It is always satisfying to discover a book by a yet unknown author, take the risk of reading it and find out that it was worth it. 'Little One' is a cleverly plotted ghost story with a twist, and though the storyline was predictable at times, it was mainly the writing that made reading this book a pleasure.
At the beginning, I was afraid it would turn into some kind of cozy romance ghost story, but fortunately it soon became much darker and things turned out to be very different from what they seemed...
As I mentioned before, the story was predictable at times, and I often wondered how the female main character could not notice what I already knew to come. But then again, it's always easier to see the whole picture from the outside rather than being right in the middle of it.
Still, on several occasions I wanted to smack her on the head for acting so naive. How could she just go to sleep and rely on her - only barely known - friend to 'take care of things' with a dead body lying in her backyard? It just seemed plain stupid. Then going into town next morning without immediately rushing over to the police station, but instead doing nothing about it - again? That was a complete no-go. However, it explained her repeatedly unsuspecting behavior - but then again, the story would have been much shorter if she acted more clever, I guess.
Still, despite these flaws I was totally immersed this book, due to the author's very fine writing skills which created a perfect reading flow. Also, I did like the mostly sad but also scary ghost part of the story, and how the reader was mislead in the beginning, only to be rewarded with a very fascinating turn of events. If you like ghost stories, you may want to add this one to the list.
(Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book, all opinions are my own)