Killing Sound - Paul Southern
ISBN - 9781909489080
Publisher - Chicken House
Release date - September 4 2014
Jodie is cursed with a
terrible gift. She just doesn't know it yet. When she stumbles across
one of her dead father's old papers on sound waves in the attic, it sets
her on a terrifying journey to find out more, leading her across the
streets of London to the dark, untrodden tunnels of the Underground,
where she is forced to face the truth. Her worst nightmare is about to
become real. Worse, she can hear it coming.
When I was contacted about reviewing Killing Sound I didn't know anything about it apart from the fact that I vaguely recognised the author's name. Turns out I did but not because I'd read something he'd written! Paul Southern used to be in a band back in the 1990's so I've obviously come across his name somewhere before.
Killing Sound might just be my favorite book of the year, it's a YA paranormal horror thriller which combined together have led to some fantastic books over the years and this is definitely up there with them. Jodie' s parents died a grisly, gruesome death in the family home - Jodie was there and is quite possibly the only person who knows what happened that night. Fast forward 12 years later and Jodie is living with her Aunt Gene, has a sort-of boyfriend and friends, living a well adjusted life considering the traumas of her early life. All this changes though when she discovers her father's old papers and nothing is going to be the same again. Jodie's father was working on a link between sound and the paranormal. Jodie knows she can't leave this alone as it's a link to the parents she never really knew. She enlists the help of Luca and Kamran and together they try to decipher what happened all those years ago. Jodie's Aunt Gene is none too happy about this discovery and goes to William Habborlain whose work her father was trying to disprove. She finds herself coerced into a seance and contact with Habborlain's peculiar son, John.
Throw in a gang of Goth bullies including a girl, Laura, who appears to want her best friend Luca and Trent, her dark & Gothly boyfriend, strange dreams that might not actually be dreams, demons and strange happenings involving the tube and Killing Sound becomes a rollercoaster of a book. Although written as a YA novel Southern doesn't hold back, there is plenty of scares & gore and he is not afraid to kill quite prominent characters. Between the gripping storyline and the wonderful writing I devoured Killing Sound in just one night - I wouldn't recommend doing this if you scare easily or are alone in the house and definitely don't read it on the Tube! Having read Killing Sound I don't think I will ever use the Tube without wondering 'what if' again.
To quote Barry Cunningham from Chicken House, Killing Sound is 'one of the most brilliantly scary stories I have ever read'.
Huge thanks to Chicken House for providing me with a copy of the book and letting me participate in the blog tour! Here's all the other stops!
