Betwixt by Tara Bray Smith (Headline)

This is a delightfully dark tale of three teenagers coming of age on the Californian coast. What each child doesn’t realise is that they are more closely linked to each other than their casual friendships imply.

Nix Saint-Michael sees halos of light around people who are about to die; Morgan D’Amici wakes up with blood under her nails and Ondine Mason’s paintings are coming alive.

These three characters experience a series of unexplained phenomena and then find themselves tied up with a dangerous drug dealer, a random drive in the country and something that isn’t quite human.

But then again … are they? Bray Smith has a casual style of writing and the more bizarre and horrible scenes catch the reader somewhat unaware.

There is a sense that Betwixt is the beginning of a series but it can be read solely as a stand-along novel.