feather_ghyll (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
feather_ghyll) wrote2007-07-29 04:48 pm
feather_ghyll) wrote2007-07-29 04:48 pm
REVIEW: Castle Secrets
I've arranged to volunteer at a charity shop for a few days over the next fortnight. The opportunity to do volunteering work arose and this was one of the options, and certainly the one I was most excited about. Yes, in part it is because I hope to get first look at the books that are donated, although I'm not sure how realistic an ambition that is. At the least, it's going to be an insight into the trading side of charity shops. I've spent many an hour kneeling down by the bargain box, tilting my head an squinting to see if there's something that I want between copies of the latest book to be given away for free by a magazine. (At the moment, I am extremely glad that I paid less than a quid for my copy of Patricia Wentworth's 'The Clock Struck Twelve'.
Castle Secrets by Jean Seivwright, Nelson, Triumph Series.
I've added a new tag, the 07 Hay haul, which I'm still working through. (I've been alternating them with adult books and got distracted by Harry Potters). It wasn't intentional, but a lot of them seem to be older girls' stories - Diana and the two eldest Phillimores had left school, the heroine of The Honour of the School is in the sixth, and the heroine of Adventure in the West is a 'teenager' rather than a child. I want a fourth form story next!!!
Another mini theme emerging is that of the author sharing a name with a character, for one of the main characters of Castle Secrets is a Jean too. I was going to say 'the heroine of Castle Secrets is Jean', and perhaps she is in the end, it depends on your definition, but the most active character is unquestionably not Jean, but her friend Diana. The title of the first chapter is Jean Elliott's Quest, and it's through self-styled 'hustler' Diana that that quest succeeds.
At the start of the tale Jean Elliott, living at Braidley Keep, the Border castle of the title, has far more to worry about than studying to gain entrance at university. The cares of her family have fallen upon her shoulders: her brother, Tom, farming in Rhodesia, was lost while flying back to the family after hearing of the news of the death of their father, sending their aunt, who had brought her and her brother up, to bed. Aged seventeen and in a tricky position legally, as she is not able to touch the family money until her brother is announced dead, Jean can no longer ride and live in the carefree way she used to. To top it all, two American friends she met on a holiday when the family was in better financial straits have wired to say they're going to be visiting - but one of them, Diana, may bring hope. When Diana hears how things are, she offers to become a paying guest, and soon wrangles a family legend about the Elliott treasure our of Jean. Inevitably, it involves Mary, Queen of Scots. Diana also suggests that Jean open up the house to visitors, despite Jean's reticence, to show off the armour and quaint historical artefacts dotting the place. Add to that her matchmaking instinct and suspecting a plot to foil a family friend's attempt to raise a Derby winning horse and you have quite a busy time of it.
It feels even more busy because the author has a curious habit of having characters return into the room changed, and then jumping back in time to let the reader know what caused that reaction - usually an overheard snatch of conversation involving a not quite square groom. Much more annoying is the habit of inappropriately telling us rather than showing us things throughout the story - we know that Diana is a trump and Carol a bad egg before we meet them and these and other characteristics are repeatedly drilled into us. As Diana's habit of matchmaking people she hasn't even observed interacting and turning out to be right irritated me, and her super organisational abilities seem to consist of writing lists for an hour or so, I managed to resist falling for her, unlike the Elliotts, their friends and servants.
I didn't much care for the characters in general, Jean is indistinct rather than charming, and the dialogue just makes them all sound like ninnies. Despite the fact that there's plenty going on plotwise, with the searching for treasure, the redecorating of the Keep and the worry over brother Tom, there's a lot of lying/with-holding of information for no good reason other than creating more tension, while not really using the plot that's already there to its full potential. I would have much preferred more of the dialogue between a Scottish girl and an American girl about the differences between their newspapers, eating habits and attitudes, as the 'secrets' were handled so ineptly, and frustratingly, because the details about the castle's history that were dropped offhand into the conversation were pretty interesting and showed the writer knew her stuff. But she failed at writing the story of the discovery of the castle's secrets that the title promised.
