The String Diaries
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4.4 • 7 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A family is hunted by a centuries-old monster: a man with a relentless obsession who can take on any identity.
The String Diaries opens with Hannah frantically driving through the night -- her daughter asleep in the back, her husband bleeding out in the seat beside her. In the trunk of the car rests a cache of diaries dating back 200 years, tied and retied with strings through generations. The diaries carry the rules for survival that have been handed down from mother to daughter since the 19th century. But how can Hannah escape an enemy with the ability to look and sound like the people she loves?
Stephen Lloyd Jones's debut novel is a sweeping thriller that extends from the present day, to Oxford in the 1970s, to Hungary at the turn of the 19th century, all tracing back to a man from an ancient royal family with a consuming passion -- a boy who can change his shape, insert himself into the intimate lives of his victims, and destroy them.
If Hannah fails to end the chase now, her daughter is next in line. Only Hannah can decide how much she is willing to sacrifice to finally put a centuries-old curse to rest.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British author Jones's debut, an uneven paranormal thriller, fails to live up to the promise of its exciting first chapter. In present-day Wales, Hannah Wilde; her husband, Nate, who's bleeding to death; and their nine-year-old daughter, Leah, are on the run from an unknown enemy. Chapter two flashes back to 1979 Balliol College, Oxford, where academic Charles Meredith, anxious about delivering a high-profile lecture, is unsettled by Nicole Dubois, an attractive woman who has taken over the library table he's accustomed to using. Though Nicole continues to vex Charles, he finds himself fascinated with her, to the point of chasing her car at high speed when she flees town. The suspense builds, but not everyone will be satisfied with the eventual explanation for all these strange incidents. The sections set in the more distant past, starting in 1873 Hungary, drag, and the prose verges on the purple (e.g., "Teeth rained from his mouth, clattering onto the floorboards like ivory dice").
