Margaret Mahy (1936–2012)

This novel examines two aspects of memory through the main characters, 19 year old Jonny and an elderly woman, Sophie, suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. Jonny has been haunted for the last five years by the experience of witnessing his elder sister's death. His life has been derailed into booze and getting into fights, and on the anniversary of Janine's death he goes looking for the other witness, Janine's best friend Bonny, wanting to check whether his memory is really accurate. However, he encounters Sophie instead and soon finds himself becoming her caregiver despite his better judgement, especially when it seems she is being swindled by someone who is posing as her landlord.

As with other Mahy fiction, the characters are well fleshed out. The portrayal of Alzheimer's is all too convincing. A touching relationship develops as Jonny finds someone who needs him and in caring for her he gradually moves away from obsession with his own troubles, ironically finding answers to those along the way.

The book would be a good way of explaining this form of dementia to its original age range audience, but I think they would probably find the 1980s teenage trappings - a tape-based Walkman that Jonny relies on to blot out his surroundings being chief among them - and the lack of today's mobile phone culture too dated, which is a pity. I also found the story dragged a bit in the middle before it built up steam for the ending chapters, and I'm not convinced by the mild results of Jonny's dramatic action.

As far as the authorial decision to make two of the character names Jonny and Bonny, perhaps this is meant to drive home the way he has projected so much of his own fantasies onto his sister's friend so that she is almost an aspect of himself, but that could be reading too much into it. But if not it is an odd naming choice. On balance, a 3-star read.… (mer)

This book is aimed at an older age group than previous Mahy books I've read as it explores teenage sexuality, family relationships including the fallout from parental divorce and the female protagonist's mother commencing on a relationship with a new boyfriend, and the emotional estrangement experienced by the male protagonist who was brought up by a foster family and beaten by his foster father when the latter lost his job and turned to drink.

All this almost overshadows the supernatural part of the plot whereby Laura Chant (no relation to Christopher Chant in Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci series, although it transpires that she is a latent witch) and her little brother Jacko encounter an unpleasant old man who is the proprietor of a new shop selling trinkets in the shopping area near their house. Laura has woken up with a premonition of something awful happening, which her mother Kate dismisses, but despite this she is unable to prevent the old man putting a picture stamp of his own face on the back of her brother's hand. The stamp cannot be washed off and sinks into Jacko's flesh and soon he is deathly ill, as the old man, a type of vampire, drains off his life force to sustain his own failing and centuries old existence.

No one will believe Laura about the cause of her brother's illness so she is forced to turn to Sorensen, an older prefect from school whom her latent powers have previously caused her to identify as some kind of witch, and to his witch mother and grandmother. Sorensen is cynical, sarcastic and a bit of a user, mainly because his mother had him fostered because he wasn't a girl and she believed he had not inherited her powers, erroneously as it turned out. Given that Laura is only 14 and he is 17, I found his initial overtures, especially groping her when she goes to see him for help, a bit creepy. Laura is a strong character and she does defend her position, but it still made for uncomfortable reading, probably because of the developments which have occurred in society since the book was published in 1984.

I do realise that, if read at the right age, this book would probably be very absorbing as it has a female protagonist who is a strong defender of her brother and who eventually becomes a powerful witch, so the fact that I found the middle of the story to drag when Jacko is in hospital and nothing much is happening, is probably due to my not being the intended readership. Because of that and my reservations about the boy's conduct, especially at the beginning, I can only rate this 2 stars.… (mer)

This book, published in 1982, won the Carnegie Medal and is a nice spooky tale for middle grade children, with a difference. It is quite short being a children's book from the era when such books were fairly short, but tells the tale of a quiet boy, Barney, who just wants to be normal but to whom extraordinary things begin to happen. It starts when he is coming home from school and is confronted on the way by what appears to be a lifesize paper model of a Victorian boy which then tells him Barnaby is dead and it is going to be very lonely. I did like the description of the figure swinging this way and that and then spinning round faster and faster until it vanishes in flakes of blue paper - not your average ghost!

The story takes a twist as Barney begins to realise that it is perhaps not a ghost at all but that he is being haunted by a living mysterious member of his family, a member who had uncanny powers and was in effect banished. This person now wants Barney for his own and is coming back, inflicting Barney with all kinds of 'hauntings' such as audible footsteps and visions of what is witnessed on the journey.

There is a nice spooky atmosphere, and the characters are also well realised, with even Barney's talkative sister, a would-be novelist, covering over as interesting rather than annoying. And there is a good twist at the end and a nice acknowledgement of the tensions within even happy families.… (mer)

I liked the character of Sophie, and the friendship between her and Jonny. I thought Jonny's storyline was a little lacking and unbelievable, though. It seemed at times that he was dealing with mental illness, even.

There honestly wasn't much of a plot to propel forward.

There were several sexual references that would be appropriate enough for a teen, but not so much for a grade-schooler, so I don't know why so many people have it categorized as a children's book.

There was also some mild profanity, and the flippant use of God's name as an exclamation.

It wasn't the most terrible read, but it also wasn't good enough to recommend to others.… (mer)