The more we find out out this rebellious and wild girl, whose story is told in tandem to Mahony’s, the more her sinister life and end creep to the surface. Kidd is able to combine horror with humour and magic as we quickly find out Mahony can see the dead, his world full of long dead animals, ghosts of old loves and little girls – and yet his mother, Orla, won’t appear for him. Kidd’s strength lies in her natural voice funny, evocative and authentic, Kidd perfectly captures a magical, supernatural Ireland alongside endearingly eccentric and vivid characters. His only clue is a photograph of her holding him, and while no one in the village will tell him what happened to his mother, its secrets soon begin to unravel.

After being left on the steps of an orphanage as a child, he is in search of his young teenage mother. Himself then jumps to the west coast of Ireland in the 1970s, where the charming and mysterious character of Mahony appears in the tiny village of Mulderrig. Immediately Kidd combines a vicious murder with an atmosphere of magic and folklore as the forest winds its vines around the child. Before the murderer can move on to kill the baby, the forest swallows him up, keeping him safe and hidden. Kidd’s novel begins with the brutal murder of a young mother in 1950s by the father of her child, all while the young infant watches on in the secluded woods. It’s hard to decide what genre to label Himself by Jess Kidd a comedic-supernatural-horror-thriller? It’s a clever mix, which makes for an extremely fun and intriguing read with some extremely dark undertones. So that when the man looked about himself he could not find the child, however hard he searched.’ Badgers had banked earth all around him with their strong claws, shifting the soil furiously. Branches had bent low over his tiny head and had shaken a blessing of leaves down onto him. ‘Great ferns had unfurled all around the child, tree roots had surrounded him and ivy had sprung up to cloak him.