This book reminded me so much of one of my favourite books ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne Du Maurier. The Room in the Attic is a compelling, dark, heart-breaking, gripping read. I literally stayed up late into the night to finish it.
The story alternates between two stories, one a nurse caring for a little girl when the house was an asylum in 1903 and two troubled boys in the same house in 1993 when the house was a boys’ boarding school. So often with books set in different times I find myself preferring gone over the other, but this was different. Both stories were so beautifully written that I loved them both equally.
It is a beautifully crafted, well researched novel. The details of life in an asylum and attitude towards women in the 19th century were shocking, as indeed were some of the descriptions of life in a boarding school in far more recent times.
However, it is the warmth of the relationships that develop in both timelines that will stay with me. They are beautifully written and heart breaking at times, but they give the book hope and light.
Having been through such a journey it was brilliant that, at the end, the writer gave us a glimpse into the lives of the characters after the story.
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From the Publisher
Hello and thank you for looking at this book.
My books are usually described as contemporary Gothic stories, most often with some dark romance or a psychological element.
I love to write about love, not only in the romantic sense. I also enjoy writing about animals, nature, and the countryside, feeling deeply connected.
But it’s people and the secrets they keep that truly fascinate me. It’s the things we don’t say that reveal the most about us; the walls we build and the masks we wear to make ourselves appear strong, when the truth is, we’re trying to protect our vulnerable hearts.
If you enjoy a compelling, emotional storyline, and like reading about flawed characters who confuse what they want, with what they need; if you like travelling with characters towards a resolution, if you believe good people deserve to find happiness, you might enjoy this book.
Thank you again. I very much appreciate you looking at my book and wish you all the best.
Louise x
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| The House By The Sea | The Scarlet Dress | The Room in the Attic | The Lost Notebook | |
| Ebook | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Audiobook | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Paperback | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
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Customer reviews
A Room In The AtticI began reading this book with great expectations as Louise Douglas is one of my favourite authors.And this gripping schoolboy yarn with its surreal turn-of-the-century melodrama didn’t disappoint.Dickensian descriptions juxtaposition with contemporary conversations, it is a mysterious, gothic ghost story spanning time and settings.There is the asylum on Dartmoor converted to an austere boarding school - a bleak house which is ‘home’ to some lost souls.A needy little girl with memory loss and a misunderstood teenaged boy with big ears with 90 years separating their stories.I sense not the friendships of Tom Brown’s schooldays but more Nicholas Nickleby with some Brontë influences and a tabloid exposé thrown in as the characters through the century are linked.The creaking rocking chair, the feminist writer confined to a mad house by disapproving parents this is psychological whodunnit through the ages.It is descriptive, especially of physical appearances and of the cold comfort surroundings, as it interweaves the past and the present which is in first person narrative.And the ghostly guidance of a dead mother appears in italics.But there are some warm, lasting friendships made.As I neared the end of the 400-pages my anticipation was mounting, who would need rescuing, will goodness prevail, will it have a happy ending, the possibilities seem endless.It was impossible to second guess where it was going as each alternating past and present chapter revealed in bite size portions another piece of the jigsaw.It reminded me in parts of the French Lieutenant’s Woman - what was truth and what was just my imagination or rather that of the writer.Thoroughly enjoyable couldn’t put it down.
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Top reviews from United Kingdom
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 October 2021
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 October 2021
I began reading this book with great expectations as Louise Douglas is one of my favourite authors.
And this gripping schoolboy yarn with its surreal turn-of-the-century melodrama didn’t disappoint.
Dickensian descriptions juxtaposition with contemporary conversations, it is a mysterious, gothic ghost story spanning time and settings.
There is the asylum on Dartmoor converted to an austere boarding school - a bleak house which is ‘home’ to some lost souls.
A needy little girl with memory loss and a misunderstood teenaged boy with big ears with 90 years separating their stories.
I sense not the friendships of Tom Brown’s schooldays but more Nicholas Nickleby with some Brontë influences and a tabloid exposé thrown in as the characters through the century are linked.
The creaking rocking chair, the feminist writer confined to a mad house by disapproving parents this is psychological whodunnit through the ages.
It is descriptive, especially of physical appearances and of the cold comfort surroundings, as it interweaves the past and the present which is in first person narrative.
And the ghostly guidance of a dead mother appears in italics.
But there are some warm, lasting friendships made.
As I neared the end of the 400-pages my anticipation was mounting, who would need rescuing, will goodness prevail, will it have a happy ending, the possibilities seem endless.
It was impossible to second guess where it was going as each alternating past and present chapter revealed in bite size portions another piece of the jigsaw.
It reminded me in parts of the French Lieutenant’s Woman - what was truth and what was just my imagination or rather that of the writer.
Thoroughly enjoyable couldn’t put it down.
Don't go in the attic
By Carol Ann on 20 October 2021
A Room In The AtticBy Carol Ann on 20 October 2021
I began reading this book with great expectations as Louise Douglas is one of my favourite authors.
And this gripping schoolboy yarn with its surreal turn-of-the-century melodrama didn’t disappoint.
Dickensian descriptions juxtaposition with contemporary conversations, it is a mysterious, gothic ghost story spanning time and settings.
There is the asylum on Dartmoor converted to an austere boarding school - a bleak house which is ‘home’ to some lost souls.
A needy little girl with memory loss and a misunderstood teenaged boy with big ears with 90 years separating their stories.
I sense not the friendships of Tom Brown’s schooldays but more Nicholas Nickleby with some Brontë influences and a tabloid exposé thrown in as the characters through the century are linked.
The creaking rocking chair, the feminist writer confined to a mad house by disapproving parents this is psychological whodunnit through the ages.
It is descriptive, especially of physical appearances and of the cold comfort surroundings, as it interweaves the past and the present which is in first person narrative.
And the ghostly guidance of a dead mother appears in italics.
But there are some warm, lasting friendships made.
As I neared the end of the 400-pages my anticipation was mounting, who would need rescuing, will goodness prevail, will it have a happy ending, the possibilities seem endless.
It was impossible to second guess where it was going as each alternating past and present chapter revealed in bite size portions another piece of the jigsaw.
It reminded me in parts of the French Lieutenant’s Woman - what was truth and what was just my imagination or rather that of the writer.
Thoroughly enjoyable couldn’t put it down.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 November 2021
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 November 2021
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 June 2022
