My thanks to Atlantic Books/Corvus for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Temple House Vanishing’ by Rachel Donohue in exchange for an honest review.

“Twenty-five years ago, a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl and her charismatic teacher disappeared without trace...”

Temple House is an elite Catholic girls' boarding-school located close to the sea in rural Ireland. Its students live under the ever watchful eyes of the nuns.

Most of the story is narrated by Louisa, who in 1990 won a scholarship to attend Temple House. However, due to her background she doesn’t fit in with the wealthy, entitled majority of students. Things change when she makes friends with Victoria, who is very much a free spirit. Both girls become infatuated with Mr. Lavelle, their young, bohemian art teacher. Then he and Louisa suddenly disappear.

In the present a journalist, who grew up across the street from Louisa (and was occasionally babysat by her) is determined to discover what really happened to the missing pair. Yet this search for the truth stirs up the past in unforeseen ways.

This is a haunting mystery with dollops of teenage angst, jealousy, and repressed desire encouraged by the hothouse atmosphere of its Catholic boarding school environment. I felt that it was beautifully written evoking its setting with rich descriptions.

Although the past events take place in the late 20th century, there is an ageless feel about Temple House. Yet having spent time in rural Ireland I can appreciate that sense of stepping outside of time.

I felt that Rachel Donohue was quite restrained in terms of the inclusion of Gothic elements, which was appreciated as it can be a fine balance and all too easy to slip into melodrama. I can quite understand why this novel is drawing comparisons with Daphne du Maurier’s work.

The ending left me feeling that I wanted to return to the beginning to revisit events with that knowledge. It’s the kind of novel that I might well read again to appreciate its nuances. There is also plenty to appeal to reading groups in terms of topics for discussion as well as an atmospheric story and setting.

Certainly an assured debut and I will look forward to reading her future books.

An interesting and mostly compelling read that got my attention straight away and kept it!
Good story telling combined with an easy style of writing had me interested all the way through
On the whole an intriguing and enjoyable read

After reading the prologue for try a chapter tag I decided to go read the synopsis again. Which got me back intrigued by the story. Sadly when I started reading this I just struggled. I needed something to happen. A twist early on perhaps to grip me. But that didn't happen.
I found myself bored throughout this. Despite being intrigued by the synopsis the writing erased all of that. I felt forced to finish this. Hoping the big reveal would be better. But it was underwhelming and predictable.
Overall this is pretty forgettable for me.

An old fashioned mystery in an atmospheric setting! twenty five years ago Louisa earns a scholarship to the Temple House convent. She is unsure of the chance but her parents are on the verge of divorce and she sees it as a chance to escape. She strikes up a friendship with a deep, emotional student Victoria and becomes entranced by their art teacher Mr Lavelle. The three of them become close and the story revolves around them. Add in the head prefect Helen who has designs on Mr Lavelle and looks down her nose on Louisa and it all becomes very intriguing. Until Mr Lavelle and Louisa disappear!
Twenty five years later a young female journalist, who was a neighbour of Louisas, is given the job of writing a piece on The Temple House mystery and we start to see the story unravel. The story is told from the viewpoint of Louisa and the journalist and draws you in until the mystery is solved.
This is my first time reading something from Rachel Donohue and I look forward to reading more from her. Thnk you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review

A young girl and a teacher disappear from school never to be seen again but just what happened to them. A journalist decides to seek the truth of those days and what truly happened at Temple House.

This was an interesting and at times haunting read. The story is told by Louisa and the journalist giving an interesting insight into the whole story. The plot is slow and steady, the ending was interesting though I had figured what had happened. I like the chilling last section by Louisa. The story is written well with the descriptions creating the atmosphere at the house so perfectly. The fact we learn little about the journalist adds to the mystery of the story. I enjoyed the jumping from past to present as the story came together. An intriguing story.

The mystery of a missing teacher and student – never solved and resurfacing every few years in the need for closure. Yet there are those that know what happened that fateful night and so far the truth has been buried. Now 25 years later a young journalist, who herself feels a strange connection to the case, begins a series of articles that may just help bring the truth to light. So she begins to dig, looking through decades of articles and interviews of a case that continues to stir interest. A case that still holds hurt, loss and even, for some, disdain amongst past pupils and those involved. Can she discover the truth searching through the fragmented remains of the past? What really happened that fateful night? The school itself never survived the scandal but what became of the nuns, the priests, the other students? Someone knows more than they are letting on. Can old ghosts ever finally be laid to rest?

Temple House has been run as a school for girls for fifty years. It is a good catholic school and the nuns run it with a quiet, steely calm with the help of the prefects and Head Girl Helen.

