Better off Dead

Supernatural YA crime thriller Better Off Dead keeps the reader second guessing. It is the third novel for Tess James Mackey, a graduate of the Write Mentor programme, who enthralled readers with her spine-tingling prison set chiller debut Someone is Watching You in 2023.

Set in an eerie, crumbling cliff-top holiday park in Wales, her latest spooky read plays with the concept of the unreliable narrator. Bullied and conflicted teen Lacy wants to reinvent herself as a sophisticated art student living in Paris. Spurred on by her older sister Winter, who treats everyone with scorn and has designated herself as Lacy’s protector to the point of excluding their hard-working parents, she resolves to earn enough money to follow their dream.

The trouble is Bae Peryg has a reputation as the most haunted caravan park in Wales. Populated by morose staff, in dreadful garb, its coldness seeps into the reader’s bones from the start until they’re left wondering what is real and what is imagined.

As Lacy searches for the opportunity to take the perfect movement photo for her assignment, she cannot shake the feeling that she is constantly being watched. She rejects the underage drinking culture of the camp, resenting the late-night parties while still longing to belong. Mackey ratchets up the tension and the fear factor as unexplained deaths occur, and Lacy feels under threat from predatory figures and her own visions. Haunted by past events and macabre ghost stories, she starts to doubt her own sanity. What she yearns for is friendship and understanding. Welsh lifeguard Dylan is a welcome distraction, but can he be trusted?

Mackey expertly manipulates slow reveals and twists that will surprise and shock. With an important message about peer pressure, a diverse cast of characters, ghostly chills, mind trickery and an atmospheric location, this will appeal to fans of Karen McManus, Cynthia Murphy, Katherine Foxfield and Kat Ellis.