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by Julie Mayhew
For readers of All the Missing Girls and You Will Know Me, Impossible Causes is a gripping, claustrophobic thriller about isolation, power, and the lies that fester when witnesses stay silent.
For seven months of the year, the remote island of Lark is fogbound, cut off completely from the mainland.
Three strangers arrive before the mists fall: Ben Hailey, a charismatic teacher looking to make his mark, teenager Viola Kendrick, and her mother, both seeking a place to hide from unspeakable tragedy.
As the winter fog sets in, the presence of the newcomers looms large in this tight-knit community. They watch as their women fall under the teacher's spell. And they watch as their daughters draw the mysterious Viola into their circle. The girls begin to meet furtively at night, dancing further and further away from the religious traditions that have held Lark together for generations.
But when a body is found one morning at the girls' meeting place, high up among the sacred stones of Lark, faith turns instantly to suspicion and fear. For the island is weighted with its own dark secrets, and now it is time for them to come into the light.
Eerie and menacing, timely and moving, Impossible Causes is an unputdownable thriller that examines the consequences of silence kept at young women's expense.
"Engaging characters, well-crafted suspense, and a tone of growing, claustrophobic dread add up to an effective thriller." - Kirkus Reviews
"[Impossible Causes] effectively probes the teenage psyche while offering a compelling look at the perils of an insular society...a teenage heroine and a chilling tale of murder on an isolated island off the coast of England will draw YA suspense fans." - Booklist
"The characters' indistinguishable sameness and awkward shifts between past and present will have readers scrambling to keep the story straight and understand whose voice is telling it. That said, Mayhew delivers some memorably creepy moments." - Publishers Weekly
"The picture that emerges is an important one, concerning itself with the external governance of women's bodies, their actions and their fates." - New York Times Book Review
"Claustrophobic…well-written…the final scene is chilling." - Literary Review (UK)
"This highly imaginative novel and its meticulously created community of characters was an addictive read with twists and turns and a wonderful sense of place. Beautifully written, beguiling and compelling." - Lisa Ballantyne, author of The Guilty One
"A beautiful piece of writing—hypnotically convincing, eerie and disturbing. Mayhew is a voice I long to hear more of." - Alex Marwood, author of The Wicked Girls
This information about Impossible Causes was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Julie Mayhew is the author of the young adult novels Red Ink and The Big Lie. She is also a prolific writer for radio and has twice been nominated for Best Original Drama at the BBC Audio Drama Awards for her plays. She lives in Hertfordshire, England, with her family.
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