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The Stopped Heart

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About this listen

What happens when every parent's worst nightmare comes true - and when the past is unwilling to be the past? Some memories are too powerful to live only in the past.

During a ferocious storm, a red-haired stranger appears in the garden of a small farming cottage. Eliza and her parents take him in. But very soon, it's clear he has no intention of leaving.

A century later, Mary and Graham have experienced every parent's worst nightmare. Now, escaping their old London life, the memories and the headlines, they have found an idyllic new home in rural Suffolk. A cottage, a beautiful garden. The perfect place to forget. To move on. But in The Stopped Heart, the past never dies.

©2016 Julie Myerson (P)2016 Bolinda Ghosts Historical Fiction Horror Psychological Supernatural Thriller & Suspense Scary Paranormal Fiction Haunted Exciting Mystery
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I’m glad I stuck with this book until the end but I did nearly give up a couple of times. As others have mentioned the fact that nearly every question is answered with a ‘What?’ Or ‘I don’t know’ or even worse, the question repeated back again drove me mad! Who has such wishy-washy conversations!!!

Despite that, there were some heartbreaking moments which were told very well. The descriptions of small details and atmosphere were also very well captured.

Good story, tedious and long winded dialogue, well narrated.

‘What?’ ‘I Don’t Know’

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This is one of the best audiobooks I have listened to. Julie Myerson is a wonderful writer and the two strands of this story are equally compelling. The ending delivered everything I hoped and proves it isn't necessary to resort to complex plot twists (though there is a twist within a secondary strand of the story) to keep readers hooked. It is brilliant on grief, marriage and coming of age, too. Thoroughly recommended.

One of the best

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Mostly gripping and genuinely scary but also just…so weird. I just found myself asking “but why” to pretty much everything. The parallels are interestingly done but you’re left feeling extremely adrift regarding the absolutely zero condemnation of paedophilia. Not really a recommend, it was easy to want to keep listening but not well done enough to make me want to read anything else by her.

A very strange book

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This is a tragic, haunting and beautiful book, dealing with loss, grief and the complicatedness of families, as well as the interplay of present and past. Katie Moore reads it very nicely, with well-differentiated voices for the characters. I found it extremely moving, and felt (appropriately enough) haunted by its characters for quite some time after finishing it. Myerson writes wonderfully about the way in which old houses can seem to soak up the atmosphere of what has previously gone on within them.

As other reviewers have pointed out, it is worth noting that this book contains several very violent and distressing scenes. While sensitively handled and beautifully written, it is certainly a very dark book and anyone going into it should be aware of that fact. This is not a light read! But it is (in my opinion) an extremely impressive and gripping one.

Poignant and beautiful (and very dark)

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I could not put this book down, so compassionately written. To be able to write about such traumatic events alongside so much love, loss and empathy- this is quite genius.
The story is so moving and gripping, I was addicted from the start.
Highly recommended

Brilliantly compelling

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