The House on the Edge by Alex Cotter

Faith’s got a few problems. Sea ghosts in the cellar. A house on a crumbling cliff. A father lost at sea and a mother sunk in woe. Not to mention the school’s started to sniff around, and no one’s done the washing up for ages.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Faith’s trying to hold it all together, but that crack in the garden is matched by the one in her mind and it’s all getting rather a lot for a girl to handle, especially one who is isolated from her best friend and drowning in worry.

The question is: what can crack the wall she’s built around herself?

There are lots of literary goosebumps in this middle-grade novel: treasure tales, ghost sightings, secret tunnels, mysterious disappearances, old maps, beach-combing strangers, and legends of wreckers and terrible plunder. It sounds historic or gothic, but the narrative is surprisingly modern with references to social media, breakfast brands, TV programmes, and films.

Faith’s choppy sentences mirror the crumbling terrain and the duress she’s under, but I found myself having to reread several to follow the sequencing of events. I love the term sea-ghost, though! And the exciting finale kept me reading late. Faith shows true mettle at the end.

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