GUEST REVIEW: The Bone Dragon - Alexia Casale

GENRE: Fantasy
PAGES: 320
PUBLISHER: Faber
FORMAT: Paperback
BUY IT: Waterstones
RATING: 5 Stars

SUMMARY

Evie's shattered ribs have been a secret for the last four years. Now she has found the strength to tell her adoptive parents, and the physical traces of her past are fixed - the only remaining signs a scar on her side and a fragment of bone taken home from the hospital, which her uncle Ben helps her to carve into a dragon as a sign of her strength. Soon this ivory talisman begins to come to life at night, offering wisdom and encouragement in roaming dreams of smoke and moonlight that come to feel ever more real. As Evie grows stronger there remains one problem her new parents can't fix for her: a revenge that must be taken. And it seems that the Dragon is the one to take it. This subtly unsettling novel is told from the viewpoint of a fourteen-year-old girl damaged by a past she can't talk about, in a hypnotic narrative that, while giving increasing insight, also becomes increasingly unreliable.

REVIEW

This will be a short review to avoid spoilersg. You’ll see in the review-at-a-glance graphic above that I avoided declaring a genre for this one. If pushed, I’d have to go for magic realist thriller (which I realise isn’t an official genre, but it’s the closest fit I can come up with). It’s more magic realist than full-on fantasy, dragon notwithstanding, as it clearly takes place in our world and the dragon is the only fantasy element. The thriller aspect is achieved by means of very close first-person narration by Evie, who is clearly hiding many things. The reader is left to tease out the fragments of information and decide where the half-truths and omissions lie.

This is a gorgeous treat of a read – which is an odd thing to say about such a trauma-filled book – due to its dark beauty and the lyricism of its prose. If the premise intrigues you at all, you should absolutely give it a go.

This is my initial comment on closing the book:

Beautiful, startling and tense. A real struggle to classify by genre, with magic realism elements within a coming-of-age narrative which, at times, feels like a psychological thriller. Evie’s anxieties, fears and development are conveyed perfectly; I have rarely felt I’ve known a character so thoroughly (especially given all the gaps in her narrative).

- Beth.

REVIEW: Rooftoppers - Katherine Rundell

PAGES: 288
PUBLISHER: Faber Children's
FORMAT: Paperback
BUY IT: Waterstones
RATING: 4 Stars

WINNER OF THE WATERSTONES CHILDREN'S BOOK PRIZE 2014.

SUMMARY

My mother is still alive, and she is going to come for me one day. Everyone thinks that Sophie is an orphan. True, there were no other recorded female survivors from the shipwreck which left baby Sophie floating in the English Channel in a cello case, but Sophie remembers seeing her mother wave for help. Her guardian tells her it is almost impossible that her mother is still alive, but that means still possible. You should never ignore a possible. So when the Welfare Agency writes to her guardian threatening to send Sophie to an orphanage, she takes matters into her own hands and flees to Paris to look for her mother, starting with the only clue she has - the address of the cello maker. Evading the French authorities, she meets Matteo and his network of rooftoppers - urchins who live in the sky. Together they scour the city for Sophie's mother before she is caught and sent back to London, and most importantly before she loses hope.

REVIEW

This book is beautifully written, it's feel is reminiscent of much loved classics like The Borrowers and Charlotte's Web - it just makes you smile constantly.

Sophie is a fantastic character; gutsy, tomboyish, determined and full of hope - she's never willing to "ignore a possible". That message is a constant throughout the book, and as the plot progresses you really will Sophie on to succeed in finding her mother. Mateo and the other Rooftoppers are brilliant, each person has a distinct personality and they add something to Sophie's quest. Charles was a favourite character of mine! I could picture him perfectly.

There's only one thing I was a bit disappointed about which was that I felt it ended rather abruptly. I wanted to know what became of each of the characters! I can only hope that she might do another book, as clearly there are many adventures the Rooftoppers could tell us about

- Gem.