Ferryman by Claire McFall is a young adult fiction title with a story that takes place in the present day, over a timescale of a few days, starting in Scotland and progressing on to the Wastelands which appear as a bleak and highland moorland. The main characters are a teenage girl called Dylan who has died in a train accident while travelling to meet her absent father for the first time, and Tristan who is her ‘Ferryman’ whose job it is to get her across the Wastelands without being dragged under by the wraiths along the way. This was such an interesting premise for a book and I loved that Dylan was a bit fed up and grumpy and wasn't supposed to be some mad heroine that the world would rebel for, but an average teenage girl with some major high school insecurities and humiliations going on. But also that she was strong at times but a bit rubbish at others and wasn't a nasty piece of work with it (I've got serious issues with this new theme of main feisty female characters actually being complete cows!). I was most intrigued by the wraiths and would be interested to hear more of how they evolved, what their end purpose is etc. The writing was good to say that there were mainly two characters for much of it and one of the highlights for me was the description of Dylan exiting from the train after the crash. This story has an ending that I thought was superb in that there’s no way you can’t read book 2 when it arrives, but you also don’t feel like you’ve been cheated by this book at all. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any young adult plus readers with an interest in the slightly unusual or excellent quality Scottish fiction. I'm looking forward to reading Trespassers when it comes out in September.

Ferryman is a paranormal romance, but not the usual kind. I loved the character of Dylan and could really relate to her, and the fact that she was so brave made me root for her even more. The romance was kind of a slow burn, and in a way nothing much happens in the book (they go somewhere, no spoilers! and come back again) but then everything changed between them on that journey. It's one of those books that I find comforting and like to re-read now and then.