Book 6 of 2015: Miramont's Ghost by Elizabeth Hall

The fourth book I tackled for the 2015 Reading Challenge was a book that had been published this year. A little bit tricky coming, as it did, four weeks into the month. I got around this by signing up for Amazon's Early Release for Kindle and so received it before it had technically been published.

Miramont's Ghost is the story of Miramont Castle which was abandoned, for some mysterious reason, shortly after it was built. Adrienne knows the reason, and through the story we learn about the events that led to her living there. Amongst the reasons for Adrienne's banishment to the Castle are her strange visions of things that have yet to happen or that she shouldn't yet know. But that is just one of the mysteries of Miramont Castle.

This was a really depressing story. There never seemed to be anything good happening to Adrienne or anyone in her family. I kept on reading expecting some twist where something good could happen, but it never did. On the one hand, it did keep me reading, because I'm stubborn and refuse to leave a book unfinished, but on the other hand, I was begrudging it. I ended up just reading to finish it, so I could read something else.

That's not to say it was all entirely bad. There were some nice descriptions which sounded a little poetic. Other bits were really heavy-handed. I seem to have an aversion to eyes being described as 'orbs' or 'globes', I think it's down to spending my teenage years reading (and writing) a lot of bad fanfiction. There was also constant referral to Genevieve touching her 'mound of baby' whenever her pregnancy was mentioned. That's honestly the least romantic way of describing a baby bump that I've ever heard!

There seemed to be long stretches of this book where nothing really happened. There were plenty of characters who I would've liked to see more of, particularly Lucie and Genevieve. We only ever got little glimpses and aside from that they felt pretty flat. I got the sense there could be so much more to Genevieve but we never saw any more of her. If we'd gotten a little more detail, and maybe seen some of the good things going on in their lives, perhaps it would've been less depressing over all.

I am interested in reading more about the real life Miramont Castle. The little bit at the end of the book did pique my interest and I think I'll be googling to find out more at some point. The book did also do a good job of creeping me out a little, thanks to living in an old house myself, so I had to read Quidditch Through the Ages to uncreep myself afterwards.