Ready to discover another great book for this 2020? Take a look…

The Illustrated Child by Polly Crosby

Genre: Fiction
Publisher: HQ Stories
Rating: 4/5
Amazon, Hive

About The Book

Romilly lives in a ramshackle house with her eccentric artist father and her cat, Monty. She knows little about her past – but she knows that she is loved.
When her father finds fame with a series of children’s books starring her as the main character, everything changes: exotic foods appear on the table, her father appears on TV, and strangers appear at their door, convinced the books contain a treasure hunt leading to a glittering prize.
But as time passes, Romilly’s father becomes increasingly suspicious of everything around him, until, before her eyes, he begins to disappear altogether.
In her increasingly isolated world, Romilly turns to the secrets her father has hidden in his illustrated books, realising that there is something far darker and more devastating locked within the pages…
The truth.

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My Thoughts

First of all, let’s talk about the beauty of this cover, it’s a mix up of reality and fiction, like the story, told like a fairy tale, the deep core of the plot is thick and bitter.
I really don’t want to spoil much about the story, it is not an easy read, it will touch the soft spot of any reader, how a child that should have a beautiful and happy childhood will have to see the dark side of life.
Being a successful parent is everyone’s dream, to be able to give everything to our little ones and make them happy, but what happens when the dream starts eating ourselves? When you have everything you need but the motive you start doing it is long forgotten? The ones who will pay the consequences are always the little ones; the ones that don’t have a voice. In this case, Romilly will have her drawings. 
This had been an amazing story, reading it was feeling part of the story not a mere observer, Romilly’s story is not easy to tell but she is brave to draw her feelings and emotions in her own way. It always amazes me how children feel more about the world surrounding us that they share and they cover the things that hurt them, trying always to cover the guilt of the parents, even knowing that they are hurting them.
Be prepared to enter the most powerful book of the year, you’ll never forget it. Ready to discover “The Illustrated Child”?

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About The Author

Polly Crosby grew up on the Suffolk coast, and now lives with her husband and son in the heart of Norfolk.
Her first novel, The Illustrated Child, is out on 29th October.
In 2018, Polly won Curtis Brown Creative’s Yesterday Scholarship, which enabled her to finish her novel. Later the same year, The Illustrated Child was awarded runner-up in the Bridport Prize’s Peggy Chapman Andrews Award for a First Novel. Polly received the Annabel Abbs Creative Writing Scholarship at the University of East Anglia, and is currently working on her second novel.