Close Your Pretty Eyes by Sally Nicholls

How did I get the book?  I bought it.

Genre: Contemporary / Ghosts

Synopsis: Eleven-year-old Olivia has been in care since she was five, and is just beginning her nineteenth placement. Her new home is a secluded farmhouse, centuries old, where she slowly bonds with her foster family. But the house holds dark secrets. Olivia discovers that it was once a notorious baby farm, where unwanted children were left to die. She becomes convinced that the place is haunted. She is desperate to save her new family from the ghosts. The danger is real – but does it come from the twisted mind of a very disturbed child?

200words (or less) review: It only took Sally Nicholls one page for me to love this book, the very first page when Olivia says something went wrong when she was born. She was born evil she believes which is why her mother hated her. These are only a few paragraphs but already I wished I could fix her life.

I read this book in one sitting and I will admit there were tears threatening to escape rather frequently. Now, while I loved Olivia I didn’t always like her, at times she’s really awful but that makes her so believable. She’s angry and pushes people away because if there is one thing she’s learned is that no one ever stays. I know what that’s like, so to me Olivia was utterly convincing as a character.

Olivia believes she has super powers, which is why she hears the ghost in her new home and nobody else can. She can’t sleep because it’s not safe. Between Olivia’s emotional minefield and the events at the house you really are in for an emotional roller-coaster.

Close Your Pretty Eyes had a good story but it’s Olivia that makes this book wonderful.

Recommend it?

Sunshine Star