For me The Tin Princess was not as successful as the other books in the Sally Lockhart quartet, probably because it is neither about Sally Lockhart orFor me The Tin Princess was not as successful as the other books in the Sally Lockhart quartet, probably because it is neither about Sally Lockhart or Victorian London, both of which are the thing that interested me about this YA series in the first place.
Some spoilers...
Instead the plot is about Razkavia a made up Germanic state in middle Europe. Where members of the royal family are being bumped off. Our heroes Jim and Becky fall into this world of royal-intrigue, by way of Adelaide, the little cockney sparrow of the first book, who by the most improbable turn of events has become a member of the Royal Family of Razkavia.
It's a broad exciting adventure well written, just like the first three books, but unlike those stories I didn't think that the starting point of this one, or in fact much that happened along the way, was credible for the characters. Especially for Jim and Adelaide, both London cockney street-kids, who are suddenly versed in enough German and state-craft in the space of a few chapter to out-manouveur a bunch of professional politicians and generals and to care enough to try and save a country to which they have no real attachments. I also didn't feel that they had as much emotional investment in the outcome of their story as Sally had in her adventures. The third main character, Becky seemed to be there to paper over some of these credibility gaps by witnessing how in love the other two were and how brave and how cunning etc. etc. Having said all that, it's still an enjoyable adventure romp, with lots of daring-do and action.
**spoiler alert** The third book in the series of the Sally Lockhart Quartet is the longest and also by far the most interesting. Sally now has a two **spoiler alert** The third book in the series of the Sally Lockhart Quartet is the longest and also by far the most interesting. Sally now has a two year old daughter named Harriet, whose father was the late Frederick Garland. Her financial business is successful and she live in a house in Richmond with old friends, Jim and Webster Garland, who are away in South America on a photographic assignment. But Sally's idyllic and unconventional middle-class life is shattered when she receives legal papers from a Mr Parrish, a man she's never heard of, who claims to be her husband. He is requesting custody of Harriet and he aims to ruin Sally and take her daughter and all her assets for himself. All of Victorian male society is against Sally and she is gradually stripped of everything she holds dear. Without her old friends to help her, she must once more use her wits and bravery to defend herself against the mysterious Mr Parrish as she sets out to discover the purpose of his plot and to right the injustice that he has brought upon her.
It all sounds a bit melodramatic, but as usual the writing is brilliant, suspenseful and character driven. The plot is really a chance for Phillip Pullman to explore in detail the issues of Victorian London, from women's lack of marital rights to the suffering and lack of rights of the East End poor and the Toynbee-esque charities trying to help them. We meet dockers, London gangs, Jewish refugees fleeing the pogroms and the socialist radicals among them 鈥� here represented by Dan Goldberg, the stories other hero. All of these social-historical issues are subtly woven into a dramatic and action packed edge-of-the seat story, and you never feel like Phillip Pullman is crowbarring in his research. Instead the characters who represent these issues become friends and allies of Sally in her fight against the evil Mr Parrish, his shadowy employer (whose identity is pretty obvious if you read the first two books in the series), and the patriarchal Victorian Law. As the story goes on Sally gets to witness and assist her friends in their own struggles, which, as it unsurprisingly turns out, are connected with her own.
Interestingly, there are little ideas and themes that link with His Dark Materials. The villainous Tzadick and his pet monkey that people claim is an evil spirit or a part of his soul, and that feeds him and defends him from those who would do him harm. The child kidnapping plot - albeit here seen from Sally, the Tiger-mother's, point of view. At one point, Sally and Dan Goldberg have a glass of Tokay, which is apparently a Hungarian Wine and is also a favourite tipple in His Dark Materials 鈥� I always wondered what it was.
The London detail has got more believable as the Sally Lockhart series has gone on, there was alway a quality of description but the social and historical detail seems to be much better and subtler in this book. Altogether my favourite in the series so far....more
The writing as usual with Phillip Pullman is elegant and engaging with superb pace that keeps the story bubbling along all the time. I thought it was The writing as usual with Phillip Pullman is elegant and engaging with superb pace that keeps the story bubbling along all the time. I thought it was actually marginally better than Ruby in the Smoke. It's still not quite five stars for me as it does have one of those James Bond endings where the villain explains his whole plot to the heroine (Sally) and then stands around while she thwarts it. I didn't mind the bitter sweet nature of the end either, but there were a few scenes where I felt people acted out of character to further the story. That said it kept me gripped to the very last page and the last third really ups the ante on the action. Looking forward to reading the next in the series...more
Eleven year old orphan, Silver Rivers, and her uncaring Aunt, Mrs Rokabye, live at Tanglewreck a run down country house that once belonged to Silver'sEleven year old orphan, Silver Rivers, and her uncaring Aunt, Mrs Rokabye, live at Tanglewreck a run down country house that once belonged to Silver's father. In nearby London time tornadoes are sweeping the city, dragging people into the past and throwing the past into the present. Only one thing can stop the disintegration of time: the Timekeeper, an ancient broken clock that was once owned by Silver's father. Silver must find the clock and repair it before it is discovered by the villainous Abel Darkwater and Regalia Mason who plan to steal the clock and control time itself.
