This is a fascinating tale., always keeping you off balance, delaying revealing information so you only join up the last dots on the last page.

There are good books, great books, and exceptionally good books, that need to be read at all costs. This is one of those books. A book that you live in, and a book that changes you inside. I could not recommend this book anymore.

Romilly Kemp Lives in a ramshackle of a house. with her artist father. They live an idealistic and eccentric life with a small kitten called Monty. They have traveled around and finally settled in the house. Her father comes up with an idea for a series of books based on Romilly and Monty's adventures. He illustrated the books with his paint that are packed with intricate detail. The books sell extremely well, and fans are convinced that the books contain clues to a treasure hunt.

People travel the globe and turn up at the house and it's surrounding wanting to catch a glimpse of Romilly and her father. Her father starts to become increasingly withdrawn and begins to disappear. Romilly discovers that the books contain clues to something much more valuable than simple treasure. This is the brief of the book, but that in itself is extremely clever as it hides the true meaning of those statements. It deals with one of the biggest issues of loss facing the world today.

The book deals with childhood and growing up. It also deals with loss, in more than one way. It is a journey of the heart and mind. It is NOT a book with clues and a surprise ending, it is so much more. It starts off with idyllic childhood of joy, but as time progresses, things start to change. All of the main characters are well wounded and defined. The journey is continuous and never flags or gets bogged down. I believe that the author has experience of the issues and has poured their heart and soul into this project.

It is a must read 5 starts.

I would recommend this book for the delight of imagining the children’s’ books and the illustrations within them. The author paints such a wonderful picture of them and how they follow on from each other and what the drawings look like.
Romilly begins as a nine year old and progresses throughout the book to being 16. She lives with her Dad, a writer and illustrator, in an old house in the country.
You wonder where her mum is and this is explained later in the book.
She also makes friends with a girl called Stacey who comes and goes.
I found the book very strange and yet intriguing. Even at the end I am still unsure what was really and what wasn’t. I will definitely be reading this again!!

This is the story of Romilly, whose father has written a series of illustrated adventure books featuring herself and her cat Monty. The books contain clues to a treasure and become very popular, as in Masquerade by Kit Williams in the 1980s with many people following the clues. Her mother has left, although she appears a couple of times, as does her grandmother, but Romilly grows up lonely except for a mysterious friend Stacey, and she stops going to school. Her father's behavior becomes increasingly bizarre and she is neglected. The plot is very slow and it does become quite dark. The treasure is not what people think, as Romilly finally discovers.

This is an intriguing book. It is mystical but also very sad. The Illustrated Girl has as sad a life as it is possible to imagine. Her mother is absent,her father caring but not aware of the needs of a growing child. Romilly has one friend off and on called Stacey and is supposedly homeschooled which means bringing herself up. As the years pass more is revealed about her past and the future brings more problems. The title comes from her father becoming a renowned author publishing books in which his daughter is the star. That brings money,notoriety and other reminders of her past. All of this is in an amazingly well devised context of imagination and mystery. It can be sad then joyful within a paragraph. It is a book to lose yourself,take it as it comes and refrain from being judgmental! In our society,this girl would have been supported. Forget that and enjoy a very well crafted,unusual book.

Thank you to HQ and Netgalley for the ARC of The Illustrated Child by Polly Crosby.

This book follows the tale of a young girl growing into a teenager, her childhood haunted by a series of books her father wrote about her. The books are said to contain clues for a treasure hunt, and for Romilly this becomes intensely personal.

The Illustrated Child was not an easy book to read, in that it addresses a lot of really deep topics and Romilly's childhood is anything but normal. The kind of childhood that was idyllic, but as she grows up it becomes a little harrowing and slightly sinister, as if there is always a small shadow of something hanging around on the edges.

For me, it felt like I was intruding on someone's deeply intimate fantasy, a feeling of misplaced reality and hazy hued day dreams, but I feel like this is what makes the book - you end it and feel like you're awakening from a dream. And that is what really made the book stand out so much for me, the imagery in the book is so vivid that a whole new world is painted and you're transported to another place far away.

To describe the book to a non-reader, I'd call it bizarre, a strange mix of the corporeal with the ghosts of reveries past. Would definitely recommend to anyone that likes a book that creates a strong mental picture, family secrets galore and cats.

CW: child death, early onset dementia, self harm, hallucinations

Romilly lives with her eccentric artist father and their cat Monty. Her father writes children's books starring Romilly, bringing them fame and fortune, however her father starts to get suspicious of the outside world as people turn up for a 'treasure hunt' that is suggested in the mystery of the books. Romilly starts to look for the secrets hidden in the children's books and finds that the treasure hunt may lead to something even more precious than gold... the truth. A unique story that is beautifully written and enjoyable, and is good if you like mysteries. Thanks to the publisher, author and NetGalley for an advance copy of the book in return for my honest review.

When I saw the cover of this book I thought this will be a quick read. It won't get under my skin. Oh my god. This book is amazing. 5 stars it is the detail, the descriptive writing. I want a copy of this so i can read it over and over.

I read this book over two days and I have to say that it’s the most unusual book I’ve read in a long time. Romilly and her father live together in a huge ramshackle house with its own moat. Romilly’s mother is not part of her life and she doesn’t know why but she is very much loved by her eccentric father and lives an almost feral life in the grounds and surrounding areas.
Her father writes and illustrates books based on Romilly and her childhood, but there is mystery in the books which readers feel is a sort of hidden treasure hunt, and this causes problems for for them as their home becomes an unwelcome tourist attraction.
It’s almost impossible to describe this book, as there is so much mystery, so much unsaid, so much slowly revealed. If you like to read something different, this book is for you.

3.5 stars.

Beautifully atmospheric to begin with of summers left to roam wild... but there was a darker story underneath.
A father who sells his daughters childhood for money and fame(which sounds more sinister than it is).

There were a fair few hints dropped in the story,so I wasn't surprised by any of the stories twists.
I enjoyed it as a whole,but felt the much darker scenes at the end of the book didn't feel right.
Some great descriptions so I could almost picture the illustrations themselves.