(44) Once Upon A Time....

Title: Don't Breathe A Word by Jennifer McMahon
Publisher: Harper Collins
464 Pages
Genre: Mystery

I received this book as an advanced electronic galley from netgally.com.  

Synopsis: Family secrets and fairy lore create a shifting reality in McMahon's unsettling novel about the disappearance of a 12-year-old girl who longed to become Queen of the Fairies. Fifteen years after Lisa goes missing, her younger brother, Sam, gets a strange phone call that leads him and his girlfriend, Phoebe, to discover a book, supposedly written by the King of the Fairies, that Lisa used as her bible to cross over, and which prompts Sam and Phoebe to meet up with Sam's cousin, Evie, to see if they can figure out what happened to Lisa. Nothing is as it seems from that moment on, and Phoebe's longtime fear of a dark man in the shadows seeps back.

Review: Fairies aren't the cute little pixies you imagine playing in your yard, they are scary creatures that steal babies and replace them with dopplegangers, seduce you and cause havoc. Jennifer McMahon has crafted a spooky story that unfolds in glimpses of the past and stories of the present.  There is an underlying tension that permeates throughout the book and when Sam and Phoebe meet up with Sam's cousin things get even stranger.  Slowly McMahon unravels fairy lore, and what may be happening in the present.

If you were ever scared of the woods this book is sure to amplify that fear and if you weren't scared of them maybe you should be.