Gloam Island was once a place of games and fun, family and holiday time with their grandmother. Now, siblings, Gwen, Roger, and six-year-old twins, Hazel and Hester cross the tidal causeway to live in their grandmother’s house. She has gone and so has their mother, but Henry Oakworth vowed to love and care for them as his stepchildren.

It feels strange to be back on the island without their grandmother, and the home the locals just call The House, is quiet and strange without her. Mind you, Gwen still remembers her eccentric Grandma, with her belief in monsters and learning to face and fight your fears.

As the oldest, Gwen looked after her siblings through their mum’s illness, and isn’t happy that Henry is planning to hire someone to look after them while he finds work on the mainland. She is adamant they don’t need a babysitter.

A woman arrives, and she is young, pretty and kind. Henry seems relieved, and the twins and Roger warm to her, but Gwen is wary. Something is not quite right with Esme Laverne.

Henry is happy to leave his stepchildren in the care of this local island woman, brushing off Gwen’s worries. He cooks and cares for them as well as he can when he’s home from work, but begins to struggle with his oldest stepdaughter as she insists Esme isn’t who or what she claims to be.

Gwen thinks of their Grandma’s words and warnings from years before, and knows she must stand up to whatever is taking over the house and her siblings. She must be brave, face her fears and the fight that is coming…

Set on a sparsely populated island that is cut off from the mainland daily by the tide, GLOAM is an eerie, atmospheric read within a large old house, that was once an inn where Dick Turpin is said to have stayed.

There are creepy places in and outside of the houses, where the characters must venture, in a fight for their lives. The backstory of the house and main character’s relationship with her strange but loving grandmother, is well written and draws the reader in further.

The further into the novel you get, the creepier it becomes – just as it does for four siblings who must believe in each other in order to survive something truly evil.

I read GLOAM in one sitting. Great read!

Author – Jack Mackay

Age – 10+

(2025, Oneworld Publications, Horror, Old House, Siblings, Stepfather, Monsters, Fears, Spooky, Eerie, Scary, Island, Sinister, Action, Blended Family, Courage, Family, Fantasy, Love, Grandmother, New Home, Memories)