Book Review: The Magpies by Mark Edwards.

Hey, everyone. Sorry for being AWOL, just had alot on with job hunting and sorting out graduation things since finishing university. Feels like the stress is building up even more now that I've left uni! But I have a book review for you all today, so let's get into it.

This is The Magpies by Mark Edwards and it is well worth a read! I will give you some background without spoilers, of course, and then what I thought of it.

The Background

The Magpies is about a couple, Jamie and Kirsty, who move into their first home together - their future filled with plans to get married and have children. Their neighbours seem friendly enough who all warmly welcome Jamie and Kirsty to the building.

However, this new happiness doesn't last long as strange things start to happen to Jamie and Kirsty like dead rats being left on their doorstep, hearing disturbing noises, getting hoax calls and packages and much worse. As Jamie's best friend, Paul, is injured in a horrible accident, the couple find themselves being targeted. Jamie vows to fight back but has no idea at all what he is up against.

My Thoughts

I thought this book was a good psychological thriller where the evil isn't any demons or monsters but rather the couple's own neighbours. It starts with Jamie and Kirsty's seemingly perfect and idyllic lives which get completely turned upside down. It shows how little it takes to have everything taken from you which made this book all the more creepy! The characterisation is well written yet shows how easily it is going to be all thrown into turmoil. Edwards subtly keeps the feeling of dread moving throughout the novel with ease as you wonder what the culprits are going to do next.

The campaign of terror is tense and horrible as you continuously read all about what the abusers do to Jamie and Kirsty, some of it will make your skin completely crawl. Not only that, it was all psychological rather than actual physical scary stuff so you couldn't even be sure whether some of these things where actually happening or whether it was the characters imagining them thus keeping you, the reader, on edge and questioning what's going on.

The ending was pretty good and neatly tied things up with some answered questions from Edwards himself at the end of the book. It had me gripped from the get go and I have no doubt it will have you feeling the same if you love thrillers like these. What makes it even more scary is that this is something that could possibly happen in real life and actually has to the author himself as he explains at the end. Horrifying stuff!

A brilliant solo debut novel from Mark Edwards, highly recommended!

Get it here for £7.64!

Have you read this? What do you think of it?

Thankyou for reading.

Laura.

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