#BlogTour-‘The Grey Ones’ by Yvonne Smit

About the book…

“Mum?” Can you truly see if I am lying?” Fifteen-year-old Mae, the eldest daughter of Yvonne has come across her mum’s memoirs. They reveal a hidden past. A life steeped in the Occult and all its aspects… Mae wants her mother to teach her to read the Tarot cards and Palmistry.

Reluctant, her mother agrees as long as Mae promises to study the basics first and not to talk about it to anyone. Yvonne grew up seeing the ‘grey people’, they were as blurred as the people she saw in full colour. It wasn’t until she got a pair of glasses that she knew for sure… the ‘Grey Ones’ were the shades of the dead.

They didn’t scare her, but… these sad souls attracted something else. The other beings of twilight, darker than the night and dreadfully powerful…It became clear to young Yvonne that not everybody can see the dead or hear their voices. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, her Grandad had been committed to an asylum. He heard voices too.

Not wanting to follow the same fate, Yvonne learned not to talk about her unwanted gift. The Grey Ones is the first book of The Path of the Maiden series. It tells the true story of a young girl’s quest for becoming ‘normal’. A path of trial and error and many lies. Through the light-hearted interaction between Yvonne and her family, the Occult mysteries and paranormal phenomena are explained in a basic easy to grasp manner. Learn alongside curious Mae about the Afterlife, the Auric bodies, and the different types of entities that visit us when we least expect it and much, much more…

I was approached by author,Yvonne Smits to review her first novel, ‘The Grey Ones’ and participate in the blog tour which accompanied it and I was super thrilled!

This is a memoir written as a novel which goes back and forth between The Netherlands and Britain and deals with aspects of supernatural ‘gifts’ which manifest themselves as both the author and her daughter grew.

As is typical in a society that venerates science, these were seen as signs of mental instability so Yvonne writes very movingly about the experiences of her grandfather being committed to an asylum.

However, I did struggle to suspend disbelief-I am not allied to any type of church or religion but when I read the author’s views on organ transplantation, I started to dissociate myself from the storyline.

The descriptions are intense, it;s as though you are being taken minute by minute throught the life of Yvonne as an adult and as a child-to me it felt as though her foreword wherein she extols the virtue of her memory for details is then expanded upon across the length of the book.

It may be that I am just too science focussed to immerse myself in this story and that it may be more suitable for someone who has experience with/understands this world to connect with it.

Also, this is a child’s reminiscences, so whilst taking on board the links to paranomalism, so whilst there may be a case to say that her grandfather actually had schizophrenia.

Whichever way the reader chooses to view it, it has had a huge effect not only on Yvonne but on the way she raised her daughter, Mae, who she is sure has the same insights as herself.

It is an engaging read about a family who are seen as outsiders and who we treat those people as insane, or otherwise bully them. As a memoir, however, it was too over flowing with description to allow suspension of disbelief at times.

I wish Yvonne well with her book and hope that it finds the audience that it deserves.

About the author…

Yvonne born in the Netherlands is the fifth child of an Accountant and a homemaker. The first four years, she grew up in Weesp, a small picturesque town near Amsterdam. Just before she turned five, her parents decided to relocate their growing family and moved Yvonne with her three sisters and two brothers to the rural village of Doorn in the province of Utrecht.

Creativity has been Yvonne’s strength from an early age. As a young child, she would escape into her drawings, stories or express her feelings in music. If it wasn’t for the struggle to come to terms with Dyslexia, she would have pursued a career in Journalism.

Dyslexia was not the only obstacle she had to deal with. Growing up in the seventies and eighties there was no internet to consult. Neither did the local library stock up on self-help books for those with a well-developed sixth-sense. Questioning her own sanity, Yvonne learned the hard way that not everybody sees The Grey Ones, The Shady ones or those who live in Shadow.

Yvonne moved to the UK at the age of twenty-one, hoping to start anew and escape the persistent pull of the Paranormal.

Wanting to take on a tranquil, mundane life, she held a multitude of jobs in varying positions. From Clerk to Manager, Employed and Self-employed. She ploughed herself up in the world of Charity, Fashion, Transport, Events, Craft Markets, Therapy and Security. There were many successful jobs to choose from and to make her own if it wasn’t for this one position. A vacancy in a field of expertise she at first didn’t want to accept: The Occult.

Yvonne has lived and worked in the UK for twenty-six years. She recently relocated with her British Husband and three children to the lovely village of Stiphout in the Netherlands.

Links..https://www.yvonnejsmit.com/

.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grey-Ones-Book-Path-Maiden-ebook/dp/B07MQBBKNV