I had mixed feelings about this first children's novel by Jeanette Winterson but if I was a child I think I would love it. It starts off nicely with the Dickensian Mrs Rokabye giving Silver the Cinderella treatment. Mrs Rokabye is a character Jeanette knows well, another version of the legendary Mrs Winterson. Abel Darkwater is also an intriguing villain. He owns a watch shop in Spitalfields (probably right next door to Jeanette's own shop!) and Silver visits him there and is hypnotised. The first half of the book also introduces a group of underground mole-like people and a lot of intriguing story ideas around the time tornadoes ( ideas that are sadly never returned to).
In the second half of the book the fantasy and sci-fi landscapes and tropes really kick in and the relentless fast pace and the lack of descriptions of anything, particularly the sci-fi world, started to annoy me. Contrasting this, there is quite a lot of talk about quantum physics, time travel, and the real Schrodinger's Cat - Dinger - even puts in an appearance! All this and a bunch of Popes in space (how do those things go together?) made it come across like a mixture of His Dark Materials, Neverwhere, and a Doctor Who episode....more
Beautiful evocative drawings, each with a caption that implies a mysterious 'lost' narrative. A bit like the hand drawn children's picture book versioBeautiful evocative drawings, each with a caption that implies a mysterious 'lost' narrative. A bit like the hand drawn children's picture book version of a bunch of Gregory Crewdson photographs. It is such a great concept and, as the book suggest, probably great for an inspiring children's or fantastical creative writing. I only wish the book was twice as long. ...more
This is a YA classic. It's very short and I read it in a day. It's an epistolary novel set in 1991. 15 year old 'Charlie' writes letters about his lifThis is a YA classic. It's very short and I read it in a day. It's an epistolary novel set in 1991. 15 year old 'Charlie' writes letters about his life and posts them to a stranger (the reader) because he 'just needs to know that someone out there listens'. He's an odd and lonely kid - a wallflower - who spends his time observing the world rather than being part of it. That is, until he meets Sam and Patrick, two older, outsider-cool, kids at his school who are step-brother and step-sister and who make it their mission to bring Charlie out of his shell and introduce him to a wider world.
In Charlie, his sensitive and highly observant narrator, Stephen Chbosky perfectly captures the difficulties everyone feels as a teenager from awkwardly negotiating social situations, to working out who you are compared to others and what you really want for yourself. I could really relate to Charlie through all of his school travails and in many ways he reminded me of my teenage self - of that exact same era! Unlike some reviewers I did not think that Charlie was autistic or dysphasic. I just think there are a couple of bad authorial choices that maybe suggest this, and the fact that the reader is forced to fill in so many blanks to explain things does not help either.
SPOILERS...
As the novel goes on Chbosky piles more and more serious problems on Charlie. Charlie is in therapy. He's depressed, anxious, and highly emotional (he cries on every page). He has to deal with a friends suicided and with his family, who on the surface seem normal but underneath are in deep denial about the present and their history. Finally, Charlie has to face some issues from his own past that are effecting his life. All these things are big challenges that deserve more in-depth drama and resolution, but because Charlie is our highly unreliable narrator and because he doesn't want to deal with them in his cheery letters, we are forced to skim over them too. What's left is Charlie's day to day life which by the end of the novel has become banal in comparison to all the things under the surface. The problem is most evident in the short shrift given to the ending, a reveal that nearly made me throw the book across the room. All that aside, in terms of teenage voices, to me Charlie is the closest to real I have ever read....more
I'm a big fan of 'His Dark Materials' and 'Ruby in the Smoke' is set in a similar Victorian world, but without the steampunk or magical elements. It'sI'm a big fan of 'His Dark Materials' and 'Ruby in the Smoke' is set in a similar Victorian world, but without the steampunk or magical elements. It's a murder mystery where teenage orphan Sally Lockhart searches for her father's killer and tries to discover his connection to the Ruby of the title and the significance of his last warning to her - 'Beware the seven blessings.'
