I Am Dust by Louise Beech @LouiseWriter @OrendaBooks @annecater #IAmDust #LouiseBeech #RandomThingsTours #5Stars

Book Synopsis:

A haunted theatre
A murdered actress
Three cursed teenagers
A secret that devastates them all…

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?

Is the role of Esme Black cursed? Could witchcraft be at the heart of the tragedy? And are dark deeds from Chloe’s past about to catch up with her?
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…

I Am Dust is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

My Review:

Firstly let me start by saying that Louise Beech is one of my all time favourite authors and I have thoroughly enjoyed every book she’s written. I just love her fantastic storytelling, the way she can just draw you into a story so that you feel you are living it alongside the characters. She’s an incredibly versatile writer too, which ensures all of her books are uniquely different reads.

I Am Dust is another wonderful read which is darker than anything she’s written before. It has a bit of a gothic feel to it which slowly builds as the book continues and becomes very creepy. I could feel my hair standing on end and jumped a mile when my husband walked through the door. This book definitely gets in your head!

Chloe is a very interesting main character who I wasn’t sure if I liked or not. She’s obviously a bit of a troubled lady with a lot of broken dreams. I wasn’t entirely sure I trusted her which, as the story is told from her point of view, made me unsure whether to believe what was unfolding. This ensured that I kept reading however as I tried to work out what was going on.

The inclusion of the ouija board was an interesting one which brought back a few memories from trying it at boarding school. This further added to the atmosphere of the book but also my disbelief as in my experience nothing real ever happened. It was definitely interesting following Chloe and her friends through their experiences with it.

Overall I absolutely loved this delicious creepy, thoroughly enjoyable read which kept me guessing until the end. If you are a fan of anything Phantom Of The Opera related or just like atmospheric books then you’ll love this book.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Orenda for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Louise Beech is an exceptional literary talent, whose debut novel How To Be Brave was a Guardian Reader’s Choice in 2015. The sequel, The Mountain in My Shoe was shortlisted for the Not the Booker Prize. Her third book, Maria in the Moon was widely reviewed and critically acclaimed. Her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative competition, as well as shortlisting for the Bridport Prize twice. Louise is currently writing her next book. She lives with her husband and children on the outskirts of Hull – the UK’s 2017 City of Culture – and loves her job as Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was performed in 2012.
Follow Louise on Twitter @LouiseWriter and visit her website: louisebeech.co.uk.