That sounds horridly negative, but I did struggle to read the book, I kept on putting it down and had to sit myself down in a situation where I had little choice but to finish it, which is unlike me. Writing up these reviews is making me think more critically about the books that I'm reading, which is no bad thing, even if I seem to have hit a negative patch, but I do find the habit of almost instantly reviewing these books helpful.
Castle Secrets by Jean Seivwright, Nelson, Triumph Series.
I've added a new tag, the 07 Hay haul, which I'm still working through. (I've been alternating them with adult books and got distracted by Harry Potters). It wasn't intentional, but a lot of them seem to be older girls' stories - Diana and the two eldest Phillimores had left school, the heroine of The Honour of the School is in the sixth, and the heroine of Adventure in the West is a 'teenager' rather than a child. I want a fourth form story next!!!
Another mini theme emerging is that of the author sharing a name with a character, for one of the main characters of Castle Secrets is a Jean too. I was going to say 'the heroine of Castle Secrets is Jean', and perhaps she is in the end, it depends on your definition, but the most active character is unquestionably not Jean, but her friend Diana. The title of the first chapter is Jean Elliott's Quest, and it's through self-styled 'hustler' Diana that that quest succeeds.
At the start of the tale Jean Elliott, living at Braidley Keep, the Border castle of the title, has far more to worry about than studying to gain entrance at university. The cares of her family have fallen upon her shoulders: her brother, Tom, farming in Rhodesia, was lost while flying back to the family after hearing of the news of the death of their father, sending their aunt, who had brought her and her brother up, to bed. Aged seventeen and in a tricky position legally, as she is not able to touch the family money until her brother is announced dead, Jean can no longer ride and live in the carefree way she used to. To top it all, two American friends she met on a holiday when the family was in better financial straits have wired to say they're going to be visiting - but one of them, Diana, may bring hope. When Diana hears how things are, she offers to become a paying guest, and soon wrangles a family legend about the Elliott treasure our of Jean. Inevitably, it involves Mary, Queen of Scots. Diana also suggests that Jean open up the house to visitors, despite Jean's reticence, to show off the armour and quaint historical artefacts dotting the place. Add to that her matchmaking instinct and suspecting a plot to foil a family friend's attempt to raise a Derby winning horse and you have quite a busy time of it.
It feels even more busy because the author has a curious habit of having characters return into the room changed, and then jumping back in time to let the reader know what caused that reaction - usually an overheard snatch of conversation involving a not quite square groom. Much more annoying is the habit of inappropriately telling us rather than showing us things throughout the story - we know that Diana is a trump and Carol a bad egg before we meet them and these and other characteristics are repeatedly drilled into us. As Diana's habit of matchmaking people she hasn't even observed interacting and turning out to be right irritated me, and her super organisational abilities seem to consist of writing lists for an hour or so, I managed to resist falling for her, unlike the Elliotts, their friends and servants.
I didn't much care for the characters in general, Jean is indistinct rather than charming, and the dialogue just makes them all sound like ninnies. Despite the fact that there's plenty going on plotwise, with the searching for treasure, the redecorating of the Keep and the worry over brother Tom, there's a lot of lying/with-holding of information for no good reason other than creating more tension, while not really using the plot that's already there to its full potential. I would have much preferred more of the dialogue between a Scottish girl and an American girl about the differences between their newspapers, eating habits and attitudes, as the 'secrets' were handled so ineptly, and frustratingly, because the details about the castle's history that were dropped offhand into the conversation were pretty interesting and showed the writer knew her stuff. But she failed at writing the story of the discovery of the castle's secrets that the title promised.
That sounds horridly negative, but I did struggle to read the book, I kept on putting it down and had to sit myself down in a situation where I had little choice but to finish it, which is unlike me. Writing up these reviews is making me think more critically about the books that I'm reading, which is no bad thing, even if I seem to have hit a negative patch, but I do find the habit of almost instantly reviewing these books helpful.