I don't usually take part in blog tours, however, it's a real pleasure to be able to share my review of Seas of Snow once more. I was lucky enough to read this book last year and it totally blew me away. It's a dark and sometimes uncomfortable read, but a fabulous one too. I urge you to add it to your shopping list, find a quiet spot and enjoy.
Seas of Snow – Kerensa Jennings
Blurb
1950s England. Five-year-old Gracie Scott lives with her Mam and next door to her best friend Billy. An only child, she has never known her Da. When her Uncle Joe moves in, his physical abuse of Gracie’s mother starts almost immediately. But when his attentions wander to Gracie, an even more sinister pattern of behaviour begins.
As Gracie grows older, she finds solace and liberation in books, poetry and her enduring friendship with Billy. Together they escape into the poetic fairy-tale worlds of their imaginations.
But will fairy tales be enough to save Gracie from Uncle Joe’s psychopathic behaviour – and how far will it go?
Seas of Snow is a haunting, psychological domestic drama that probes the nature and the origins of evil.
What I thought:
Gracie Scott and her Ma are haunted by a beast, a beautiful beast. Beautiful on the outside that is, but inside he is pure evil - always has been and always will be.
Gracie doesn't have any friends at school. For some reason, other girls seem to get pleasure from taunting and bullying her, but it doesn't really matter because she spends all her spare time with her best friend, Billy. Billy Harper lives next door to Gracie and her Ma, and they are always playing together, playing at princesses and dragons or any other make-believe game that Billy has invented for them to play. Then one day Gracie's Uncle Joe comes to stay and her life will never be the same again.
Joe is vile. It's as though he doesn't have a choice of right and wrong, his thoughts are just pure evil. His actions are rarely on impulse, but meticulously planned over long periods of time and they are shocking, in fact truly horrific.
Gracie innocently wonders what she has done wrong for her life to be so tormented, but then she discovers poetry and that helps her escape the demons that haunt her daily life.
This story had me gripped. It is gut-wrenchingly uncomfortable to read at times but laced with beautiful poetry and utterly compelling. I was so frustrated with Gracie's mum, but Billy was just so lovely. He's the kind of boy you would want for your daughter, kind, loyal and always there for her. As they grow older and Billy starts work, he saves hard, planning to take Gracie and move far away. Will the real - life Prince Charming be able to rescue his princess from the terrible fate that Joe had planned for her for so long?
When family secrets are revealed and Billy makes a shocking discovery, I couldn't stop turning the pages. It was just so good. It was dark, brutal and intense, but what a read! Highly recommended.
Author Bio Kerensa Jennings
Kerensa Jennings is a storyteller, strategist, writer, producer and professor. Kerensa’s TV work took her all over the world, covering everything from geo-politics to palaeontology, and her time as Programme Editor of Breakfast with Frost coincided with the life-changing events of 9/11. The knowledge and experience she gained in psychology by qualifying and practising as an Executive Coach has only deepened her fascination with exploring the interplay between nature and nurture and with investigating whether evil is born or made – the question at the heart of Seas of Snow. As a scholar at Oxford, her lifelong passion for poetry took flight. Kerensa lives in West London and over the last few years has developed a career in digital enterprise.
IN HER OWN WORDS…
“I’ve been writing stories and poems ever since I was a little girl. Although it’s taken me a long time to get around to writing a book, I’m lucky enough to have had a long career in the media as a TV producer, writing television programmes. Most of the time viewers would have had no idea who I was, but my words have informed, educated and entertained millions over the years. I produced, directed, wrote for and worked with some of the most amazing people including Nelson Mandela, Sir David Frost (I was Programme Editor of Breakfast with Frost), Sir David Attenborough, Fiona Bruce, Sian Williams, James Nesbitt, George Alagiah and Rory Bremner. I moved away from programme making to strategy and became the BBC’s Head of Strategic Delivery where I designed and delivered strategies for the Corporation, including a significant digital strategy (BBC Make it Digital). I now run The Duke of York Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award.
I’ve always used literature, and poetry in particular, for solace and escape. I happen to think literature is probably the best self-help on the planet! You can fly into other worlds and find ways through writing to make sense of life. SEAS of SNOW draws together some of my passions and fascinations in life. While I was at university, I studied the psychoanalysis of fairy tales and got very interested in archetypes and the way characters and stories of good and evil are portrayed.
While leading the BBC News coverage of the Soham investigation, I had the opportunity to see first-hand a lot of evidence about the mind and motives of a psychopath. So in SEAS of SNOW, the protagonist Gracie uses poetry and playtime to escape the traumas and abuses of her life; the antagonist, her Uncle Joe, is a bad man, a psychopath; and there is a subtext of fairy tale underlying the page-turning scenario which hopefully makes you want to read while half covering your eyes.”
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Buying links:
Foyles: bit.ly/Foyles-SeasofSnow-KerensaJennings
Waterstones: bit.ly/Waterstones-SeasofSnow-KerensaJennings
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