Small Blue Thing

Alex is a teenage girl dealing with the teenage concerns of driving lessons, exams, friends and boyfriends. When she finds an opal bracelet half-buried on the banks of the Thames, Alex discovers something extraordinary.

The bracelet allows her to communicate with Dirges, the people who have drowned in the Thames, including the handsome, mysterious Callum. But can Alex really trust him? The bracelet and the Dirges are mysterious things, and even the bracelet seems to have a will of its own...

The novel cleverly interweaves Alex’s everyday school and family life with the supernatural and much more sinister events linked to the bracelet. The tension and the pace build up as Alex is drawn into the strange world of the drowned Dirges, and a real mood of menace develops around the shadowy figures and their motives towards Alex.

There are lots of refreshing things about this book, like the London rather than US setting, and the positive relationships between Alex and her family. An atmospheric, otherworldly romance that sets up what should be a gripping trilogy.