Jellybird
By: by Lezanne Clannachan
Publisher: Orion; Orion Publishing Group, Limited
Published: 2013
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 424
ISBN-13: 9781409126577; 9781409127680; 9781409127673; 9781409127963
Subjects: Secrecy; Fiction; Missing persons
Description: 'Everyone has secrets, even those closest to you. But it's facing your own that takes the greatest courage.' This is what Jessica's father told her on the night he left the family home and never returned. Broken and damaged by her father's betrayal and her mother's silent fury over the years that followed, Jessica took refuge with Thomas, the Ghost Boy, a local teenager with problems of his own. Years later, Jessica has everything she needs - a loving husband, a growing reputation as a jewellery designer. She's determined not to repeat the mistakes her mother made: the vicious jealousy, the constant checking on her husband. But when a stranger, Libby Hargreaves, befriends her, the balance in Jessica's world shifts. At first, Jessica is flattered by their new, intense friendship. And then she catches her husband and Libby alone, heads together in whispered collusion. As the life she has worked so hard for begins to unravel, Jessica flees to her mother's house where a childhood memory box stirs up feelings she thought she'd left behind. She is forced to confront her past with Thomas and the events that led to his disappearance one stormy night.
Table of contents: title: Jessica should have everything to make her happy: a loving husband, a growing reputation as a jewellery designer, hope for a family of her own in the future. Then she meets Libby; title: flattering, attentive; title: and believes she has found the friendship she missed out on as a child. Until Jessica catches her husband and Libby alone, heads together in whispered collusion. With her life unravelling, Jessica flees home to the seaside town where she grew up. The discovery of an old postcard among her childhood belongings sends Jessica in search of her first love, Thomas, 'the ghost boy' who disappeared one night seventeen years ago. The last time Jessica saw Thomas he was covered in blood and begging her to hide him. Now to find him, Jessica must confront the secrets that link her to Libby, the missing boy and a brutal murder. Jellybird, a dark, unsettling novel of childhood secrets, is the remarkable debut from Lezanne Clannachan.