I've had these sitting on the desk for a while, and I'm just going to take them all off at once. These were all books on my TBR shelf that I finally got around to reading!
The Stones Are Hatching, by Geraldine McCaughrean: It's 1919, and Phelim and his sister live deep in the countryside. Phelim is on his own when all the old folktales rise up at once and hit him -- the domovoy and the glashans take over the house, call him Jack o'Green, and tell him to hurry up and save them all from the Stoor Worm, as the Black Dog attacks from outside. Phelim is to travel cross-country and gather up his allies: the Maiden, the Fool, and the Hobby-Horse -- but the trouble is, he's never been told any of the stories. He hasn't a clue how to navigate a world gone back to every superstition come alive, and he can't understand why everyone thinks it's his job to defeat the Stoor Worm. It's a well-told tale of discovering the world and himself.
The Thorn Ogres of Hagwood, by Robin Jarvis: This one was pretty mid, really. Gamaliel, one of the small werling folk who live in the wood, is nervous about everything, and starting school most of all. What if he can't change shape? Meanwhile, evil is stirring in the nearby Hagwood, and all the werlings are in danger. This was the first of a trilogy, but it was awfully derivative and I'm not going to bother with the rest.
Maria Lupin, by Annabel Farjeon: Here we have a (more or less) realistic story of lower-middle-class life in Britain. Maria's father went missing some time ago, and her mother won't explain. Maria herself is on the sulky and contrary side; she finds school difficult and has little support. But she gets to know Samson, a rough kind of boy who helps Ivan Abraham, and Mr. Abraham starts giving her piano lessons. A whole new side of her life opens up, kept secret from her mother. But they're running low on funds and what did happen to her dad? An interesting and kind of unusual story.
The Bunker Diary, by Kevin Brooks: This won the 2014 Carnegie medal and made quite a splash. It's very suspenseful and well-written, but wow is it bleak. Linus has been living on the streets of London for several months, and now he wakes up alone, in a bunker, with nothing but a notebook to write in. But after a couple of days another person arrives...and then another, until the bunker has a full complement of six kidnapped people. What does their jailer want? Will they be able to escape, or what? Don't continue reading if you don't want a spoiler...
I think this is a very British story. If an American had written this, Linus would somehow defeat the invisible jailer and escape with one or two others. But that's not how this works out; it ends as grimly as possible.
The Stones Are Hatching, by Geraldine McCaughrean: It's 1919, and Phelim and his sister live deep in the countryside. Phelim is on his own when all the old folktales rise up at once and hit him -- the domovoy and the glashans take over the house, call him Jack o'Green, and tell him to hurry up and save them all from the Stoor Worm, as the Black Dog attacks from outside. Phelim is to travel cross-country and gather up his allies: the Maiden, the Fool, and the Hobby-Horse -- but the trouble is, he's never been told any of the stories. He hasn't a clue how to navigate a world gone back to every superstition come alive, and he can't understand why everyone thinks it's his job to defeat the Stoor Worm. It's a well-told tale of discovering the world and himself.
Comments
Post a Comment
I'd love to know what you think, so please comment!