Spiffing school story via Lovecraft & the X-Men

I enjoyed this immensely and don't care that technically it's meant to be YA. Amy's alienation at joining a new school late and the casual tortures - physical and psychogical - that girls inflict on each other as she tries to fit in is convincing. She soon discovers that she, like some of the other pupils, is an "unusual" with odd powers that she must explore and master. In this universe unusual powers are acknowledged and, in a few cases, celebrated but there are dark plots afoot.

I do appreciate the gung ho adventurous spirit of the girls of Drearcliff and their distinctly odd teachers. The girls do not hesitate in setting off to rescue a friend held captive by masked criminals, or stop another girl having her face cut off, or launch violent physical attacks on any other rotters including dastardly prefects.

It's not quite as jam-packed full of cultural references as Kim Newman's other books but there's enough to enjoy spotting. Not exactly sure what age it's aimed at but I would have LOVED this book from about 11 onwards.

Joan Walker gets the tone of a 1920s boarding school story just right and sounds as if she's enjoying herself too.

All in all it's tremendous, exciting fun.

9 people found this helpful

Awful!

I couldn't finish this book. The narrator was so irritating with her awful accents, intonations and speeds, I found it impossible. Half way through I still struggled with the flatness of the characters. The story ambles on, but seems to be pointless and very much overshadowed by the weak characters and dire narration. Nit for me, thanks.

4 people found this helpful

Took three attempts BUT

I’ll be honest and say it took me three attempts to get into this which is reason enough for someone not to enjoy it. I really didn’t like the narration at all at first. The for some reason it just ‘clicked’ and now I only wish there were more books I like to read that are narrated by Joan Walker. In a way, her narration almost makes the story spookier which I love.

The story itself was pretty good for the most part. It doesn’t quite get 5 stars from me as it seems to get a little disjointed towards the end but that’s just my personal opinion. I love that the main characters are all female particularly as there are also no relationship lines or typical ‘male viewpoint’ writing of them. The fact they are girls is almost incidental though Kim has still managed to capture the interaction between female school-mates rather well I’d say.

Another corker from Mr Newman

It's brilliant. It's young adult which just means it's not unnecessarily graphic and there are no awkward sex scenes. Ripping story, brilliantly told. More please.