#Review: The Other Side Of The Wall by Andrea Mara

Release date - 6th June 2017
Book length - 392 pages
Publisher - poolbeg.com
Book Depository - www.bookdepository.com
Amazon UK - www.amazon.co.uk
Amazon US - www.amazon.com

ABOUT THE BOOK
When Sylvia looks out her bedroom window at night and sees a child face down in the pond next door, she races into her neighbour's garden. But the pond is empty, and no-one is answering the door. 

Wondering if night feeds and sleep deprivation are getting to her, she hurriedly retreats. Besides, the fact that a local child has gone missing must be preying on her mind. Then, a week later, she hears the sound of a man crying through her bedroom wall. 

The man living next door, Sam, has recently moved in. His wife and children are away for the summer and he joins them at weekends. Sylvia finds him friendly and helpful, yet she becomes increasingly uneasy about him. 

Then Sylvia's little daughter wakes one night, screaming that there's a man in her room. This is followed by a series of bizarre disturbances in the house. 

Sylvia's husband insists it's all in her mind, but she is certain it's not - there's something very wrong on the other side of the wall.

MY REVIEW
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL by Andrea Mara is a debut novel that will absolutely knock your socks off and leave you looking at your neighbours in a whole new light. 

From the moment Sylvia sees what appears to be a child's body floating in her next door neighbours pond, her life will never be the same. After returning to her stressful job after being off on maternity leave, her husband believes that it is exhaustion and worry that has Sylvia hallucinating. But when other strange things begin to happen in her home, Sylvia knows that there is something going on and it is connected to the new neighbours next door. Everything was perfect in this little community until they showed up so it cannot be a coincidence...

From missing neighbours, to strange noises, to monsters at the foot of the bed, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL by Andrea Mara will send chills up and down your spine and have you double-checking the locks ten times before you go to sleep. Gripping, enthralling, and downright creepy, this novel has got it all.

The narrative switches from past to present, and from one character's story to another, which gives an edginess to the tale that works perfectly with the pace of the drama. While I had my suspicions about what was happening, I am delighted to say I was completely wrong, and as the truth unfolded, I had to lift my mouth up off the floor!

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL by Andrea Mara is the epitome of what a psychological thriller novel should be, and will leave you asking the question, do you ever really know what happens behind closed doors? If you love a novel that gets your heart racing and your nerves jangling, then THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL is definitely for you. 

Author Bio:
Andrea Mara is a freelance writer and blogger, who lives in Dublin with her husband and three young children. She writes lifestyle features for Irish newspapers, magazines, and websites, and has won multiple awards for blogging. She attempts – often badly - to balance work, family and writing, then lets off steam on her blog, OfficeMum.ie. When she’s not keeping one eye on the kids, and the other on Twitter, she’s furiously scribbling notes for her next book. For more information:
Website - officemum.ie
Twitter - twitter.com/Office_Mum
Facebook - www.facebook.com/OfficeMum/

I AM DELIGHTED TO HAVE A WONDERFUL GUEST POST FROM ANDREA ABOUT E-READERS AND OUR FASCINATION WITH NUMBERS. CHECK IT OUT: 


Reading by numbers

Have you embraced e-readers, or do you feel nothing compares to a real paper book? I was firmly in the second camp for a long time – certain that an e-book couldn’t compete with a literal page-turner. “But what about when you’re going on holidays?” a friend of mine asked. And I pointed out that I bring as many books as I need, because we always travelled by car. Then it happened. The summer before last, we were finally (finally) brave enough to try flying with three small kids. 

And in the end, the journey was unexpectedly easy, but the luggage restrictions posed a whole new set of problems. With the car, you can fit everything in – you can literally throw extra books and extra bags and just one more pair of shoes into the boot before you leave the house. But with flying, everything must be weighed up in advance and judged on its, well, weight. So I packed three books, reasoning that with small kids, reading time would be minimal anyway. 
And as I got to the end of my final paperback, still only halfway through the holiday, I finally realised why I needed a Kindle.

A year later, the night before my holiday, I spent a happy evening browsing on Amazon and downloading books from library app Overdrive. I brought six e-books with me, along with the knowledge that if I did run out, I’d need nothing more than a WiFi connection to buy some more. 

And not to sound ungrateful – I was delighted to have an indefinite pipeline of books for my trip – but there were some unexpected downsides. I didn’t like bringing it to the beach and was cautious about bringing it to the pool. As parents of small kids know, much of pool-time is spent actually in the water, not lying beside it reading, and leaving my brand new Kindle unattended for long periods of time wasn’t ideal. So for daytime, I borrowed books from the campsite office instead – well-used books that could stand to get wet or sandy or sit alone on a beach towel while I was in the water. 

At night, sitting on the deck, I was back to my Kindle, delighted at how easy it was to read in the dark. Except it kept running out of power, and there was no charger long enough to stretch from inside the mobile home. So every now and then, just as I got to the good bit (isn’t it always at the good bit) I’d get a little warning that power was running out, and have to switch to my daytime paperback. Not the ideal way to read, but still, better two books on the go than none at all.

Soon I noticed that on Kindle, I was flying through the books – faster than on paper. Why was that I wondered? Then I realised – the little notification at the bottom of the page; the one that tells you how far you’ve read or how long it will take you to finish the chapter – was pushing me to read faster. Not in a good way – not in a “This is so good I can’t wait to get to the end” way but in an “I’m subconsciously trying to beat the clock” way. Like when Sat Nav tells you that you’ll arrive by 1.56pm and you’re absolutely certain you can get there sooner, and determined to shave at least two minutes off that estimate. 
Because numbers make us compete – even with ourselves. The website that gives you ten minutes to buy before it times out. The minutes it takes to run one kilometre this week compered to last week. The Facebook photo that gets more likes than the one before. The grade for the essay. The number of hours the baby slept. The lbs on the weighing scales. The power in the phone. The petrol gauge that’s tipping towards zero - but you know you can get two more school-runs out of it.
Life is more interesting with numbers, and measuring or achieving is arguably impossible without, but often numbers mean pressure – even if it’s just the ones at the bottom of the Kindle. 

And I’m sure I can switch them off, I just haven’t worked out how. In the meantime, when I’m at home and not restricted to the numbers on an airport weighing scale, I’m sticking (almost always) to a reassuringly old-fashioned paperback.

*I WANT TO THANK ANDREA AND POOLBEG FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO REVIEW THIS GRIPPING NOVEL.