THE VISITORS.

THE VISITORS by REBECCA MASCULL.

SOURCE: A Blog win courtesy of Lindsay over at THE LITTLE READER LIBRARY with thanks to the author, Rebecca, who not only supplied the book but kindly sent me some promotional bookmarks.

Imagine if you couldn't see couldn't hear couldn't speak...Then one day somebody took your hand and opened up the world to you.

Adeliza Golding is a deaf-blind girl, born in late Victorian England on her father's hop farm. Unable to interact with her loving family, she exists in a world of darkness and confusion; her only communication is with the ghosts she speaks to in her head, who she has christened the Visitors. One day she runs out into the fields and a young hop-picker, Lottie, grabs her hand and starts drawing shapes in it. Finally Liza can communicate. 

Her friendship with her teacher and with Lottie's beloved brother Caleb leads her from the hop gardens and oyster beds of Kent to the dusty veldt of South Africa and the Boer War, and ultimately to the truth about the Visitors.
..... Outer back cover

FIRST SENTENCE {Chapter 1}:My name is Adeliza Golding.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 29}: She takes me in her arms and holds me tightly. I am nearly eight years old and it is my first hug with Mother.

MY THOUGHTS: What a lovely cover. Simple and yet eye-catching, its especially perfect given the Victorian setting of the story.

Historical fiction combined with a tender love story, a murder and a good old-fashioned ghost story that, incredibly atmospheric, far from being in any way scary I actually found immensely touching. This is a wonderful debut novel by an author well worth looking out for.

The moving story of a young girls emergence into adulthood at the end of the Victorian era. I was particularly impressed by the authors ability to get inside the thoughts and feelings of a deaf-blind girl who, her temper fuelled by frustration, finds herself increasingly isolated until her world is opened up thanks largely to the friendship and tutorship of a young hop picker.

A wonderful tale of abiding friendships that perhaps could have verged on the overly sweet if it weren't for the contrast between the relationship shared by Adeliza/Liza and Lottie and that enjoyed by Liza and Lottie's brother, Caleb.

A flawed character who seemingly always sees 'the grass as being greener' it is Caleb's enlistment into the Boer War that though very interesting from a historical point of view proved the least compelling aspect of the novel for me. Written in letter form, not my favourite type of narration it has to be said, I'm afraid it failed to engage me in the same way as the rest of the novel.

Liza's story aside, strangely enough given that historical novels with a supernatural element rarely 'do it for me' it was actually the ghost story that I found most absorbing. Incredibly intriguing, though gripped from the start I admit that at times I did find myself wondering just where (if anywhere) it was leading and whilst I don't want to give anything away I will say stick with it to anyone struggling with this side of the book as chances are you won't be disappointed.

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