Slade House

Sade House
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Walk down narrow, clammy Slade Alley. Open the black iron door in the right-hand wall.

Enter the sunlit garden of an old house that doesn't exactly make sense.

A stranger greets you by name and invites you inside.

At first, you won't want to leave. Too late, you find you can't . . .

A taut, intricately woven, reality-warping tale that begins in 1979 and comes to its turbulent conclusion at the wintry end of October, 2015. Born out of the short story David Mitchell published on Twitter in 2014 and inhabiting the same universe as his latest bestselling novel The Bone Clocks, this is the perfect book to curl up with on a dark and stormy night.

As the synopsis says, this story was all thanks to a short story published on Twitter, and it's a perfect Halloween read, I have to say! I had assumed this was a standalone, so I read it without having read The Bone Clocks and the benefit of whatever knowledge came from it. It is on my TBR, I just haven't gotten around to it yet! 

That said, it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book at all, I was glued to the page from the go. For such a short book, it tells the story without ever feeling rushed. There's no points where the story is rushed, the ending isn't rushed, it's got a fast pace, and it keeps it up through to the end. 

There's four parts to the story, starting in 1979 and ending in 2015. Each is linked. Why? Because each person from each part, Nathan and his Mum, Gordon etc etc, all disappear in to the house never to be seen again. And so it continues every 9 years, until 2015. You can read the book in one sitting, and enjoy the creeped out feeling it will inspire. There's not many things that creep me out, but this book managed to! 

There's a blend of different genres and different "oh that reminds me of so and so" moments, Mitchell keeps all of his signatures and uses then to delightful effect. I must say I wasn't sure what to expect from such a short book from the author, but like I keep saying....I couldn't be more pleased! I'm just sad I didn't get to read Bone Clocks first! All in all it's a cracking read!