It's so effectively gothic that I couldn't help but picture the school miles from civilisation and shrouded in mist, even though this is clearly not the case as the girls frequently travel to a neighbouring town. It is heavy with doom and dread, which is not to say it is dreary to read (far from it). There is something truly magical about this book - it casts a spell. Tormented by jealousy, the narrator grows ever more suspicious of Ernessa, and - encouraged by an English course which focuses on novels of the supernatural - she becomes convinced the new arrival is, in fact, a vampire. It's only a few days, however, before Lucy strikes up a new friendship with the enigmatic 'new girl' from across the hall, Ernessa. She has for some time enjoyed a friendship with a classmate named Lucy their bond is so strong that they have endeavoured to secure a shared suite, and at the very beginning of the book, the narrator looks forward to the year they will enjoy together. At the time of writing her diary, the narrator is sixteen and a boarding student at what seems to be a prestigious and old-fashioned girls' school. An introduction from the narrator, written thirty years after the main events of the story, explains that its publication is the idea of her former psychiatrist, who believes the journal will be 'an invaluable addition to the literature on female adolescence' all the names will be changed to protect the identities of those involved. This book was amazing and has immediately established itself as a new favourite.Īs the title would suggest, it's presented in the form of a personal diary. At that point, I wasn't sure it was the right kind of book for me, but the coincidence was too good to ignore. I saw someone mentioning it on Twitter - not even to me, just as part of a conversation that caught my attention (I wish I could remember who it was now, I should thank them) - and then, a couple of days later, I was in a secondhand bookshop and spotted a copy for £1. The Moth Diaries came into my life serendipitously.

The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein