Bibliothek BHAK & BHAS Bludenz

Clare McNally

Blood Relations

Buchbesprechung von Sabine Hartmann

About the author

Clare McNally is the author of

• Good Night, Sweet Angel
• Stage Fright
• There He Keeps Them Very Well
• Somebody Come and play
• Ghost House
• Ghost House Revenge
• Hear the Children Calling

and other novels of suspense. Her best-selling books have been Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections and have been published in England. Clare McNally, her husband, and their four children live in the New York metropolitan area.

The plot

Grace Matheson. Adopted. Mother of three children. Trevor and the two twins, Seth and Sarah. Tulip Tree, her hometown in the northwestern part of the state. Craig Matheson. Her husband. Financially, certainly a poor family, but also one with a very strong cohesion.

"There was still that empty space that Grace hoped might someday be filled with maternal love."
One day, she looks into a face that is so like her own that this woman could be Grace’s twin. After that she meets Ivy Haberman. She would like to arrange a meeting with Veronica, apparently the mother of Grace. They proceed to risk a leap in the dark. Grace stands face to face with her mum.

When Trevor explores the house, he sees a boy. But suddenly he vanishes. Kids normally don’t disappear right before your eyes, unless they are...ghosts!

After that Grace discovers a diary her grandma has written. It’s about a boy. But what happened to him? "He died", is the answer from behind her. A spirit girl, wearing a nightgown, is standing there. Trevor’s ghost says that they have killed them all to stay young forever. He also says that they conduct cruel experiments.

Finally Veronica begins to talk about the truth. Like, Grace is not her daughter. The spirit girl, who has helped Grace all the time, is her real mother. Veronica again needs blood to stay alive, she’s got old, and in the end she dies, looking like a very, very old woman.

All’s well that ends well.

My opinion

First of all, I have a good impression of this book. I like those inscrutable stories which are emotional. They show you a new, unknown way to live without your real mother. Only then did it dawn on me what it means to have a mother on your side. It doesn’t matter what happens. She is there for you. But I also think, we sometimes do not appreciate this, because nowadays it is perfectly natural. Unfortunately, that’s the way it is.

The book is interesting to read, what the individual persons feel and think in special situations, like about the woman who gave Grace up for adoption when she was a few hours old, is well portrayed. But the book is not only sloppy, like assumed.

In the final stage, where blood, a spirit girl and a boy play the leading roles, it’s once more going to be cruel. The result is, that Blood Relations really can be recommended.