So the line of creepy dolls adorning this book's front cover should have clued me in to the fact that, upon reading this, I would be unable to have an easy night of sleep for quite some time! I read 'YA horror' and assumed this to be a tame, but thrilling story. Oh boy, how wrong could I be!? 
 Sophie anticipated her stay with her cousin to provide a few weeks of freedom and fun. However, haunted by the tragic death of her best friend and the spooky circumstances that led up to his demise, she arrives bringing more baggage than just her psychical ones. Her cousins, already consumed by their own grief, have no room to support any more. Since the death of their sibling Rebecca, years before, the family has forever been fractured, and Sophie had no idea how deep the fissures run. Now the smiling cousins she remembers from her youth are sombre and burdened individuals. And Sophie is left to repair both the memory of this once-happy family as well as discerning the particulars of her best friend's death, alone. But maybe she isn't as alone as she first thought... 
 I was overwhelmed with how aggressive the shock factor of this book was! Instead of an introduction to the characters and an overview of their lives, before sh*t got cray, the reader is invited to a seance, views a ghostly visitation, and oversees a death all within the first few pages! From this pulse-quickening beginning the story does not let up any of its pace until the final page if turned. 
 Once Sophie is reunited with her family I assumed the chill I felt whilst reading this would abate. If the protagonist is to be continually surrounded by other individuals then surely this high-stakes horror could not continue? And this is where I found that the setting would continue to play as big a part in the tense dread, that pervades every aspect of this book, as the plot line. 
 Sophie's cousin reside in the converted Dunvegan School for Girls, on the rural and dreary Isle of Skye. The setting alone is enough to infuse each scene with a pervading sense of eeriness. In much the same way of traditional Gothic texts, that I so adore, the 'haunted mansion' setting fills this book with shadowed corners and creaking stairs that both heighten the actual horrors contained there and provide additional fears, real and imaged, for the reader to obsess over. 
 The events that occur are supernatural and sinister from the outset and continue in much the same vein, only more pronounced, once removed to this isolated setting. The brutality of the scenes and the haunting creep of dread that infuse every single chapter make this a macabre dream for any horror fan. For that reason, this makes this not a book suited to a younger audience, as I had previously perceived. 
 It was surprisingly heartening to see the horror genre portrayed so brilliantly and vividly in such a contemporary setting and with such a young cast of characters. Both are things I have previously found counter-productive to the chilling atmosphere the genre is meant to provide the reader with. I have found that modern technology often ruins much of the suspension of belief that the reader contributes to a historical horror, and a younger character set can often be synonymous with tame horror. Both of these assumptions were eradicated within the first few chapters of this book and Bell did not allow the suspense or eeriness to slip even one iota as the novel progressed. Equal parts chilling as thrilling, this horror is sugar and spice, and none of its nice!