We see everything, we know everything.’
But beneath the accolades and the prestige lies an underbelly of secrets and lies. All is not quite as it seems and the consequences can be harsh if you don’t quite ‘fit in’ and if things aren’t done in the ‘correct’ way. It’s the autumn of 1990 and Louisa, a young woman from a broken family, wins a scholarship to finish her education at the school. It’s an effort to allow those from less fortunate backgrounds but who show excellence, the chance to thrive on all the school has to offer.

Temple House itself lies quietly in the background throughout the novel. It has a sinister air providing the necessary backdrop in this dark tale of love, passion, desire and the madness they can summon. Right from the opening prologue we know that Temple House can not be a happy place. It is supposed to offer opportunities and a future, the chance to shine but it is shrouded in cold shadow.

From the start Louisa feels out of place, although that is true of anywhere as she navigates the difficult days of adolescence. Then she meets Victoria. There is an instant connection and they spend much of their time together. They are the ones who dream of better things. Inspired by the works of Woolf, Becket, Plath – literature that makes you think and challenge the world around you they look for the beauty and meaning in the shadows. There is an air of the style of these revered writers in Rachel’s own writing. She looks deep into the soul and the darkness that can lie there.

Then there is Mr Lavelle, the young, beautiful enigmatic art teacher. He is different to the other teachers and there is an air of mystery to him, one that he thrives on. We see him mostly through the eyes of the young women that surround him, his character in their hands but I feel there is more to Lavelle. He inspires in them deeper thought and consideration and encourages them to look past the outer appearance of the world around them. What passions can this ignite though? Well those can be deadly.

This is a beautifully written debut novel. Moving, dark, mesmerising and incredibly atmospheric. It captures the intensity of adolescence, that time when we feel that the world doesn’t understand us but that we are poised for either greatness or nothingness. The fall from these feelings can be spectacular and this novel looks at life through a prism, scattering the many different colours and emotions. Rachel is a very exciting new voice in literature and I thoroughly recommend this, her debut novel.

The Temple House Vanishing is published by Corvus, an imprint of Atalntic Books. It is available now in Hardback, Ebook and Audiobook; a paperback edition is due to be published in September. (I will definitely be adding this to my audiobook wishlist – it will be stunning!)

Thank you so much to both Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This is an absolutely stunning story, one that lingers long after the final word has been read.

The Temple House Vanishing is Rachel Donohue’s superbly unique and astonishingly outstanding debut novel; it was a real struggle to put the book down because it takes you and holds you captive with no means of escape. It is very much a brooding, slow-burn thriller rather than anything fast-paced but it remains a steadfast page-turner regardless. Set in a Roman Catholic convent in the 1990s and with a sense of nostalgia and a portrayal of the zeitgeist of the time, the story follows Louisa and Victoria, two friends who became good friends. Run by the convent's nuns, we learn that Louisa had been awarded a prestigious scholarship to the school whereas all the other attendees had their tuition paid for by wealthy parents. Victoria is the only girl who introduces herself to the newbie and keeps her company. Soon the two girls strike up a slightly odd friendship with young art teacher Mr Lavelle. Fast forward twenty-five years and an investigative reporter familiar with the case of Louisa, who completely disappeared one day, decides to play devil's advocate and begin a deep dive into the young girls vanishing act and that of Mr Lavelle at exactly the same time. Is there more to this than initially meets the eye?

From the get-go, Ms Donohue instils a creepy, foreboding and richly atmospheric tale of forbidden love, revenge, privilege, jealousy, obsession, money, greed, lust, love and so much more. Some of the 90’s references we're right my street given it was this decade in which encountered my formative years. Written in a totally beguiling style I felt that the past and present perspectives give the story a fully rounded, immersiveness to it and the two plot threads merge further into the book. The author is such captivating storyteller that it's much on impossible to turn away. This is a literary gothic mystery and reveals itself slowly; as each layer is peeled back we learn more about what happened on that fateful day and how it was rapidly buried to save face. It's about being unable to cast off the haunting glare of the past and of past sins and the characters are unexpectedly intriguing. An interesting and intelligent read that discusses some fascinating, eye-opening themes and certainly gave me plenty of food for thought. Many thanks to Corvus for an ARC.

The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue
I really enjoyed this novel by Rachel Donohue which is set in a girls Roman Catholic boarding school. The story opens with Louisa, a scholarship girl, arriving at the school and on her first day the prefects take the girls to view a dead nun in the chapel! The descriptions of the school and the petty rivalries and the way in which the scholarship girls are treated is very well described.
The mystery at the heart of the novel is the disappearance of Louisa and Edward Lavelle, a male art teacher, is not solved but this is an engaging and atmospheric book which engages the reader and draws them into the world of the school with its petty rules, hormones and hysteria. There are shades of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Picnic at Hanging Rock here, a fascinating read and I would like to thank Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to read it in return for an honest review.

