rachelmanija | Entries tagged with author: alcock vivien

Cassie is the seventh child of a seventh child. Her mother, a medium, is convinced that Cassie will have great gifts and follow in her footsteps. Cassie, who is afraid of ghosts, is really hoping she has none.

On her thirteenth birthday, goaded by her sister and brother, she goes to the graveyard and tries to conjure the most harmless spirit she can imagine. That spirit is a no-show. A much more ominous ghost, Deverill, shows up instead. He doesn’t follow the ghost rulebook, and he’s dead-set on getting something from Cassie, but it’s not at all clear what…

This book has zero gore and intended for kids, but parts are genuinely scary. Like Alcock’s The Mysterious Mr. Ross, it concerns a girl on the brink of adolescence and a sinister but ambiguous male. Cassie’s family is a big part of the story, and in a much more interesting way than children’s fantasy often utilizes parents, as people to be evaded. Cassie’s relationship with her mother is central, and the ambiguity in her mother’s character (real medium, fake medium, or a little of both? Bad mother, good but stressed mother, or a little of both?) echoes the ambiguity of Deverill and Cassie’s relationship with him.

An excellent book with tons of atmosphere, excellent characterization, and a well-crafted plot.

Haunting of Cassie Palmer Pa

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Felicity is the twelve-year-old daughter of an amiable father who drinks too much and a critical mother who runs a bed-and-breakfast in a small British seaside town. After yet another fight with her mother, she goes to the forbidden Gull Rocks, where there's a dangerous undertow... and rescues a young man in a suit from the current.

The man, who calls himself Albert Ross, is installed (or installs himself) in their hotel, first as an invalid and then as a semi-permanent and non-paying guest. It's clear from the get-go that he's lying about at least some things and possibly everything, but why is much less clear. He's deliberately and very skillfully manipulating everyone, but his effect seems to go beyond that; people see him as they want to see him, and he functions as a catalyst for people's relationships and emotions. Whether he's a force for evil or good or simply for change is one of the many mysteries of the book.

I really loved this. It's ambiguous and mysterious in a way that's thought-provoking rather than infuriating. Felicity and the other characters are real and compelling, and it's beautifully written.

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The Publishers Weekly review writes, in an amazing example of statements which are factually correct but miss the larger picture by a country mile, But through their encounter with him, Felicity, Bony and readers come to a greater understanding of themselves and a new awareness of the potentially destructive power of gossip.

Mysterious Mr Ross

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Frances “Frankie” Stein, the youngest child and only daughter of an emotionally distant scientist and single dad, obtains a bit of mysterious gray goo from his mysterious laboratory. With the help of a bit of her own blood and a fortuitous lightning strike—and, just as importantly, her own ability to see the resultant “It’s alive!!!” as a life to be cared for rather than a thing to be dissected or a monster to be killed—she creates a monster.

A very, very cute monster, which she names Monnie. But if her father, her brothers, the lab, or the world at large discover it, they’ll probably kill it or keep it in a sterile cage forever. Her attempts to keep Monnie a secret as it grows and bonds with her lead to a deepening of some old relationships, the start of some new ones, and the creation of a new enemy.

Though this was very well-written and I loved the concept, in execution it combined enough elements of “adorable pet in danger” and “very young child in danger” that it was a bit of an upsetting read. Especially since these sorts of books often end with the death of the helpless thing in question. (If you want to know what happens to Monnie, ( Read more... )

I liked the prose a lot and the book overall was very well-done, but I enjoyed The Stonewalkers more. I’ll definitely be looking for more by Alcock.

The Monster Garden

Crossposts: https://rachelmanija.livejournal.com/1334666.html

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Poppy Brown is a lonely girl whose relationship with her mother has been troubled since her mother had a long hospital stay and Poppy had to live with foster parents. Possibly because of this or maybe just exacerbated by it, Poppy has a lying habit. They’re harmless lies, the sort many imaginative kids tell to get attention or because they’re bored or it just occurs to them. But it gets her a lot of adult disapproval and other kids thinking she’s weird.

One day she puts a friendship bracelet around her favorite stone angel statue, Belladonna. Belladonna comes to life. But she’s not friendly. She’s inhuman, alien, terrifying. And of course no one would ever believe anyone who says they’re being stalked by a statue, much less a known liar like Poppy. Luckily for her, she finds an unexpected ally; lucky for Poppy, but maybe not so lucky for her new friend, who then also attracts Belladonna’s attention…

This odd, funny, scary book is a sort of quintessential old-school British children’s book: quirky, vivid, pithy, and very well-written a way that you’ll recognize if that’s a favorite genre of yours. If I’d read it when I was nine, it would have scared the living daylights out of me. As an adult, it’s still pretty unsettling. I wonder if Belladonna was the inspiration for the Weeping Angels in Doctor Who, or if at least two writers just independently thought that those angel statues were creepy, with their blank white eyes, and how much creepier would they be if they started inexorably moving closer… and closer… and closer…?

The Stonewalkers