ONCE one of the undisputed queens of TV soapland, Carina Hemsley has faced a hard few years since she was written out of “Winkle Bay”, the hit drama set in a north-east England fishing community. Can’t decide between 2 or 2.5 stars. It wasn’t that bad but I’ve definitely read better books and I definitely don’t think it deserves higher than 3 or 4 stars.

I also just realised that I started the year by reading two books about ghosts even though they both couldn’t be any more different. Carina, in particular, is a myopic monster of a woman, variously flattering, denigrating and even outright abusing anyone she comes across (depending on how useful or otherwise they are to helping her achieve her sole aim of returning to the spotlight). The question is always there of which real life soap matriarch she might be based upon. The plot of Behind You features a mirror as the gateway to releasing a ghost or demon of sorts. You just have to say something out loud a few times while looking into the mirror. Yes, pretty much exactly like Candyman or even the girls in Paranormal Activity 3 summoning Bloody Mary.Despite loving this book and every twist turn… I just wasn’t a fan, or not that much, of any of the characters. Well, OK, maybe Erin was a contender for someone to like, but it took me a long time to get through that wall of hers and see another Erin. Charlotte was just horrible and maybe should see a doctor? I mean, if you are so obsessed with someone to the point that you TALK with an imaginary them in PUBLIC and even make up some very sexy/swoony fanfic.. and wear a sweater with their face on it? It is time to seek help. I just wasn’t a fan of her. She was just too much OMG ANTON YESSSSSS. And then there is Grayson. Who I wasn’t that big of a fan of, but I think for me, it would have helped if instead of the jilted ex-lover he was her brother. Later on with all the things I could see it work better the way it was written, but still, it just was a bit too much for me. I guess that is the point, but still. A solid and fast-paced thriller. It's Behind You reminded me of the Scream tv show, where the stakes are high and the killer is the last person you'd expect, but it's too entertaining and over the top to actually be scared. A scriptwriter of long standing for shows such as “Eastenders” and “Doc Martin”, Keith Temple has obviously had great fun writing about a world he knows well in his debut novel. I loved that, while not being a fan of the characters that much, we get to learn more about them and see more about their past and get to know them. That is not always something that happens. Sometimes you get a whole cast of characters only to get to know one or two of them, but in this one we learn more of everyone. Love love.

And once again, I read a horror in one go right before sleeping, and it was a bad idea. I should really have learnt by now that I just can't deal with creepy things before bed, because this certainly was creepy. How did pantomime come to be the form of entertainment it is today? What is it that attracts us - young and old - to this bizarre medley of fairy tale, dance, jokes and song? And how did it become part of our Christmas traditions? Professor Jane Moody, Director of the Humanities Research Centre and Professor in the Department of English and Related Literature, takes us on a journey through pantomime's colourful history. The story of pantomime is a tale of dragons and serpents. It features men dressed as women, and women masquerading as young men. Pantomime presents a tale of good and evil, where hope triumphs over adversity after danger and virtual despair. It has its roots in ancient Greece, and via Italy and France, insinuates itself into Britain. Pantomime's unique fusion of eccentricity, ambiguity and absurdity has much to tell us about our national identity. Christmas, for many of us, would not be Christmas without pantomime; and pantomime was the place we first discovered the magic of theatre.It’s the age of Regency: Britain is at war with France; there’s intense social unrest and violent confrontations between the government and the people. Again, pantomime seems to embody the spirit of the age, this time in more political terms. You might have thought that, with all this to contend with, the last thing Carina would need is a bunch of anonymous death threats. Originally I was planning on giving this three stars, as I read it I was thinking it was a fairly decent book, three stars. Except the twist at the ending was so bad it brought it down a rating. This is a mystery and the entire book leads up and revolves around one reveal, who killed Rose? The reveal of who did it was so bad and cliched it was unexpected because of how little sense it made but also incredibly predictable. Creating a narrative where one of the narrators is the killer could have been great, but alot of skill and careful execution is necessary for a reveal like that. Instead in this book once the killer is revealed, their personality inside their own head completely switches. They go from innocent, funny and not very smart to calculated and insane, which would make sense if it was from someone else's perspective, but it makes absolutely no sense for this to be happening in their inner dialogue. It was a ridiculous and cliche twist.

