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The Characters

Something Terrible Happened Last Night is set in Kilmurray Point, beside the sea in South County Dublin.

You can grab your copy here – from your preferred bookshop, there are lots to chose from!

Raven’s Hill School is private a girls’ day and boarding school a short walk from Kilmurray Point DART station, and about 15 minutes from Raven’s Park College, its twin, a boys’ day and boarding school. The story focuses on fifth year at Raven’s Hill, and as the book opens at the start of term, everyone’s talking about the Rave-fess confession site that appeared online over the summer.
 
In Something Terrible Happened Last Night we meet: 
Katie Cipriani 
Katie’s parents have gone to Italy over her 17th birthday weekend (yikes, I know) as it clashes with a family christening and a business meeting that Katie’s dad needs to be at. Katie is an only child who spends a lot of time with Marshmallow and Cheescake, her two snowy white cockapoos, looked after by the housekeeper, and nannies when she was younger. Her house is a big four-bedroom, four-bathroom house set in woodland above Kilmurray Point. With a large outdoor pool and huge living room, it’s the perfect place for a party. Katie’s dating Josh, captain of the Raven’s Park rugby team, who has already been offered a sports scholarship to Stanford in America. They’ve been together forever and are the golden couple. When Katie learned about his scholarship, she bought Josh a gold St Christopher medal to keep him safe on his travels, but she plans to join him in America, and is applying to the same college.
 
Frankie O’Sullivan 
Frankie’s 16 and lives with her family at the Berwick Castle Hotel, which her parents own and run. The hotel  overlooks the pier and beach in Kilmurray Point and it’s a short walk to school. Frankie has four brothers – Ollie, the oldest is on an extended gap year between school and university (a very long gap year). He plays in a well-known local band and runs the bar at the hotel. His rottweilers, Bear and Wolf live at the back of the hotel. Cian and Kai are Frankie’s twin brothers. Both set on studying medicine, they are doing their Leaving Cert at The Institute in Dublin City. Taekwondo black belts, they are qualified lifesavers and work on the beach, between hotel shifts, during the summer. Max is only eight, the bonus child who can do no wrong, but can be a demon – everyone takes turns minding him. The Berwick Castle Hotel is a Georgian country house, with a modern conference wing and its bar and restaurant is the regular hangout of the local Gardai as it’s close to the Garda Station and open at all hours. All the family help out at the hotel and Frankie’s parents are constantly dealing with crises. Working wherever she’s needed, from reception to housekeeping, Frankie wants to study photography in London when she’s finished her Leaving Cert, and knows all the experience will be useful.
 
I love these drawings by Chamni Park on Instagram – you might recognise the actress but this looks just like Frankie to me!
 
Sorcha Bennett 
Sorcha is 16 and is Frankie’s cousin; she’s just joined Raven’s Hill because she wanted to skip transition year in her Dublin city centre school and focus on her swim training – she’s determined to ace her leaving cert and get into the Irish national swimming team. She already swims for the county team. Raven’s Hill has a   pool,and boarding means she has no commute, so it’s an ideal move. Sorcha’s older sister Beth is in university in Edinburgh and her parents are scientists who regularly present at international conferences. She loves tech, has a maths mind and is constantly asking questions. 
 
Jessica McKenna 
Jess is 16 too, and an only child. She has just moved to Kilmurray Point from London, but she grew up living in war torn countries all over the world – her dad is a high-profile journalist, a war reporter, who often has to follow the story at short notice and cannot be sure how long he might be away. When Jess’s mum died from cancer, her dad decided it was time to move back to Kilmurray Point so that Jess can be near her grandmother. Jess is a day pupil at Raven’s Hill but her dad has arranged that she can board whenever she needs to, so if he gets delayed on an assignment, she can move into the school. When we meet Jess she has a pink double undercut and a diamond in her nose, both of which the teachers at Raven’s Hill have difficulty adjusting to. Moving to Ireland during the summer before she starts at Raven’s Hill, Jess gets a part time job in the Refugee Relief charity shop in Kilmurray Main Street, just a few minutes’ walk from her fourth-floor apartment that overlooks the sea and Kilmurray pier. Every day that she walks out onto their balcony, she marvels at the view of Dublin Bay, the sea and beaches – Kilmurray is totally different to London. Plus there’s a cute Italian barista called Matteo, who works in the Costa close to the apartment. Jess loves acting and has joined the drama club and Model United Nations debating team, she wants to study law and work in human rights when she leaves school. When disaster strikes at Katie’s party, Frankie, Sorcha and Jess are determined to find out what happened
 
Tara Li and Maeve Andersson have been dating since third year and are practically inseparable. Tara is half Chinese and Maeve is Swedish/Norwegian/Irish. Maeve loves drawing, she’s an incredible artist and wants to study animation after her Leaving Cert. They are both day pupils at Raven’s Hill, and close friends with Caitriona Donoghue and Vivienne Smyth. Viv transitioned over the summer and has just moved from Raven’s Park to Raven’s Hill. 
 
Ruth Meaney is 16, tall, blonde and the leader of the Mean Girls – Ella Diamond, Amber Weber and tagging on the end, Georgia Swan. Ruth lives with her mum in a semi-detached house in Kilmurray Point. She’s spent the summer hanging out at the beach, working on her tan and the boys from several schools including Kilmurray Manor and their arch rivals Raven’s Park. When she’s not partying, Ella hangs out at the stables where she keeps her horse – she wants to study beauty, although her dad thinks she’s going to follow him into his pharmacy business. Ella is 16 too, clever and vivacious and her love life is as varied as it is colourful. Georgia has got swept into the Mean Girls because Amber was her best friend in junior school; Gerogia’s passionate about acting and dreams of being on the stage, although Amber’s the dramatic one. Georgia lives a short walk away from Katie’s house.
 
Want to know more about the girls? You can grab your copy of Something Terrible here – from your preferred bookshop. If you play The Sims, we’ve created Katie’s house in the SIMS4 base game – my EA ID is SBlakeBooks – go check it out. If you’re not into The Sims, you can see the screen grabs here.