Written by Philip Caveney
 |
| ©Image Copyright |
An Adventure Book Review by Erin the Literary Cat©, International Book Reviewer.
Hello, and welcome to my latest Book Review featuring this week a Adventure in Middle Grade Fiction.
Without further ado, and with my trusty housekeeper, Mrs H, happy that we have our own published novels to get sucked back into, lets get this review on the road!
|
| ©Image copyright (see below) |
AUTHOR: Philip Caveney. (Website link CLICK HERE.)
Cover illustration by: Images ©Adobe Stock and Shutterstock, 2025
Published by: Fox and Ink Books. (Website link CLICK HERE.)
Publication date Paperback: 6th Nov 2025
Paperback 13 digit ISBN: 978-1916747739
UK Cover price for Paperback: £7.99
Amazon KINDLE price: £3.99
Pages: 276
Age range: 9 - 16+
Internal illustrations?: No
SPOILER ALERT
Yes, some as to plot direction and characters.
Thank you to...
We are exceedingly grateful to Graeme Williams, publicist, and Fox and Ink Books for offering us a chance to Read & Review this story.
As ever, our views are our own, and we only share reviews of books we have bought, received as gifts, or received in exchange for an impartial review.
First and foremost, the books we review are those we select to read, like, and feel our global readers deserve to know about and will enjoy.
The plot
It is late July 2020, the school summer holidays have arrived, and it is the height of the Covid pandemic. 15/16-year-old Philip Gregory, aka Flip, is spending his days out and about on his own, exploring the Kent Marshes near his home. His mother is a nurse practitioner in the A&E of a local hospital, managing the brunt and cruel side of the virus. On his latest walk, he heads up a rise and finds in the valley beyond, and hidden from view, an abandoned Victorian redbrick house behind a wired fence. Dilapidated and boarded up, he finds his way inside. What awaits him is a sort of house stuck in time; cobwebs, mouldy old furniture abound, and rubbish left by other visitors is the only sign of modern-day life.
Then, out of the blue, he sees a young, imperious-looking girl about his age, staring at him from an upper landing. Stranger yet, it seems she was expecting him. She calls him Pip, a name he hasn’t been called since early childhood, and has a task for him to complete. Unwittingly, Flip seems to have been seconded to undertake a task for Miss H. Curious how the girl knew his past name, and despite his protestations to the contrary that he is not ‘Pip’, the girl introduces herself as Estella, and leads a confused Flip, aka Pip to where he is to work. He has been tasked with cataloguing all the items in the house’s large and dusty attic, and to look out in particular for a large book that Miss H has lost.
During the search, which does not go well, Flip finds an old and loaded rifle and blows out an attic window by mistake. Taking this as the ideal reason to flee, he makes his excuses, and heads to the ground floor. Estella is not best pleased and insists that he should return the next day, saying that if he does not, Miss H will have ways to ensure he does.
A surprise awaits Flip that evening as, after a very realistic dream where he is running on the Marshes and comes across a stranger who sounds like his absent dad, he awakes to find Estella in his garden! She is there to ensure he returns the next day, and will confront his mother if Flip does not.
Needless to say, Flip is starting to get worried and overwhelmed by all this, but to keep the peace and not get his mum involved, the next day he returns to the old house, Satis House.
The next day dawns, and Flip heads off to the Marshes, and into what becomes a very exciting adventure. As time progresses, it is obvious to him that he is being drawn into the book, Great Expectations, of which he knows little, and is perceived by other characters as Pip from the novel. Indeed, he seems to become Pip, in clothes and worn appearance. But Flip soon realises he has not replaced Pip, just displaced him. Why this is happening, he doesn't know, but somehow he needs to figure out and quickly to make sure he doesn't get stuck back in Pip's world!
Like all great novels, the fun is in the details and telling as they progress. Which is where and why we must leave this review.
So, what did we think?
Great Expectations may well be known to you – if not read, then viewed on the television. What the author has skilfully done here is create multiple stories. We have a retelling, albeit abbreviated, of the Dickens classic, then the tale of Flip and his mother and estranged father. Finally, we have the resulting tale as the casts of both come together, in good ways and bad, and across the two other tales, creating a mini-classic in its own right.
This new tale will appeal to modern and younger readers, but has enough of Dickens’ classic to provide a delightful read for the older reader too. The sometimes pithy wit was well received in this household, as were Flip and Pip’s confusion and responses to situations they found themselves in . Poor Mr Dickens has a rough time of it as well, and his role added a lovely twist/extra layer and dimension that takes it up a notch.
Picking the pandemic as a present-day timeline was a stroke of genius. While most kids of Flip’s age will not have heard or even thought about Dickens’ story, they will instantly relate to that period when they lost freedom, friendships, and saw loved ones if not die, then become sick or seriously ill. This tale ably hits on how life was for each generation, and links and draws comparisons briefly to the cholera epidemic of Victorian times. It also brings together elements of family life, breakups, and tragedy.
One key reason for this plot working so well for us is that the two stories mirror each other in elements that slowly get revealed as the story progresses. Not wishing to spoil things, but it isn’t just the similarity in names that the protagonist Flip shares, but also the life story of key secondary characters as well. So, if you have read Great Expectations, you should be able to see where this is going and why. Though not necessarily how it all works out. That was a lovely twist right at the end, which, while a largish clue was left early on, we ultimately just didn’t see it coming.
So, crunch time.
A masterstroke of plotting, creating a cross-generational tale that Mr Dickens might well have appreciated, had he got his head around his characters not doing what they were told. Well worth a read for all in this age group and above. And we do hope this gets the publicity and credit it deserves in the classroom and beyond.
And as it's time for the Sunday Selfies, here's something equal full of nature and soft and gentle – me!
Here is yours truly caught in what Mrs H says is my 'contemplative, artist's model pose'.
 |
| © Image Copyright |
I hope you enjoyed that adventure review and our selfie.
Till laters!
ERin
