The Clock Struck One by Helen Deakin

     The Clock Struck One is a mental thriller.  It's about a girl named Tamara.  Her family's moved to a new town, which means new friends and school- three things she's not interested in.  Add in the fact she's a teen and you can see what's going on... or do you?

     She feels her house is haunted and her family doesn't notice.  She hears voices, sees apparitions and hears corporeal threats in the night. Also, someone's writing in her diary/journal, telling her she's going to die, signed: Love Sarah.  She's terrified every night and wants it all to just end... mostly by going back to the home she knows and loves.

     I have to admit, I was curious when I received this book.  Since I'm a cover nut, I checked out cover and must say, I LIKE!  It's not one of those book covers that jumps out at you, but it's mysterious, gothic and so I was suckered in.  Sadly, I wasn't as intrigued by the tale as much as the cover.  If the story offered as much description as it gave analogies, I'd have clung to every word!

     Helen Deakin had a story to tell, but she told it to us; there was no  building up of the anxieties or the hauntings.  There was no true mystery because she did what storytellers do, she told the story.  She didn't allow the reader to become transformed, through her words to make it an experience. The story was a little redundant in some of the "happenings", as well as constant repetition of the word suddenly.   With a good editor, the grammatical errors and sentence structure issues can be eliminated.  


     Lastly, I thought Tamara was thirteen so at first; she's seventeen!  She was written a bit on the infantile side so I was thinking brat instead of near adult.  All in all, this story was a decent, quick read, but slightly predictable.  I'm off to the next book!!