Black Cairn Point

A spine-chilling thriller for the YA market set around the aftermath to a terrifying camping trip.  Five friends make the journey to Black Cairn Point but then things start to go wrong, there is a sense of pervading evil and not all of the group make it out.  The action moves on a year and Dougie is still in a coma from the events of their final night at the Cairn, whilst his friend Heather is being held in a psychiatric unit; he is desperate that he gains consciousness so that she will no longer be a suspect in the deaths of the three friends who did not make it out.

This is a really scary story, perhaps because it does not go into a great deal of detail.  It is left to our imaginations to fill in the details and guess what really went on.  The story takes place over two time periods; the first is the present with Heather in a silent contest with the psychiatrist who wants her to accept that she killed her friends and the second is set during the trip to the Cairn where we see and hear the action from Heather’s point of view.  What I find really fascinating is that the author provides us with several options for an ending and then brings a gigantic twist into the story at the very end, so that we are left with a question mark about whether we have really understood what has been going on.  It is one of those stories that you keep replaying in your mind, trying to find clues and so far I have failed.  The characters are all normal young people, there is no one that shows any signs of being sinister or dangerous and yet the trip has horrifying consequences.  A great read for those who enjoy having their nerves tested and are not afraid of the unknown.