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The Apparition Phase

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The Apparition Phase

By: Will Maclean
Narrated by: Theo Solomon
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Brought to you by Penguin.

Tim and Abi have always been different from their peers. Precociously bright, they spend their evenings in their parents' attic discussing the macabre and unexplained, zealously re-reading books on folklore, hauntings and the supernatural. In particular, they are obsessed with photographs of ghostly apparitions and the mix of terror and delight they provoke in their otherwise boring and safe childhoods.

But when Tim and Abi decide to fake a photo of a ghost to frighten an unpopular school friend, they set in motion a deadly and terrifying chain of events that neither of them could have predicted and they are forced to confront the possibility that what began as a callous prank might well have taken on a malevolent life of its own.

An unsettling literary ghost story set between a claustrophobic British suburban town and a menacing Suffolk manor, The Apparition Phase is an unnerving novel, which, like all the best ghost stories, pushes us repeatedly over the line between rational explanation and inexplicable fear. It asks us to consider what might be lurking in the shadows and questions what is real and what is simply a trick of the mind - and whether there's really a difference between the two.

©2020 Will Maclean (P)2020 Penguin Audio Ghosts Horror Haunted Scary Paranormal Fantasy
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Critic reviews

"A delight for both the expert and the uninitiated, this creepy tale is a carapace of cosy nostalgia wrapped round a solid thread of dread.... A page turner that keeps you in dreaded suspense of what you are about to be shown.... A claustrophobic and entertaining read that left me breathless.... Horror for the connoisseur." (Alice Lowe)
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There were points in this book where I actually got caught up in what was happening, but the narrator was so awful that I had to stop listening regularly just to get away from his voice. Who chose such a dead, flat, emotionless, slow, boring narrator? He went on and on, and on, and on... In the end, though I did manage to listen to the whole audiobook, my brain chose to selectively forget most of it the moment it was finished. The book - trying very hard to ignore the narrator for a minute - was nothing spectacular. I didn't find it creepy or unsettling. An average book... done to death by an awful narrator.

The narrator ruined it

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loved it .Especially the ending ,so different .A most enthralling story.i would recommend it

brilliant story line .Couldn't stop listening

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I really enjoyed the story and the general narration was ok but I struggled with the character voices. They were all nasally and the accents were over done making some of the characters, particularly Seb, Neil and Polly difficult to listen to.

Good story but narration disappointing.

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I read this book and loved it, so I thought I’d enjoy the audiobook just as much. But the voices. The nasal tones, the almost comically awful, inconsistent accents. I really tried. I made it to the end, because when the narrator was just talking as the main character, or SOME of the other characters it was fine. I put it on 1.2x speed (which I never do), which made the slow delivery sound much better. It’s such a shame. I feel the narrator was given a range of characters & accents that just didn’t suit him. But I love the book, so if reading physical books is your thing, give that a go.

Great story if you can get past the voices

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Loved this novel, evocative and gripping, a fantastic journey. Found the narrator’s female voices a bit annoying but it didn’t spoil my over all enjoyment of a well told tale of adolescence, loss, grief and the unexplained.

Fantastic!

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