This book has an atmosphere to it, from another world, a different dimension, you cannot grasp the characters and their intentions for so long !

Love that book could not wait to know the ending.

Unfortunately I really struggled with this book. I persevered with it until the end but it just wasn’t for me. The writing was excellent but it just wasn’t my type of book..


Not providing links to review as I only rated it 2 stars

The blurb of this book had me really intrigued. It sounded like it was going to be dark and mysterious which I was not dissapointed by.
The book is focused around Louisa and Victoria who attend the same Catholic boarding school. It is here that they meet the handsome art teacher Mr Lavelle. The pair soon become infatuated with the handsome teacher. Things take a dark turn when Louisa and Mr Lavelle disappear at the same time.
The story is told from Louisa's point of view and the journalist who is reporting on the story years later in search of what really happened to the pair
Whilst the story was dark and atmospheric it was quite slow going and took me quite a while to really get invested in it. Overall it was a good debut story and well worth a read

DNF at 25%. I was really interested in reading this book as the description sounded like something I’d like. However, it was too slow for me. Also, possibly aimed at a younger audience? Thank you for the opportunity to give this one a go, unfortunately it just wasn’t for me.

I liked the sound of this book in terms of the intrigue about 2 girls infatuated by their art teacher, where one girl and the teacher disappeared 25 years ago. The unresolved mystery is revisited by a journalist trying to determine what happened all that time ago. It gave the impression it would unravel a dark mystery, be unsettling and a good twist. For me, I am not sure it delivered though. It sets the scene in the present day and then dips in and out of the past to tell the story.
Essentially Louisa, a very clever 16 year old girl, who is offered a scholarship at Temple House but not accepted by any other girls there bar Victoria, who becomes her only friend. You get an early sense that you are seeing things through Louisa’s distorted and semi-selective lens. So she isn’t able to interpret the interactions between the teacher, the prefect Helen nor Victoria. For all her intelligence she doesn’t realise Victoria’s quiet moods were very dark in nature. It felt like a depiction of the other characters, the nuns, and the day to day life of an unpopular character at boarding school were missing when they needed to be incorporated to populate and nourish the story and characterisation.
None of the characters are particularly likeable and do not develop particularly throughout the book. Some of the recollections and discourse seem to drone on a bit, rather than feel intriguing or captivating, so the middle part of the book was a bit of a drudge. There is a quiet reveal of the direction the story is going and some clever layering that only becomes evident as the story progresses. It was in parts predictable but nonetheless provides an unsettling and satisfying denouement. I guess the challenge in writing this type of fiction is that there have been many variations of this similar storyline, so it needs to be captivating and commanding to stand out. Not bad, but not great and is a debut novel with promising signs that the writing quality will grow.

Quite enjoyed this book. It's well written if a little slow at times. Having worked in a boarding school I recognised many of the descriptions, although not from when I worked there, you'd have to go back more than 25 years. The main characters were interesting and the relationships quite believable but I found the ending a bit too simplistic. I think that there may have been a bit more investigation, to have been such a mystery for so long stretches credibility a little.
My thanks to netgalley for this copy.

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Twenty-five years ago a teacher and a student disappeared from an elite girls’ boarding-school. The fate of these two remains a mystery until years later a journalist uncovers the tragic truth behind the last days of the missing girl, Louisa, and her relationship with both the missing teacher and her closest friend at the school, Victoria.

This is a darkly interesting debut novel from Rachel Donohue, with an unusual twist at the end that genuinely caught me by surprise. The narrative itself is split between two voices. The first is that of the journalist investigating the disappearances for a series of articles, with the second being the voice of the missing girl, Louisa.

As well as unravelling the mystery behind the disappearance of Louisa and her teacher, Mr Lavelle, the story also examines the dynamic between the central characters and their place within the school. Louisa is very much an outsider, having won her place at the prestigious boarding-school through an academic scholarship. When she meets Victoria, also presented as something of an outsider, the two seem to hit it off almost immediately. As the story unfolds we get to see first the growing closeness between the two girls, and then the tragic fall-out when their friendship is put to the ultimate test.

The writing is superb, pulling the narrative along nicely. Because of the way Donohue layers her prose and builds the story, and thanks to the various linguistic cues used in Louisa’s portion of the tale, the reader is constantly having to reassess what they think they know about the mystery at the heart of this novel. The twist, when it comes, is shocking to the point of heartbreaking, though on reflection all the clues you need to piece the puzzle together are there from the beginning.

This is a great debut from an author worth watching.

