欧宝娱乐

I can't remember where, but somewhere along the line, I got the impression this was a retelling of Rip Van Winkle. It's not.

This was, unlike Maguire's other novels, not really a retelling of anything. It had elements of A Christmas Carol and liberal references to Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and (interestingly) Jack the Ripper.

The story itself was really sort of a grown-up coming of age story -- only throw in ghostly possession, a bizarre intra-familial love triangle, and a secondary Roman a Clef (being drafted by the protagonist) within the primary novel.

It was fascinating and compelling - Maguire's intelligence and fluidity with words came through here more than in any of his retellings. There were a few issues that were never fully explained and while I found the secondary novel to be interesting insofar as the clues it provided to the protagonist's motivations, after a while (by the point at which I'd figured out the 'mystery') it began to detract from the real story.