Thrown into a world of ghosts and demons, Archie becomes a source of hope for all in his battle with evil and his quest to save the world. When the paranormal becomes normal, there’s no room for fear.
I have been a follower of Yvette’s career for many years, no so much the Blue Peter years, but from the very start of the Most Haunted TV Series through to her work on the Anytime Podcast, so when it was announced she was writing a book, somewhat based on her experiences, I was straight over to Amazon to get it pre-ordered.
Other books got in the way and I did not get round to reading it when it was released, but I did manage to get it included in our work’s December Book-read.
I think the best way of describing this book is that it is a ghost-based Harry Potter type story, written specifically for young-adults. Don’t let that deceive you though as I think this book could be enjoyed by any audience, no matter their age.
The book is based around the main character, Archie Nuttall, who, just before his 13th birthday finds himself in the middle of an unfolding paranormal event in his sleepy Cornish village of Bottomley-On-Sea.
Once again, I will avoid spoilers here, but the events that seemingly happen in quite a short space of time turn Archie’s life right on it’s head as everything he thought he knew about himself and his family was far from correct.
Although the book is set in a fictional town, you can clearly see where Yvette has got her inspiration from, as she has a second home in Polperro and there are many similarities between the two locations, from the small beach down by the harbour to the little independent shops found in the village. The descriptions of these places and the residents are very well written, considering this is Yvette’s first book and you do find yourself right in the middle of things and can really visualise what the place looks like.
Life has moved on these days and communities are not as close as they once were, however Yvette has made it feel like not only are the people of Bottomley a close-knit community, but also that you feel part of everything that is happening and you really feel for the characters as they each have their own experiences.
I did find myself wondering which experiences Yvette talked about have actually happened to herself personally, as the description of a ghost practising Bruce Lee moves in their nightie would certainly be something you would never forget.
Obviously, the world of the Paranormal is quite an “adult” topic with many different terminologies associated with not only paranormal events, but also the equipment used and I felt that Yvette did a great job of introducing some of these elements, but still keeping them not only at a low enough level for children to understand, but also so that more grown-up people would not feel patronised by the descriptions.
There was one element that really grated on me throughout the book, every time Archie’s granddad spoke to him, more often than not, he ended the sentence with “Ma,boy”, maybe this is something that Yvette and her family grew up with, but I found it very distracting and quite annoying.
That being said though, that was the only real downside of the book, so I can’t really complain, especially for a first book.
I know I compared this book to Harry Potter, it’s something that most people will probably think of, but don’t let that put you off, as this book certainly has it’s own style.
A quick side-note, I found the images included in this book, created by Yvette’s husband Karl Beatie, were really well done and helped even further to visualise the world I was reading about. It did also allow me to play a little game of “hunt the signature”, as it was often hidden in far from obvious places in each of the drawings.
Overall Rating – 4.0 / 5.0
