I Am Dust by Louise Beech @LouiseWriter @orendabooks #blogtour #DoYouBelieveInGhosts #IAmDust

Happy Wednesday everyone! (yes it is Wednesday) We’re half way through this week (though the weeks are starting to merge) and I’m seriously ecstatic to be welcoming the epicness that is the #IAmDust blog tour to A Knight’s Reads.

A massive thank you to the awesome Anne Cater for inviting me on the blog tour and to Orenda Books for my e-copy of I Am Dust.

The Blurb

When iconic musical Dust is revived twenty years after the leading actress was murdered in her dressing room, a series of eerie events haunts the new cast…

The Dean Wilson Theatre is believed to be haunted by a long-dead actress, singing her last song, waiting for her final cue, looking for her killer…

Now Dust, the iconic musical, is returning after twenty years. But who will be brave enough to take on the role of ghostly goddess Esme Black, last played by Morgan Miller, who was murdered in her dressing room?

Theatre usher Chloe Dee is caught up in the spectacle. As the new actors arrive, including an unexpected face from her past, everything changes. Are the eerie sounds and sightings backstage real or just her imagination? Is someone playing games?

Not all the drama takes place onstage. Sometimes murder, magic, obsession and the biggest of betrayals are real life. When you’re in the theatre shadows, you see everything.

And Chloe has been watching…

What Did I Think?

I love Louise Beech’s novels. Since I picked up How To Be Brave, I’ve adored every unique book I’ve read. I’ve got to say until I read I Am Dust, my favourite (by a smidgeon) was The Lion Tamer Who Lost. Would this new addition to the Beech library topple this firm favourite and claim the top spot??

So I don’t really read ghost stories but as I’ve said, I adore Beech’s work so I knew I had to read this book, ghosts or no ghosts. This tense read had me hooked from the off! I was blown away, totally stunned. The way she effortlessly jumped from Chloe’s past to present and maintained the uneasiness in the story is brilliant. Yet again Beech has produced a totally different book for those that proceed it.

Beech has totally upped her game with I Am Dust. This is an addictive read that I devouring it in hours when my reading mojo was trying to socially distance itself from me. I was glued to my kindle not wanting this haunting tale to end but also wanting to know who killed Morgen Miller all those years ago. Louise Beech, I commend you with this amazing work of literature. Yes again, you’ve proved you can write a totally unique novel 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 #standingovation and yes, I have a new favourite 😍😍😍

Who is Louise Beech?

Louise Beech is an exceptional literary talent, whose debut novel How To Be Brave was a Guardian Readers’ Choice for 2015. Her second book, The Mountain in My Shoe was shortlisted for Not the Booker Prize. Both of her previous books Maria in the Moon and The Lion Tamer Who Lost were widely reviewed, critically acclaimed and number-one bestsellers on Kindle. The Lion Tamer Who Lost was shortlisted for the RNA Most Popular Romantic Novel Award in 2019.

Her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting for the Bridport Prize twice.

Louise lives with her husband on the outskirts of Hull, and loves her job as a Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was  performed in 2012.