(In other words, Abby's been in a spooky mood as of late, thus has been reading/watching spooky things, and wanted to review them... and is apparently talking about herself in the third person.)
Basically, this will be a few reviews of some of the spooky media I'm consuming this Halloween season. And I don't even really celebrate Halloween, but I've been in the mood to get in the spirit (haha, makes the same pun that I've already made) of the "holiday". Plus, I do really enjoy mysteries and this is the perfect time of year for those. So yeah. Without further introduction, let's get into the review.
The Seer of Shadows
Genre: Historical fiction/supernatural/mystery
Author: Avi
Content: Ghosts, mention of child abuse, a few deaths
Main Character: Horace Carpentine
Brief Overview:
(I'm stealing this from Goodreads because it describes it way better than I could.)
The time is 1872. The place is New York City. Horace Carpetine has been raised to believe in science and rationality. So as apprentice to Enoch Middleditch, a society photographer, he thinks of his trade as a scientific art. But when wealthy society matron Mrs. Frederick Von Macht orders a photographic portrait, strange things begin to happen.
Horace's first real photographs reveal a frightful likeness: it's the image of the Von Machts' dead daughter, Eleanora.
Pegg, the Von Machts' black servant girl, then leads him to the truth about who Eleanora really was and how she actually died. Joined in friendship, Pegg and Horace soon realize that his photographs are evoking both Eleanora's image and her ghost. Eleanora returns, a vengeful wraith intent on punishing those who abused her.
Rich in detail, full of the magic of early photography, here is a story about the shadows, visible and invisible, that are always lurking near.
What I Thought:
(^ both are accurate representations of me to myself through most of this book, tbh)
I've loved this book for a long time. And I could never figure out why. I'm not typically a fan of ghost stories, as I don't believe in ghosts. But especially recently, I've found myself more and more able to separate myself from stories I'm experiencing and just enjoy. And this, I think, is one of those instances.
This book is so cool. The whole ghost thing aside, the history lesson this book offers is so fascinating. Because it teaches so much about early photography in such an understandable way. And it shows an interesting take on society at the time through the eyes of someone we don't see represented a lot in fiction about this time period. The whole apprenticeship thing was so neat to see (even though Middleditch is kind of a jerk... but we'll let that slide because Horace is so cool).
Not only that, the story is pretty cool too. Horace starts taking pictures and starts to see Eleanora Von Macht, clearer and clearer, until it seems that she's manifested herself in the physical world again. But it's got a very Jane Eyre vibe to me. That kind of gothic, slightly eerie story, with mysteries you really just want to understand. Which I apparently really like.
The Characters:
Horace - Horace is really cool for a middle-grade protagonist. He keeps his head through this whole thing, which I honestly don't think I could do. He thinks rationally the whole time, including coming up with a very rational way to get rid of the ghost. And even though he doesn't like the Von Machts once he comes to know what they did, he still has compassion for them. Which is a really cool thing to see represented.
Pegg - I love Pegg so much, y'all. She's been mistreated and still has compassion for her employers. It's not explicitly stated that she's a Christian, but I think she's got to be one. Or at least should have been. Yeah.
Favorite Quote:
The next moment my mind went to the words on the cemetery gate: The Dead Shall Be Reborn. In that moment, my understanding completely altered. My body turned cold. Tears ran down my face as I had to accept the extraordinary fact: I, Horace Carpentine, had somehow brought Eleanora Von Macht back into the living world.
Overall Rating: Five strangely clear photos of a dead girl out of five
This book is just. So good. It's such a page-turner. I've read it before and I couldn't put it down.
Hopefully you'll enjoy the spooky reviews I have coming up! I'm excited about this mini-series-ish-thing!
(And just to let you know, I will be quite busy for the rest of the month, because our church's pumpkin patch is officially up and running and I will probably be working it in most of my free time [like I have any free time anyway haaaaa] thus blog posts miiight be a bit delayed. I'm going to try my best, but this Gus gif is probably going to be an accurate representation of me for most of this month as i'm busy but also stuffing my face with pumpkin whoopee pies:
)~ Abby
No comments:
Post a Comment