I wasn’t quite sure whether I was going to enjoy reading The Temple House Vanishing as my first impressions of this novel was that it would be full of pretentious arty types, the art world being something that I’m very ill informed about!! BUT how wrong could I be??
This is a bewitching read, with the author gradually drawing me in and casting a spell over me as I learned more about Louisa and Victoria, two central characters, attending The Temple House school.
Setting is everything in this atmospheric and haunting novel. The temple house itself exudes an eeriness that never leaves you, page after page. I almost felt like I was walking through those gates and entering a different universe, separate from the outside world, an environment where reality is suspended and distorted, just like it is for both girls. For Louisa, a scholarship girl from the wrong end of town this is like a dream come true but as events unfold it’s more like she’s walking into the lion’s den. Once inside Temple House it feels like Louisa’s fate is sealed, such a hold this place has over her.
The writing is both mesmerising and poetic with Victoria portrayed as an enigmatic yet possibly fragile, unstable creature who manages to befriend Louisa, much to Louisa’s delight and completely captivates this intelligent though naive soul. Added to the mix is the charismatic handsome young male art teacher Mr Lavelle, which in an all girls catholic school is almost definitely a recipe for disaster. Everyone is in love with this roguish, intriguing man, hanging on to his every word.
Using a dual timeline the author transports the reader both through the girls time at Temple House, invoking a sense of dread at what may befall them as well as
from a journalists perspective, twenty five years later, investigating the mysterious disappearance of Louisa and Mr Lavelle.
Was this a simple case of a teacher abusing his position and taking advantage of an impressionable young girl or something else entirely?? Who exactly holds the power within the school’s four walls? Who is predator and who is prey?? The Temple House Vanishing explores in depth the themes of power and jealousy as well as forbidden and unrequited love. Although the only character who I felt empathy towards was Louisa, unwittingly caught up in power games used as a pawn in a situation she has little control over. The ending is beautifully written, haunting until the very last word.
This is a storytelling at its very best and can recommend without a doubt. So glad I persevered as I LOVED this book!
My thanks as always to the author and publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read in exchange for an honest review.

The story of the temple house vanishing is not the story I expected it to be. It had all the same elements of unrequited love, forbidden love and teenage angst but there is a twist to the story you may have been expecting.

The writing is considered and atmospheric, although set in the 1990s the atmosphere of temple house seems much older.

The characters are intriguing and the book leaves you with many unanswered questions about many of them. Some characters, you would expect to find in the story you expect from the blurb, such as Louisa’s parents as all but missing.

The story is told from Louisa’s point of view and that of the journalist who grew up over the road from her. We never heard directly from Mr Lavalle, Victoria or Helen and this leaves some details in question.

The reader is given a more comprehensive answer than the journalist but still it leaves the reader feeling unsettled. Did we really get the true story? The full story? How did Victoria live with her decisions? How did Louisa’s parents react to her vanishing?

A thought provoking read!

Obviously I was seduced by the blurb of a mystery centred around a Catholic boarding school in 1990, and I really enjoyed this spooky tale of sinister relationships.

Louisa is a scholarship girl in a sea of posh privileged boarders who enforce arbitrary rules. Victoria is the exception: mysterious, a bit edgy, and often unpredictable, she has a close relationship with their art teacher Mr Lavelle. The narrative switches between 1990 and 2015, where a journalist with a connection to Louisa is investigating the mystery once again.

This was a really easy read, and really interesting; I particularly enjoyed Rachel Donohue's writing style and her descriptions, preferred the 2015 bits because I love watching a mystery unfurl, and although I was definitely intrigued by the atmosphere and the relationship dynamics, I feel like I would have preferred more of a build-up of the spookiness and suspense in the 1990 narrative in order to really feel the tension and the sense of mystery. Obviously the main comparison would be, erm, The Secret History, and even though I didn't love that book, it definitely got the sense of suspense and complex relationships right. But overall I definitely enjoyed this and I'm sure I'll be checking out more of her books in the future!

This book is a slow burn. It's literary fiction which gently unravels a long standing mystery - what happened to Louisa, a scholarship girl who gets a place at Temple House, an Irish boarding school? Somewhat a fish out of water, Louisa arrives at Temple House the object of scorn from some of the girls from wealthy families, but finds solace in a deep friendship with both another pupil and one of the teachers. One night though, she vanishes and is never seen again. Her disappearance becomes a famous cold case which pops up on the news on anniversaries, so a journalist decides to investigate. Slowly the author reveals the layers of Louisa's story, and it's beautifully done. It's not a pacy thriller, it's a gentle unravelling.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

have to admit that i struggled with this one as its done in style that i really struggle with and i dont normally enjoy

its more that i wasnt enjoying the book, not the sort of book i would normally read...sorry to say