Hope Island by Tim Major

Nina has - reluctantly - brought her daughter to her inlaws' home for a stay. Her mother in law has never approved of her, but things are even stranger than usual on the little island. Why are all the adults so loud and children so quiet and solemn? Why does it feel like her daughter is slipping through her fingers?

(Possible spoilers in my review, depending on whether you understand my reference.)

This book is advertised as 'for fans of John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos'. A much better comparison would be Stephen King's Tommyknockers. The children play a relatively small part in Hope Island; the focus is all on Nina as she slowly uncovers the mystery of what exactly is happening.

I didn't much like the style of writing, I thought it was very slow and drawn out, but that's a very personal thing and I'm sure other readers will love it. It's certainly interesting, dreamlike in spots, emotional here and there. The final set piece, switching between the real world and a dream world, needed to be read very carefully to follow what was happening.

It's interesting, and I would read other books by the author, but I won't be racing out to buy them on publication day.

Workaholic TV news producer Nina Scaife is determined to fight for her daughter, Laurie, after her partner Rob walks out on her. She takes Laurie to visit Rob's parents on the beautiful but remote Hope Island, to prove to her that they are still a family. But Rob's parents are wary of Nina, and the islanders are acting strangely. And as Nina struggles to reconnect with Laurie, the silent island children begin to lure her daughter away.

Meanwhile, Nina tries to resist the scoop as she is drawn to a local artists' commune, the recently unearthed archaeological site on their land, and the dead body on the beach...