Rhiannon Lassiter

In an abandoned house in the Lake District, a cupboard door opens into a playroom. Buried in dust is a collection of children's books in which the names of characters have been savagely crossed out. Here three children played a make-believe game, sacrificing their dreams and wishes to make what they believed come true. But the game was never finished and in the woods behind the house something waits, hungry for the only food it knows. Now a new family has come to the house. Soon they will show more discover themselves in the game. But they do not know the rules. And they are the pawns, not the players.

This family's home is a "war zone"! every meal together dissolves into a screaming sulking mess; obviously they definitely can NOT just get along. Catriona is a spoiled brat, and Katherine is beyond just serious. She's locked into an instant "power struggle". The two are fighting over who gets to be called "cats". Yeah, I didn't get that either at first. Roley is the sensitive one. He does the best he can to keep the peace, while constantly overeating to cope with the stress and failing to obtain the confidence to talk to any girls. Then we have John who is quiet, and thoughtful and is pretty much just overlooked in the mess. John actually prefers it that way most of the time. To add to the messed-up family we have the " we're determined-to-be-happy no matter what else" parents. They decide that taking the whole messed up bunch to the Lake District...all together...all at the same time...is just what the "doctor ordered". They reasoned that this was a grand idea because everyone knows that family holidays are sure to generate rest, ease, and domestic harmony. Poor disillusioned parents!

Happily, or at any rate distractingly, the picturesque pile of architectural nightmare that the family has borrowed for the summer is a house near Lake Windermere, in which Katherine and John's late, mentally ill mother, Anne, grew up. Of course, this proves to be sinister in every possible aspect imaginable.

The "house", and I use that term loosely, has shuttered windows, overlooking what can also loosely be called a garden. The "garden" is composed of weeds that are strangling to stay alive and are busy fighting the flowerbeds for existence and are diffidently winning. "Winged reflections tremble briefly in the stagnant water of a garden pond and vanish into the grey distance." Various unnamed species of animals can be heard rustling in the woods and, inside this supposedly empty house, there's scratching noises from behind the walls and under the floorboards. Didn't sound very empty to me.

It didn't take long before our family of four is making the acquaintance of a variety of things that go "bump in the night", as well as in the day. To add to this gloom and doom is an ancient, malevolent tree; a room literally filled with blunt scissors; a mysterious man whose named Fox; a pair of mischievous spirits that live in any, and it seems all, the reflective surfaces; together with Anne's old collection of children's books with the names of all the good characters violently blackened out; and...wait for it...a cache of splendidly creepy dolls. I loved this description from the book: DELILAH and her DRONES was written on the box and when Catriona finally got it open, she caught her breath in shock. Naked, faceless, hairless dolls lay jumbled up together like bodies in a mass grave. All of those on the top layer had faces rubbed smooth and featureless, except for the gaping holes where their eyes should be, savagely gouged out by something with a small sharp blade. Guess we now know what "dulled" those scissors:)

Tis author is a first but will not be a last, for me. She did a magnificent job of generating the brooding, unsettling atmosphere. The cobwebbed recesses of the house and the overgrown paths of the neighboring woodland are continually disorientating; the skies over both are invariably always overcast, and night draws in all too quickly. Even a rare day when the sun shines during a family outing on the shores of the Lake itself, is made an oppressive occurrence when Ms. Lassiter shows it to us largely through the pained, headache-induced squint of Roley. This part also captured brilliantly just how excruciating "Doing Things Together as a Family", especially THIS particular family. can really be. Some of the happenings, especially anything involving those eyeless, nearly faceless dolls, are just simply, but beautifully, unnerving.

I seemed to be writing my own novel here, so I'll just stop; but I'll leave you with this... "Bad Blood" is a richly layered novel. It's one the best horror books I have read. It's clever, it's scary...but it is SO very emotionally satisfying...especially if you are a "dyed in the wool, ghost story junkie!" show less

It is Eva’s 16th birthday, but there is no celebration. No one wishes her happy birthday, not even her grandfather, but she is used to being neglected and ignored a lot of the time – though Grandfather cares about her, he is very old and in poor health, and her birthday isn’t seen as a very happy occasion, as Eva’s mother died on the same day she was born. It is some time before she realises she is invisible to all around her and finds herself talking to ghosts – it seems she is show more one too. She is assumed to have killed herself like her mother. Eva doesn’t believe that and sets out to investigate her own murder.

