I loved the way the present day story brilliantly weaves together with the old Cottingley story. The story took time to build up which wasn’t a bad thing as it created suspense and tension. As a result of reading these letters Rose is completely drawn in and becomes obsessed with the letters to the point where she begins to fantasise and imagine all sorts of things. Charlotte shows Rose a series of old letters believed to be linked to the infamous Cottingley fairies hoax. There’s a constant uneasy and unsettling atmosphere throughout and a creeping dread of what might come, it’s quite bone-chilling at times and gives you goose bumps reading it.Ĭharlotte is a resident in the care home where Rose works and the story mainly centres around Charlottes’s unusual interest in Rose and their ensuing almost antagonistic relationship.

It’s a mesmerising and beautifully written tale and although dark and sinister it’s compelling and a real page turner. The Cottingley Cuckoo is a chilling mix of fantasy, mystery and light horror. The darkness starts to slowly leak out of the letters and into Rose’s life as she cannot escape the twisted magic of the fairies and their corrupt world: from Charlotte knowing what lies in her future, to the house being a complete mess for no reason, and then when Rose starts to obsess over something mentioned in one of the letters she may end up losing more than just her mind all while Charlotte sits back and watches her slowly lose her grasp on reality.ĭark, gothic and with a sense of dread dripping from each page, this story about fairies will leave you wishing that they surely are not real. The Cottingley Fairies, the photographs that were made famous all those years ago by Arthur Conan Doyle which were soon later debunked as nothing more than trickery, are mentioned in the letters that Charlotte demands Rose read to her but are these letters completely false or could they shed some light on what could be lurking in the shadows at Sunnyside when it becomes apparent that Charlotte may be connected to these fairies. Books and stories have always been escapism and a chance to live a different life for Rose who works at the Sunnyside Care Home, but this soon changes when she finds herself looking after the much-maligned Charlotte Favell, a standoffish woman who seems to have scared everyone else away and when she offers Rose the chance to escape into letters about the seemingly impossible, Rose soon wishes she had never picked up that first letter.

The Cottingley Cuckoo by A.J. Elwood