TEST
A good ghost story requires ambiance, and what better location for ambiance can there be than London, England? It is a city so rich in history that every inch of it has a tale to tell. It has hundreds of famous ghosts. When you add in those cool, foggy nights for which it is renowned, you have the perfect setting for a tale of malice and mayhem and spirits.
When her parents get a job teaching American Law at the University of Bristol in England, Aurora “Rory” Deveaux decides to spend a year going to school at Wexford in East London. She has never done the boarding school thing before and knows it will be quite different from her years at public school in Benouville, LA, but is excited for the experience and opportunity. Wexford is perfect for Rory’s needs; it’s a “sixth-form college” – a school for seventeen and eighteen year olds. That means the other students won’t have had much time to settle in and form cliques, and Rory will be on fairly equal social footing with the rest of them. Things start out great. Rory has a wonderful roommate in Jazza, and might be attracting the flattering attention of quite the hunky guy. She is surviving if not thriving in her courses. Sure, there was that embarrassing moment in the dining hall where she nearly choked to death on some kind of beef hot pot and the unfortunate string of Jack the Ripper style murders happening around town, but at least she brought a good supply of Cheez Whiz with her.
The string of murders continues to pile up, with crime scenes surrounding the school. Soon, “Rippermania” turns into a London living in terror. Rory slowly finds herself at the center of it all as she remains the only person who has caught even a glimpse of the new ripper. But why is she the only one who has seen him, even though Jazza was with her when she did? And what is with the other people she is seeing that her friends are not?
Perfect pacing make this book as Cassandra Clare puts it “a chilling, atmospheric thriller.” The author pulls you totally into a gray, foggy autumnal London which is on the one hand exactly as expected – accents, pubs, sausage, beer – and on the other eerie. She ratchets up the suspense in excellent measure, giving us a first murder which titillates, a second that causes unease and then a slowly building frenzy as the murders go unchecked. The rising anxiety seems to communicate directly from the page to your own heartbeat.
Also well done is the big reveal of what is actually happening. We receive the bits and pieces with our storyteller, learn as she learns, discover as she discovers. Evey once in awhile I run across a first person narrator who really can’t put things together. The reader figures things out long before she does. That is not the case here – Rory may lack information but she is bright and resourceful and never left me wondering if she had been dropped on her head as a baby. I should add she was the perfect narrator for me in terms of introducing us to London school life. She is as much a fish out of water as many American readers would be and serves as a good guide to this new world.
The school scenes were terrific fun for me, by the way. I loved Rory’s reaction to hockey, her housemistress, the head girl prefect – everything. Her friendship with Jazza was wonderfully depicted and her growing “like” with Jerome was equally well done. The secondary characters are sketched exactly right – we know them as well as another person can really know someone. This means that boyfriend Jerome remains a touch mysterious, Jazza a bit private, and Charlotte hated from behaviors and third party accounts more than from any evil we see her do. That works well here since a third person narration would give us too much, too soon.
I also just really liked the combination of life and fear that the author employed. On the one hand you have a city in crisis and people traveling only in packs and going home before dark. On the other hand you have Rory, Jerome and Jazza displaying just the right amount of independence and getting themselves into some scrapes as a result. I found the balance realistic – you can only remain at heightened terror alert for so long.
The Jack the Ripper history is handled well also. It is doled out to us naturally through conversations and news accounts. The book doesn’t bog itself down in “who done it” theories but concentrates on the facts – and also the fiction created by the media at the time. It was an interesting perspective and one I hadn’t really experienced before.
If there is a flaw with the novel it is that the buildup takes awhile, which is why I refrain from saying too much about what is going on with Rory and the people she teams up with to handle the new Ripper. I think most will guess pretty easily at what is happening. I can say the explanations are interesting and the hunt for the killer and the methods employed equally so. I am pretty sure we have a set up for a sequel, and while I have come to hate series with a passion I am actually excited about this one.
This is a great novel for a cold night, the kind of evening you want to spend with some hot tea and blankets and a a really good book.
Grade: B+
Book Type: Young Adult
Sensuality: Subtle
Review Date: 26/11/11
Publication Date: 2011/09
I've been an avid reader since 2nd grade and discovered romance when my cousin lent me Lord of La Pampa by Kay Thorpe in 7th grade. I currently read approximately 150 books a year, comprised of a mix of Young Adult, romance, mystery, women's fiction, and science fiction/fantasy.
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.