I really enjoyed reading about the characters in this book and I really grew attached to them over a span of like 4 hours. One thing I will say is that this needs to be a movie asap. I thinking one of the main reasons as to why this wasn’t as scary for me was because I had imagining the scary dark caves in my head and I think if this was a movie the creepiness would come across a lot better. In this story of hope and endurance, we follow a scientist and her team during their search for the elusive 'Giant Arctic Jellyfish'. All in all, recommended to all! This is a perfect scary/spooky/exciting read and I am so happy that I read it. It was perfect for a hot summer day, some chills! I cannot wait to see what is next for this author! Distinctive masks enabled audiences to recognise characters immediately; they also allowed actors to make topical and risqué jokes without fear of being recognised. The concept of the book was actually interesting enough and I liked exploring the different motives behind each character joining the game. One of the main characters Erin was what kept me reading, shes the only character that to me was more developed and less like a cliche. I really liked her character and reading her chapters was enjoyable.Our story begins with the commedia dell'arte tradition. The phrase means ‘comedy of the artists’ and these improvised performances took place outside in Italian streets and marketplaces. Commedia was a versatile, popular and influential art form. Many commedia plots show the zanni outwitting the vecchi or overthrowing their masters. Their lives are a constant struggle to find food and money. They tell a story about survival against the odds. Survival in the face of cruelty and corruption. Which is how Carina Hemsley comes to be playing Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother in a rundown Newcastle theatre alongside a clutch of other showbiz hasbeens and dim-witted wannabes. Leno’s Dames, played with an evocative Irish lilt, were down to characters. They spoke in a form of inconsequential chatter. This cleverly captured the rhythms of ordinary speech, while opening up chasms of lunacy, one absurdity on top of another. Dames had existed in pantomime before Leno, but they were usually unbelievable, ridiculous characters. In the 1880s, Leno started playing roles like the Queen in Humpty Dumpty, or Widow Twankey in Aladdin. Slowly, he began to domesticate the Dame and to imagine her as a mother, facing problems which he and his audiences knew all too well: poverty, unemployment and abandonment. From humble beginnings, Leno himself had risen to fame as a clog dancer and variety artist. A small thin man, with an odd wistful face, and a husky voice, he was said to have 'the saddest eyes in the world'. What he brought to the Dame was a talent for impersonating the absurd dilemmas of ordinary people, from waiters and railway guards to downtrodden women. What emerged was a lovelorn older woman, facing adversity with a kind of desperate fun. The woman who everyone knows is being played by a man

I have never been one to really mix my thrillers with the paranormal but I thought the paranormal wasn’t over done here. Highly preferred this book to Kathryn Foxfield’s previous book, ‘Good Girls Die First’ and I’d recommend it. The setting of the novel was fun and delivered on the thriller part. I felt so claustrophobic reading it; the caves were wonderfully spooky and definitely terrifying.

Age range(s)

The main problem for me is that it’s more to the younger side of YA and appeals to a munch younger audience. I don’t even know what ages they all were in the book, but they came across as really juvenile. Overall it was a great book that I really enjoyed reading and guessing the murderer alongside the characters. According to writer and caricaturist Max Beerbohm, pantomime is the only art form ever invented in England. It's a splendid witticism, albeit untrue. Pantomime has become quintessentially British: as British as Earl Grey tea or a good Indian curry. All of the characters were really interesting to me and the twists and turns of events had me go from liking to disliking to liking the characters again. The MC whom I thought I would dislike the most at the beginning of the book, I actually ended up liking the most by the ending. I felt like the narration from first person persepective helped with the mystery of the story and it was really fun guessing with them, because you only got to know what the current MC of the chapter knows.