Login
From Publishers Weekly, here is the lowdown on the plot and their review:
---
Thriller writer Connolly turns from criminal fears to primal fears in this enchanting novel about a 12-year-old English boy, David, who is thrust into a realm where eternal stories and fairy tales assume an often gruesome reality. Books are the magic that speak to David, whose mother has died at the start of WWII after a long debilitating illness. His father remarries, and soon his stepmother is pregnant with yet another interloper who will threaten David’s place in his father’s life. When a portal to another world opens in time-honored fashion, David enters a land of beasts and monsters where he must undertake a quest if he is to earn his way back out. Connolly echoes many great fairy tales and legends (Little Red Riding Hood, Roland, Hansel and Gretel), but cleverly twists them to his own purposes. Despite horrific elements, this tale is never truly frightening, but is consistently entertaining as David learns lessons of bravery, loyalty and honor that all of us should learn.
---
The one thing that stands out most after reading this is Connolly’s ability to write. This is a very good story. It’s filled with great imaginative characters and ideas. Some are borrowed, but he makes them his own for the stories sake. And he switched gears, so to speak, for this story, previously have written very adult thrillers. This is a young adult style novel, there’s no doubt about it. Like the review says, he makes it creepy without it being really creepy.
The novel almost plays off as a fairy tale in itself. Maybe along the lines of some of Neil Gaiman’s novels/stories. Yet nothing is cliche. It all goes together well. From the very sad beginning to the very realistic sum-up at the end, it all makes for a compelling story. Nothing moves faster then it needs to, and just enough is revealed to give you what you need to know, but the drive to read more and discover what this world is that David has stepped into.
Part of this may come from my ineptitude. When one character is revealed, it was something that I felt should have seen coming. I had thought I had another character pegged, and when I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t, I set aside this notion and therefore was blind to what was coming. It worked out better for me that way, because it gave me more of a thrill.
9/10
