It's an absolute delight to be taking part in the BlogTour for The Cliff House by Amanda Jennings. When grief turns into obsession, two families are in danger of being torn apart and destroyed. The premise seems so innocent you just might not see the wave of emotional destruction coming.
About the Author
Amanda Jennings lives in Oxfordshire with her husband, three daughters, and a menagerie of animals. She studied History of Art at Cambridge and before writing her first book, was a researcher at the BBC.
With a deep fascination on the far-reaching effects of trauma, her books focus on the different ways people find to cope with loss, as well as the moral struggles her protagonists face. Her favourite place to be is up a mountain or beside the Cornish sea.
Follow @MandaJJennings @HQStories, Visit amandajennings.co.uk, Buy The Cliff House
About the book
From the bestselling author of In Her Wake, Amanda Jennings, comes a haunting tale of obsession, loss and longing, set against the brooding North Cornish coastline.
Cornwall, summer of 1986.
The Davenports, with their fast cars and glamorous clothes, living the dream in a breathtaking house
overlooking the sea. If only… thinks sixteen-year-old Tamsyn, her binoculars trained on the perfect family in their perfect home. If only her life was as perfect as theirs. If only Edie Davenport would be her friend. If only she lived at The Cliff House…
Review
The Cliff House is so many things, it isn't just a psychological thriller, it is a coming-of-age meets a family coping with grief and the hard realities of living below the breadline story. When you put all those components together and add a layer or difference of socioeconomic status between two friends, that's when you can see the cracks start to appear in the seemingly innocent story of a young lonely girl.
A girl almost consumed with grief after the death of her father, despite the fact it has already been many years since his death. Tamsyn focuses her obsession on any place she visited with her father and even on any object he may have touched at one point. When anyone invades those memories she becomes irrational and antagonistic.
One of the places she obsesses about is a house her father told her would one day be theirs. The Cliff House and its inhabitants are the objects of her daily routine. She watches, she imagines and she becomes part of the family, if only in her head.
One day her routine is disrupted and her fantasy threatened when the daughter of the house discovers Tamsyn trespassing. The ensuing relationship or what she perceives to be a relationship is the beginning of a downward spiral for everyone in both families. Her reaction when someone encroaches upon her territory is indicative of a dark side of her personality.
Jennings plays around with the alleged innocence of youth, the divide between rich and poor, and the invisibility each girl suffers from in their own family settings. Every family has problems regardless of their economic status.
Jennings underplays the importance of the obsession, so it becomes a subtle undertone in the background. It buzzes around like a persistent reminder, but not enough to think it might be an actual threat. It's a sublime well-plotted story.
Buy The Cliff House by Amanda Jennings at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.
Buy Hardback Paperback release 6th September 2018 Publisher Harper Collins UK
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