{"id":5522,"date":"2015-01-19T08:43:54","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T08:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=5522"},"modified":"2015-01-26T12:46:41","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T12:46:41","slug":"the-ice-twins-by-s-k-tremayne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=5522","title":{"rendered":"The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Published by HarperCollins, 29 January 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

384pp, hardback, \u00a312.99<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Alison Burns<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want a sure-fire film option, this super-spooky tale of a haunted family ticks all the boxes.\u00a0 Set on a largely inaccessible Scottish island, in a semi-derelict house surrounded by treacherous mudflats, with extreme weather, fabulously beautiful views and a cast including guilty parents and entwined identical twins, The Ice Twins<\/em> explores what can happen when sibling rivalry, marital discontent and shocking bereavement converge.<\/p>\n

Troubled thirty-something London professional couple, Meredith and Angus Moorcroft, grab the chance to sell up and get away to remote Thunder Island off the Isle of Skye.\u00a0 With them go their seven-year-old daughter Kirstie who has lost her twin sister Lydia in an appalling accident, and the family dog, Beany.<\/p>\n

From the start, the reader is made to feel uneasy.\u00a0 Exploiting all the rules of the uncanny, author Tremayne spins a tale full of ghostly confrontations.\u00a0 Kirstie\u2019s identity is confused: sometimes she talks to Lydia, sometimes she sees Lydia in the mirror, sometimes she says she is Lydia.\u00a0 She has a terrifying recurring dream, and an occasional cold, blank stare. \u00a0What are we or her parents to believe?\u00a0 Is she being haunted?\u00a0 Which child is she?\u00a0 Is she evil?\u00a0 And what have the parents done?<\/p>\n

As Meredith attempts to settle her daughter into school and secretly consults a child psychiatrist, the local children are scared out of their wits by Kirstie-Lydia\u2019s behaviour.\u00a0 They don\u2019t need to be told what a ghost looks like:\u00a0 they can see her.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Angus is endeavouring to keep family life on the rails and food on the table, while watching his wife fall to pieces.\u00a0 It is a switchback ride, with foul weather and growing paranoia clouding everyone\u2019s judgement, and the parents feeling like killing each other.<\/p>\n

In the end, of course, guilt turns out to have been piled on guilt, and secrecy with it\u00a0 –\u00a0 sometimes, but not always, with the best intentions.\u00a0 There was never going to be a completely happy ending, but at least this one has an unexpected clever twist.<\/p>\n

Read this with a light on, and not when there\u2019s a storm coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Alison Burns<\/p>\n

As Meredith attempts to settle her daughter into school and secretly consults a child psychiatrist, the local children are scared out of their wits by Kirstie-Lydia\u2019s behaviour. They don\u2019t need to be told what a ghost looks like: they can see her. Meanwhile, Angus is endeavouring to keep family life on the rails and food on the table, while watching his wife fall to pieces […] in Reviews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-fiction-and-non-fiction","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5522"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5712,"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5522\/revisions\/5712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}