Helpful Score: 1
**Thank you Doubleday and Netgalley for providing this in exchange for an honest review**
David is a college student who decides to take a summer job at a holiday center, Skegness. His mother and stepfather are both against this. When David was three, his biological father died of a heart attack at this same holiday center. David tries to assure them he really is just going there because the job is available, not because of the ties to his past. The staff and the guest at Skegness take to David right away. Everything seems normal at first, but then Davis starts seeing a guy in a blue suite and a little boy. At first he thinks nothing of it. Working at a vacation spot for families you're likely to see certain people repeatedly. One day David happens to come face to face with the little boy. Right away he notices something isn't right. Normal little boys don't have eyes of clear glass...
I really liked the setting. While I'm sure there are (or were) vacation centers here in the US, I've never heard of them before. Its not very often that I'm introduced to an entirely new to me environment in realistic fiction. I also really liked a few of the secondary customers. I didn't really care much for David. I honestly found him kind of dull, and with him being the main character, that made it pretty difficult to like this title.
The title suggest the Ghost will be a major player in this story, but he isn't. This didn't even really feel like a coming of age story. Honestly, I'm not sure what exactly the author was going for. There were a few different romanceish story lines going, a sorta missing persons mystery, some Nazi politics, and the mystery of the ghost. I don't feel all these worked well together. There was too much going on. There just wasn't enough space in a 300 page book for each story to be fully fleshed out. Had a few of these been dropped and others developed further, this could have been a great book. As it is, everything feels underdeveloped. Very dissappointing
David is a college student who decides to take a summer job at a holiday center, Skegness. His mother and stepfather are both against this. When David was three, his biological father died of a heart attack at this same holiday center. David tries to assure them he really is just going there because the job is available, not because of the ties to his past. The staff and the guest at Skegness take to David right away. Everything seems normal at first, but then Davis starts seeing a guy in a blue suite and a little boy. At first he thinks nothing of it. Working at a vacation spot for families you're likely to see certain people repeatedly. One day David happens to come face to face with the little boy. Right away he notices something isn't right. Normal little boys don't have eyes of clear glass...
I really liked the setting. While I'm sure there are (or were) vacation centers here in the US, I've never heard of them before. Its not very often that I'm introduced to an entirely new to me environment in realistic fiction. I also really liked a few of the secondary customers. I didn't really care much for David. I honestly found him kind of dull, and with him being the main character, that made it pretty difficult to like this title.
The title suggest the Ghost will be a major player in this story, but he isn't. This didn't even really feel like a coming of age story. Honestly, I'm not sure what exactly the author was going for. There were a few different romanceish story lines going, a sorta missing persons mystery, some Nazi politics, and the mystery of the ghost. I don't feel all these worked well together. There was too much going on. There just wasn't enough space in a 300 page book for each story to be fully fleshed out. Had a few of these been dropped and others developed further, this could have been a great book. As it is, everything feels underdeveloped. Very dissappointing
