Hold Back the Tide by Melinda Salisbury

4.7/5

Spice Free

If you're not a big fan of watching horror movies or not like anything to do with horror. Don't worry, because this book is the type of horror that leans more into a thriller, but you won't jump while your sitting. (I enjoyed it and I can't even watch a movie meant for kids that has any type of scare)

"In my experience, a murderer is much more likely to kill you if you make them angry.
Right now, my father is furious with me."

4.7 because it doesn't reach the 5 category for me. Any reason? I have no idea. It just doesn't feel like a 5.

This book is 100% worth the read. I could barely put it down.

I suspected the plot twist towards the end, but never-less when it came I was still left surprised.

The story does have a sort of plot change in the middle—don't get discouraged as this change is explained later on by Alva's father. And it's also kind of an exciting change to the story. 

The characters and plot was well thought out and the plot had a good pace to it—not too fast or too slow.

Don't get me wrong, other-worldly monsters are very scary when described detail by detail, but this book does a good job of not letting the scare get to you. (Do I know how the author did it? No, there was probably magic involved, lol) You still might get a little jump-scared though, as every horror/thriller book is made for that.

Alva is the daughter of a mother who was murdered by her husband. Who also happens to be her father. Alva was still a child when this happened, she did not visually witness the murder. But her mother and father were yelling at each other, and four gunshots followed. Her father was the only parent that was in the house when morning came. Following this, anyone would lead to the assumption that the father killed the mother.

Now, Alva has to survive the next years of her life with her father, alone. To make things better, they live isolated on top of a mountain. It is an approximate three hour hike down the mountain to the nearby village—two hours if you hurry.

Alva's father is a Naomhfhuil. We are first led to believe the only role of a Naomhfhuil is to take care of the loch—a lake on the mountain that fuels the town below. Alva creates logs and charts so that she can predict when the loch's water level will rise and fall. As she believes, this makes her useful.

Alva has an escape plan so that she can leave the town and never look back, but this is all becomes subject to change as she becomes closer to Ren and creatures that Alva believes her father was trying to protect, are now eating humans.

Alva's dear love interest is no other than Ren. The first time we are introduced to him, he walked the long three hour hike up to Alva's house to find her, just because he was worried when she didn't meet him as she said. Okay, might not been a big deal, but Ren was born with a twisted leg—and as the author describes it, we can tell that walking for a long time causes him a ton of pain. He could have just waited down the mountain for the next day, but no, he took on the pain just to make sure that Alva was alright.

Like every other small town, this one has it's own drama. The town of Ormscaula has no mayor because it is so small. But they do have the one powerful guy that pays everyones wages. Giles Stewart controls everything. He is the normal stuck-up dude that believes he is the best and no one beats him. The thing that's funny about him is that his son, Gavan, is literally the sweetest person ever.

But anyways, the whole town has not liked Alva ever since her mother died. Most likely it's because Giles told everyone that she's a terrible person because her father killed her mother. Also, Giles has the absolute biggest crush on Alva's mother, so he was pretty mad when she chose to marry a loch keeper, instead of his all-powerful self. He takes everything about Alva's mother and Alva (because she looks just like her mother) very personally. Overall, he's just another politician with a crush on someone's dead mom.

I despise endings. I was close to crying because of this books ending. It wasn't a bad one. It was a 'why does this have to happen?' one. Not in the bad way though, it was a very sweet ending (in a way).

Thanks for reading <3

Hold Back the Tide Synopsis:

"HERE ARE THE RULES OF LIVING WITH A MURDERER.

ONE

—————

DO NOT DRAW ATTENTION 

TO YOURSELF.

OF COURSE, WHEN YOU LIVE WITH A MURDERER, THIS 

IS IMPOSSIBLE. WHICH LEADS TO THE NEXT RULE.

TWO

—————

IF YOU CAN'T BE

INVISIBLE, BE USEFUL."

"Everyone in this quiet lakeside community knows that Alva's father killed her mother, all those years ago. There wasn't enough proof to arrest him, though, and with no other family, Alva's been forced to live with her mother's murderer, doing her best to survive until she can earn enough money to run away.

    One of her chores is to monitor water levels in the loch—a task her father takes very seriously. Their family has been the guardian of the loch for generations. It's a cold, lonely task, and a few times, Alva swears she can feel someone watching her.

    But the more Alva investigates, the more she realizes that the truth can be more monstrous than lies, and that you can never escape your past . . ."