I Am Dust by Louise Beech
When iconic musical Dust is revived twenty years after the leading actress was murdered in her dressing room, a series of eerie events haunts the new cast...
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 twenty 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? 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...
AUTHOR BIO
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.
Review
Louise has written a truly splendid book. It is mesmerising, creepy, atmospheric and beautifully scripted. I really don’t know how to review this book and due it justice. The characters jump off the page and form as a complete person in your mind. The story is hauntingly alluring and grabs you from the first page and doesn’t let go even after you have read the last words. It is one that is going to linger in your consciousness for months or even years.
‘Dust’ was first shown twenty years ago and the actress Morgan Miller who played the lead role of Esme was killed during the interval on the fourth night of the run. Twenty years later the theatre decides to stage it again!
You see the story through the eyes of Chloe, both in 2005 and 2019. In 2005 she is still at school and acting in a youth production of Macbeth with Ryan and Jess. Ryan comes up with the idea of doing a ouija board and they meet up after rehearsals. Flash forward to 2019 Chloe now works as an usher in the theatre where Dust was originally put on. Jess returns as ‘Ginger’ and is given the lead role of Esme. I loved the dual timelines as the 2005 sections were showing us what Chloe was remembering as events take place in 2019. They really did fit together seamlessly.
In terms of characters I loved them all especially that of Chloe. All of them were well formed and showed growth, whether that is in a good or bad way. It was lovely that Chloe found her voice by the end of the book and started to believe in herself and her work.
This was a lovely book and one that will stay with me for a long time. Go buy it for all your friends!
I actually got to meet Louise at the Orenda Books roadshow in Glasgow and she was lovely! She signed my copy of the book - but Louise what was with the boobs?! I need the story!
Also why is it all the birds I am now seeing is blackbirds?!! 😱😱😱
