Breathe: A Ghost Story Hardback [Hardcover]

Scary, disturbing and intense...a thoroughbred among haunted house tales...McNish knows how to keep the reader dangling, ensuring you'll be hard-pressed to put this down once you've started. An excellent, if unsettling experience, not recommended for sensitive types. (Jayne Nelson SFX )

'An intense supernatural novel that haunts the reader. Jack is able to sense the dead and after moving into a new house, a dangerous spirit is eager to contact him. Breathe is not for the faint-hearted.' (FUNDAY TIMES ONLINE )

'A genuinely spooky ghost story that leaves you breathless' (FIRST NEWS )

'A terrifyingly well written and disturbing story... Despite all the horror the ending is a moving testament to the transforming power of love.' (UNDERCOVER )

'If you're after a seriously spooky story, this is one for you... a truly terrifying tale. Not for the faint-hearted!' (Helen Boyle TBK )

'Jack's susceptibility to frightening asthma attacks matches the consumptive sufferings of a long dead girl who appears to him.... Readers aged 10 and above will be gripped and spooked.' (Linda Newbery TES )

'a brilliant ghost story which kept me hooked until the end. The descriptions are wonderfully vivid, with the nightmare passage being particuarly haunting, and any 8-12 year olds feeling brave enough to try this are in for a treat.' (Clare Harrison DUNMOW OBSERVER )

'an atmospheric, chilling tale guaranteed to raise the hairs on the back of your neck.' (Nikki Gamble THE BOOKSELLER )

'Such is McNish's skill that when you read of the young hero Jack's asthma attackes, you'll find your own breathing feels constricted. He evokes the same empathy when dealing with the ghosts who haunt Jack, taking us into the realms of inventiveness that are his trademark. Breathtaking." (Philip Ardagh GUARDIAN CHILDREN'S BOOKS SUPPLEMENT )

'An astoundingly creative story with some truly scary moments... Add to this the remarkable way in which McNish develops the theme of breathing, including an acutely well drawn representation of Jack's chronic asthma, and you find yourself with a multi-layered story that will genuinely unnverve the reader, in a way so many ghost stories fail to do.' (Huw Thomas BOOKS FOR KEEPS )

'gripping in its claustrophobic intensity... An irresistable page-turner which allows you to feel what it's like to be asthmatic and, oddly, leaves the reader pitying the dreadful Ghost Mother. You will never see mouth-to-mouth resuscitation again without wondering:are they blowing in or sucking out?' (Tina Massey CAROUSEL )

'You shouldn't really read this before you go to sleep, as there are some really scary moments. It's well-written and easy to read.' (Felix Taylor (age 14) INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )

'Morbid, necrophiliac and often distinctly queasy, this could be just the thing for adolescents in search of something engagingly horrible.' (Nicholas Tucker THE INDEPENDENT )

'An unusual ghost story where nothing is as simple as it seems until the very last explosive climax. A brilliant winter warmer.' (INSIGHT (Derbyshire) )

'The Nightmare Passage is a vivid and unusual version of hell.... a book for 11 to 13-year-olds who like and exciting and gripping read.' (Rachel Ayers Nelson THE SCHOOL LIBRARIAN )

'If you're after a seriously spooky story, this is one for you... a truly terrifying tale. Not for the feint-hearted!'

'an atmospheric, chilling tale guaranteed to raise the hairs on the back of your neck.'

'Morbid, necrophiliac and often distinctly queasy, this could be just the thing for adolescents in search of something engagingly horrible.'

A chilling story of the supernatural for readers of 11+.

Jack has always had an affinity with the supernatural, people who lived long ago and whose spirits remain in this world. Following his father's death, he and his mother move to an isolated house. Instantly, Jack senses the presence of the previous owner. But he is soon aware of other spirits reaching out to claim him ... At the heart of the house is the Ghost Mother - long dead, but still mourning her daughter, for whose death she feels responsible - who has imprisoned four children, from different times and families. She has intercepted their passage from the living world to the afterlife and draws her strength by leeching their souls. Is it her intention that Jack meets the same fate? Or has she other plans for her latest resident? Jack's encounter with ghosts leads him to the terrifying Nightmare Passage - a kind of purgatory to which spirits are violently, viciously condemned. His survival depends on his own powers, his understanding of the Ghost Mother's guilt, his contact with her dead daughter, and the resolution of his own grief. Breathe is a compelling stand-alone novel, not for the faint-hearted but immensely rewarding for its psychological depth and the literally breathless action sequences, the hallmarks of Cliff's writing.

Jack is used to danger. His asthma has nearly killed him more than once. But his new home has a danger he's never known before - the spirits of the dead. They can't breathe . . . But in Jack's house they can . . . chase hide scream Only Jack can see them. Only he can hear them. And only he can learn their secrets in time to save his mother - and himself . . . Cliff McNish is the author of the highly successful Doomspell trilogy. The Doomspell, The Scent of Magic and The Wizard's Promise won him an avid readership instantly, and he was hailed as a 'great new voice in writing for children' (The Bookseller). The trilogy has been published in eighteen languages around the world. More recently, it has been followed by the highly-acclaimed The Silver Sequence. Cliff was born in Sunderland in north-east England. He enjoys playing golf, walking up mountains and eating as much hot and spicy food as possible. He is married and has a teenage daughter, Rachel.

www.cliffmcnish.com www.orionbooks.co.uk

Cliff McNish was born in Sunderland, but has spend most of his life in the southeast of England. His daughter Rachel loved to hear stories from an early age, inspiring THE DOOMSPELL.