I’ve spent the past week slowly reading this because I’ve been really enjoying it! I’ve just finished it and it is BRILLIANT. It tells the story of Luke, a young boy from London, who lives in a London where children are mysteriously kidnapped and there’s a smog going around the city! It’s dark, it’s full of hope. There’s friendships, finding yourself, solving problems and a cat - what more could I want? Luke is such a brilliant main character and I loved all of his friends. Tabatha is one of those villains from kids books that will stay with me!

An absolutely stunning tale for younger readers encompassing the magic of clouds. Who hasn't spent their youth imagining shapes in the clouds? This fantastic story adds meaning to those clouds: ghostclouds. The souls that attach themselves to the water particles and create their shape formation to travel the the skies. What an absolute dream. Yet, darker beings also stalk the clouds and a council places laws to separate ghost clouds from the human world below. The story begins in an alternative London. Children are being kidnapped and sent to work in coal mines that power the city and are presided over by the wicked Tabatha. The main protagonist Luke is suffering a gruelling punishment in a sewer as he tried to protect new girl Jess, when he discovers a ghostcloud called Alma. Alma reveals a startling fact about Luke and they soon embark on an adventure that seeks to help Luke and the lost children freed from their slavery by Tabatha and back home with their loved ones. A stunningly beautiful story that is full of adventure and excitement. It had me gripped right from the first line. Such a binge-worthy book. #ghostcloud #Michaemann #netgalley

An absolute cracker of an MG mystery adventure, set in a stunningly well-realised alternate-future London, with a properly dastardly villain, an MC I was rooting for from page one, and twists and turns that kept me guessing the whole way through. Highly recommend.

12-year-old Luke shovels coal deep below Battersea Power Station with all the other stolen children in an alternate version of London—suffocating in smog and grime. But then one day he sees someone no one else can see, a ghost-girl called Alma, and he discovers a world and a part of himself that he didn’t know existed. Alma inspires Luke to look for a way for him and his friends to escape the evil Tabatha Margate, until he realises that her devious plans go way beyond kidnapping children. Can Luke and his friends find a way to stop her before it’s too late? 'Ghostcloud' is a dark and twisty story with a richly imaginative ghost mythology. I loved the use of familiar London landmarks in a gloomy alternative reality—particularly the iconic Battersea Power Station, which seems ideally designed for dystopian landscapes. Luke is a wonderfully relatable character, as he struggles to work out where he belongs and where his loyalties lie, and Tabatha is a chilling Cruella-esque villain. (Watch out Battersea cats and dogs!) I was thoroughly swept away by Luke’s ghostly adventure and will continue to avoid the sinister chimneys of Battersea Power Station. An excellent read!

My nine-year-old couldn't put GHOSTCLOUD down. As an avid reader, it takes a lot for a book to really grab her attention, and this one did. A beautifully imagined story, with real depth, that asks some big questions. She is still talking about the characters several weeks after finishing it and is very keen on getting her hands on the sequel!