The Crowham Martyrs by Jane McLoughlin

Could there really be witches and demons here at Crowham? Are the badness and fings real? And do all these things have anything to do with Hannah going missing? Do they have anything to do with me? Between growing up and boy trouble Maddy Deeprose may seem like your average 13-year-old girl, but there's something different about Maddy she can see ghosts. The new school term starts at Crowham Martyrs, but Maddy can sense that something is wrong. She begins to have disturbing visions and nightmares of suffering and pain and when her best friend goes missing and nobody will listen to her, Maddy knows it up to her to uncover the truth behind the Crowham Martyrs and stop history repeating itself. A spine-tingling mystery that will haunt you forever.

I love Catnip books. They publish some really unexpected gems and as a consequence I am always excited about reading anything they send me pretty much the moment it drops through my letterbox. This book is no exception. I started it knowing it was set in a boarding school and had ghosts in it and that was enough for me to want to read it. I love a good boarding school story at the best of times and this sounded like it had an edge and boy I wasn't wrong about the edge. This book is seriously creepy. The kind of creepy that comes back and plays in your mind long after you've finished it and gives you creepy nightmares. I'm not really one for getting freaked out about books but this did it. For me the main character Maddy drove this book. You warm to her from the outset and you find yourself draw into this incredibly odd situation she is in and feel her frustrations at all those people around her who don't believe what she is saying about all the weirdness around her. I loved that the story was suspenseful and kept me guessing to the point where I was reluctant to put it down because I needed to know what happened next. All in all superb read which I can thoroughly recommend.