Blog Tour: I am Dust by Louise Beech

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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 20 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? Is the role of Esme Black cursed? Could witchcraft be at the heart of the tragedy? And are dark deeds from Chloe's past about to catch up with her? 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.

You know you are in trouble when your first thought after finishing an epic book is how on earth are you going to review it?  How on earth can I do it justice?  Never has dust been so visible.  I am Dust is outstandingly perfect!

This was an amazing read.  This is a book that you don’t want to review straight away.  You need to take a breather and relish in the absolute mastery that is I am Dust.  It is a story that envelops your soul, becomes at one with your psyche and knows at your senses.  This book flows so beautifully that it speaks to you on a raw and deeper level.  It reads easily, and you end up being so absorbed in the plot.  You are absorbed by the pages until you are living and breathing the story.  There isn’t enough stars that I could possibly rate this book at realistically. 

The Dean Wilson Theatre has newly opened.  The year is 1999, and the first show being shown is Dust.  Morgan Miller plays the character Esme Black.  The unfortunate event that occurred on the fourth showing as the murder of Morgan Miller.  The inevitable action being that the show was cancelled.  There was no successful encore, no new roles, just a wasted potential.  It has been rumoured that Miller haunts the theatre, in her full Esme Black get up. The case was never solved, and her murderer is still on the loose.  The threatening shadows keep you on your toes.  You can feel the threat.  Louise Beech’s writing is magnificent.  My senses were on red alert.  I could see the mystery, sense the fear.  The story was seeped in coldness.  The characters are balancing a sheet of thin ice – one movement could immerse us all.   

We are now twenty years in the future and Dust is returning for a comeback show.  It splits its audience – some are anticipating great things, and some believe that it should be left well alone.  The theatre ultimately hope that this revival will bring a necessary injection of renewed customers.  Bringing it back to where it all began could either cure or kill the theatre’s survival.  I was enamoured with the plot and couldn’t see the impending threats that slowly began to reveal themselves. 

We meet some new characters.  Chloe being the one that touched me on a raw and gritty level.  For me she is easily led with a resounding need to just fit in.  she is a broken character and the emptiness that screams at us from behind her eyes is enough to crack the readers hearts into a thousand pieces.  The story has an undercurrent of melancholy and it is very easy to fall into a saddened state while experiencing the characters life.  Louise Beech has managed to intertwine two lives that were connected through the ages. 

I am Dust is gritty and compelling.  It is dead set to be a book that gets everyone talking in 2020.  It’s visceral, addictive and Louise Beech’s storytelling is so mind-blowing that she takes it an elusive quality. 

Thanks to Anne @ Random Things Tours for my spot on the blog tour.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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.

Louise Beech