This young adult ghost story/mystery is not particularly original but Lassiter’s mixture of ingredients borrowed from all over the place was an entertaining and enjoyable read.

Eva is an orphan, who lives in a decaying stately home with her grandfather. She is an imaginative person who likes to read and has been able to see ghosts all her life – she remembers playing with an 18th century little boy. There are lots of scheming relatives, aunts and cousins, who are hoping for a good inheritance when the old man dies and have no time for Eva. Now Grandfather has been taken to hospital and they are already coming in and arranging tour parties around the House. Her cousin Felix, just a little older than Eva, confidently expects to be the heir and is looking around for her body. He is a truly nasty character I loved to hate – perhaps he is a bit obvious and two-dimensional, but this is a modern fairy tale and the villains in fairy tales are rarely rounded characters.

There is more about class in this story than I remember in the children’s stories of historic houses and ghosts I read when I was young. Maggie is a resentful ghost servant girl who is suspicious of Eva as one of the Chance family who exploited her when she was alive. Among the living there are brother and sister Kyra and Kyle, locals who have come to work at the House – they can see Eva. Kyra bullied Eva when they were at school together, but Eva sees another side of her now. Eva must forge new links with these unlikely allies if she is not only to find out what happened to her but to prevent further bad things happening.

There are a quite a few twists and turns in the story - while there is nothing particularly astonishing, I enjoyed the read and think lots of teenagers would too. show less

Creepy goodness, excellently difficult, sometimes un-likeable characters that I came to sympathise with - well, okay, not the mum, but I suspect she was meant to piss me off.

It is the un-likeable characters that I like so much in Lassiter's books. Not merely characters who are misunderstood by others - in Bad Blood, Cat is not misunderstood at all - but clever, interesting girls who are smart but sometimes very wrong.

Sometimes when you get a book to review that you didn't really know much about there's the risk of it turning out rather badly and then what the hell do you do? But I am very happy to say that this was not the case with Ghost of a Chance- no sirree I was most pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, I actually re-read it a couple of days ago and although I knew how it ended I still really loved the story and the characters.

Living in a crumbling old mansion, with centuries of show more family history Eva Chance is the black sheep of the family prowling about the House and gardens like a wild thing. It's on the day of her 16th birthday - April Fool's Day that she finds out something very shocking - she's in fact dead and somehow hadn't noticed. She's now got to try and discover who killed her and when most people can't see her it's gonna be a bit difficult without help.

That's where Kyra and her twin brother Kyle come in - when they begin to notice the strange things going on at the Chance House it becomes apparent that something supernatural is the cause and despite the fact that Kyra used to pick on Eva for being a bit weird, they both want to help her find out what happened to her.

This book had two great features going for it - really interesting characters that you could love even if they could be irritating (I'm looking at you Felix), and one heck of a mystery coupled in with all the creepiness of the House Ghosts. I had no clue how the book was gonna end and I was damn surprised when I found out and I loved it! The supernatural aspects of the story worked really well with the realistic aspects and overall the book was executed rather fabulously.

I found all the gruesome Chance family history fascinating and how it ties into the various ghosts which occupy the House. I'm sure anyone who's been to a supposedly haunted house would get a scary thrill from this aspect of the book. The tension from not knowing who is behind the attacks on the Chance family members makes for a very exciting read and I was determined not to put the book down until I'd finished it.

Overall a refreshingly unusual YA read with a wonderful mix of mystery, history and characters, and a really great ending that left me wanting to see more about Eva, Kyle and Kyra. Plus I gotta mention Nathan - the cutest five-yr old that I've read about in ages- on the three occasions that he appeared in the story I was grinning at how adorable and sensible he was compared to all those silly adults who smiled indulgently at the idea of a ghost in wellies :P show less