I Am Dust by Louise Beech – Book Review

PUBLISHERS BLURB 

When iconic musical Dust is revived twenty years after the leading actress was murdered in her dressing room, a series of eerie events haunts the new cast…

The Dean Wilson Theatre is believed to be haunted by a long-dead actress, singing her last song, waiting for her final cue, looking for her killer…

Now Dust, the iconic musical, is returning after twenty years. But who will be brave enough to take on the role of ghostly goddess Esme Black, last played by Morgan Miller, who was murdered in her dressing room?

Theatre usher Chloe Dee is caught up in the spectacle. As the new actors arrive, including an unexpected face from her past, everything changes. Are the eerie sounds and sightings backstage real or just her imagination? Is someone playing games?

Not all the drama takes place onstage. Sometimes murder, magic, obsession and the biggest of betrayals are real life. When you’re in the theatre shadows, you see everything.

And Chloe has been watching…

MY REVIEW

Oh my heart, where do I start…..?

I Am Dust is set against the background of a busy theatre and is told in two timelines, 2005 and 2019. In 2005 three teenagers play a game, a game involving a ouija board……they want ‘powers’. But be careful what you wish for.

In 2019 Chloe still works in the theatre but starts to remember bits and pieces from the past….she sees and hears strange voices and she wonders if any of it is real. 

Then Ginger comes home and Chloe remembers!

I love this book, the characters are so real from the troubled Chloe and her self harm, Ginger and her ambition to the larger than life Chester, I felt for them all. 

This is a beautifully written tale, full of emotion, of love and longing with a poignancy that will cause tears. The supernatural edge gives this a darkness and some really creepy and goosebumpy moments. An incredible supernatural thriller, a definite must read and I love it.

Thank you to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for the opportunity to participate in this blog tour,  for the promotional materials and a free copy of the book. This is my honest, unbiased review.

 

You can buy a copy here : https://amzn.to/2XGw8OF   Or better still an independent bookstore…..  (Really you should, it’s a brilliant read !!!)

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Louise Beech is an exceptional literary talent, whose debut novel How To Be Brave was a Guardian Readers’ Choice for 2015. Her second book, The Mountain in My Shoe was shortlisted for Not the Booker Prize. Both of her previous books Maria in the Moon and The Lion Tamer Who Lost were widely reviewed, critically acclaimed and number-one bestsellers on Kindle. The Lion Tamer Who Lost was shortlisted for the RNA Most Popular Romantic Novel Award in 2019. Her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting for the Bridport Prize twice. Louise lives with her husband on the outskirts of Hull, and loves her job as a Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was performed in 2012. 

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