MG Monday: Guest Review: Dark Ride by Caroline Green

Title: Dark Ride

Author: Caroline Green

Publisher: Piccadilly

Publication Date: 1 May 2011

Synopsis from Amazon

A mysterious boy. A haunting secret ...

A shiver crawled up my spine. It felt like the loneliest place in the world. For a second I thought I caught a snatch of music in the air, but it was just the wind whistling through cracks in the fairground hoardings.

My instincts screamed, `Run away, Bel! Run away and never return!'

But instead my fingers closed around the ticket in my pocket. ADMIT ONE.

Bel has never met anyone like Luka. And the day she follows him into the abandoned fairground, she is totally unprepared for the turn her life is about to take.

GUEST REVIEW BY BETH OF THE PIECES OF ME

I found the idea of this novel really intriguing and was really glad to give it a go. Bel and her mother seem less than happy in the uninspiringly named seaside town of Slumpton that has become their new home. Bel misses her dad, misses her friends and doesn’t understand why they have to be in Slumpton anyway. In time, she begins to explore the area including the disused fairground and eventually meets Luka.

Bel and Luka’s ‘adventures’ if they can be called that lead them to sinister discoveries and it’s an area I’m not sure has been covered in much depth in literature before which is really interesting to read about. Aside from the supernatural elements of the novel, the real hard-hitting discoveries are what made it for me. The novel covers all manner of issues from family break up to human trafficking and more.

Bel’s character is really well constructed and believable. Her confusion and anger draw her to Luka and she finds comfort in being able to support Luka in his quest for his lost mother. Luka’s character is equally compelling, dark and brooding, which makes him more than attractive to Bel. Even more powerful than the creation of the characters is the town of Slumpton itself. The setting is more striking and interesting than any other feature of this novel and Caroline Green should be commended for it more than anything else. Every single place in the novel felt real, genuine and in many places extremely foreboding.

Loved this and loved how all the contentious and serious issues were dealt with.