4 books like Touchstone

Although this is a story aimed at younger readers, Allie, the main character is about to turn twelve years old, but don't let that stop you from reading it if you're an adult. The author tells her story skillfully and anyone old enough to remember the heatwave of 1976 will find themselves transported back to that year whilst reading this book. It's also nice to be reminded of a time before everyone had smartphones, computers, and access to the internet, where finding out how to do things and researching the history of your house wasn't just a few clicks away.

Dialogue is expertly handled with true-to-life characterisation and there are beautiful, evocative, almost poetic descriptions. The author has a knack for choosing words that convey exactly the image and feeling she wants the reader to experience. All of the senses are used to brilliant effect and plunge the reader into… show more.

Highgate Cemetery is a place I have always wanted to visit, and through this book you get to see it in its newly built Victorian splendour, and its wild and overgrown beauty of today, making this a must-read novel for me.

This standalone novel combines a Victorian mystery with a modern-day murder mystery and a real-life incident that occurred at Highgate in 1970 which was reported in both newspapers and on television at the time – The Highgate Vampire. All of the reports the author uses in the book can be found in contemporary newspapers of the time. There are even Facebook groups devoted to discussing the event. Having read about The Highgate Vampire from the reports of those involved I was intrigued to see how Morris would incorporate this event into her time slip.

 It is very unusual for an author to use an event that occurred within living… show more.

This is Taylor’s debut novel and like my book, the time slip element takes us back to World War 1 in 1916. Louisa is admitted to Coldbrook Hall Psychiatric hospital after an accident in which she is believed to have tried to commit suicide. Whilst there she slips back to her days at a hospital treating wounded soldiers and falls in love with Robert Lovett. Not only must she find a way to remain with him, but she must find him when he is taken prisoner on the Western Front. The detailed descriptions of life in the trenches really brought the horrors of WW1 to life. Taylor has researched this area thoroughly and her vivid writing style allows the reader to experience the cold, muddy, and rat-infested conditions for themselves. 

The author’s observations on everyday life during the war add interest and are sometimes surprising, for instance, the fact that… show more.

I imagined myself in the desolate place on the Essex coast where the main protagonist had gone, and I felt an invidious sense of dread as the atmosphere built up. The air of supernatural menace seems to breathe out of this story: the threat and the fear crept into me as if I were there myself, knowing something terrifying would happen, willing the main protagonist to get out and save themselves but knowing that I, just like them, would be held fast by those invisible and supernatural tentacles.