At around 200 pages it was a quick read. The writing is not quite as sophisticated as 'His Dark Materials', but is still really good and captures the Victorian turn of phrase very well. I can see some Dickensian influence and I imagine a bit from Wilkie Collins and Conan Doyle too. Occasionally there were a few last minute liberties written into the story to make things work - suddenly discovering Frederick is an expert climber is one that springs to mind and there was another one that was to do with the ruby. The villain Mrs Holland is a great character, but unlike Mrs Coulter, I didn't quite buy the web of influence and power she seemed to have accrued. There were also lots of good London locations and secondary characters. I will definitely read the next one in the series....more
It has been eighteen years since I read a Pratchett book, and so I haven't kept up with the recent goings on in Discworld, but I picked this book up iIt has been eighteen years since I read a Pratchett book, and so I haven't kept up with the recent goings on in Discworld, but I picked this book up in the library on a whim. Tiffany Aching is a great young heroine and, although the main story takes a little while to get going, once the supernatural villain arrives and threatens Tiffany's life it becomes a very enjoyable read. After finishing it I wished it was a hundred pages longer, and then wondered why I hadn't read a Prachett book in eighteen years, and then thought I should probably read some more of them. ...more
Prosper and Bo, two orphan brothers, run away to Venice, Italy. There they join a gang of street urchins living in an abandoned cinema who are ruled oProsper and Bo, two orphan brothers, run away to Venice, Italy. There they join a gang of street urchins living in an abandoned cinema who are ruled over by a show off teenager - an expert thief who has given himself the grand monicker of 'The Thief Lord'. The gang spend their days picking tourist's pockets and trying to outsmart Victor, a bumbling private eye hired by Prosper and Bo's uncaring guardians to find them. Then, Barbarossa a Fagin-like fence offers them a chance to make big money, all they have to do is carry out a robbery for a mysterious figure known as the count.
I really enjoyed this children's book and if I had read it as a 10 year old I think it would be a firm favourite. It is nicely written (translated) and crammed full with daring do and twists and it gets an extra star for its magical setting of Venice. The story situations are all very fairytale and the grownups behave like archetypes rather than characters but all of that seems acceptable to me in this fantastical world, though my credulity was stretched more and more as the story went on. People here have compared it unfavourably to Oliver Twist, a more realistic and darker book with much stronger characterisation, but this is a book for young children and is much softer and simpler in its characterisation and I think it works very well in that context....more
I read Huckleberry Finn first and found that a superior book. I think what makes that book better is the great overarching story and the strong narratI read Huckleberry Finn first and found that a superior book. I think what makes that book better is the great overarching story and the strong narrator Huck, whose childlike 'simple' view Twain uses to question the status quo of the world around him. The only part of Huckleberry Finn that I disliked was Tom Sawyer's appearance at the end. That didn't bode well for this book, but I thought I would give it a go anyway.
#SPOILERS#
In this book Huck is not as fully formed as he appears in his own story but you can already see he's got a lot more character potential than Tom. Tom is a naughty boy, getting into various episode of comic mischief, some of the episodes - like the famous fence painting - I found fun, others - like the attempts to impress and woo Becky at school 鈥� I found boring and cloying and they made me want to skip chunks of the book. It is interesting that Twain's reuses similar stories from this novel in Huck Finn - the running away to the island and the townsfolk thinking Tom/Huck are dead, plus the conversation about pirates and robbers. Not only that, but the whole - everyone in town thinks Tom is dead and then he shows up alive schtick, is repeated twice in this book. You'd think the second time, when he's lost in the cave they'd all say, 'well, he's having us on again.'
Tom Sawyer to me came across as more of a simplistic book than Huck Finn. It would be fun to read as a kid, but reading it as an adult and knowing episodes of the story so well already, I have to admit that I didn't find it that interesting. ...more
I really enjoyed this book. The tale of Grayson Perry - artist and cross-dressing potter - growing up in suburban Essex. His childhood and teenage stoI really enjoyed this book. The tale of Grayson Perry - artist and cross-dressing potter - growing up in suburban Essex. His childhood and teenage story is pretty interesting and I often wished that the book had gone into more detail about parts of that, especially the feel of the places, but it gave great detail to the family characters. The book ended soon after his graduation from art school and I wish it had carried on a bit longer, taking us through the early years of his career as a working artist. I thought he was a character of quirky and opposing interests, dressing up, cross-dressing, mechanical repairs, pottery, imaginary worlds, S&M. It was interesting also to see connections with Boy George and Marilyn - he lived in some of the same squats as them in London. All in all it was a quick, easy read and I got through it in a day. It reminded me a little of Toast by Nigel Slater and he even used the same metaphor at one point - how love is making warm buttered toast for someone....more
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