In this debut novel by Daisy Stephens, Liv travels to the abandoned island of Poveglia, off the Italian coast, searching for clues about her missing sister. With its dark history as a plague quarantine station and later a psychiatric asylum, the island provides a perfectly terrifying setting for the characters to explore.
I read this novel very quickly and found it genuinely thrilling. Stephens creates an eerie atmosphere from the start, steadily building the tension and assaulting the senses with the acrid smell of smoke that isn’t there and the deafening toll of a bell that doesn’t exist.
I particularly loved the atmospheric deserted buildings, the sinister antagonist and the growing sense of dread that kept me turning the pages to the very end.
The Island of the Lost by Daisy Stephens is out now in hardback and available in Teasel & Skylark.
Richard
