Hello, and welcome to my latest Book Review featuring this week an amazing adventure in Middle Grade Fiction.
Without further ado, and with my trusty housekeeper, Mrs H, busy checking for dangerous ornamental masonry on the roof, lets get this book review on the the road to Gargoyle's Rest . . .
We are exceedingly grateful to publicist Graeme Williams, and UCLan Publishing 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 that we hope they, their family, friends and students will enjoy.
The plot
After the death of his grandmother on his father’s side, Callan and his parents move to his grans house, Gargoyle's Rest, a rambling and seemingly decrepit mansion which sports large gargoyles around the roof, and a ‘no-go’ room that is unsafe. When he gets a look into the room he sees a hole in the floor. Stranger though is the fact the hole is surrounded by large stone gargoyles, the same as those around the roof.
The grounds are expansive, overgrown, and full of intrigue for 11-year-old Callan who has been forced to leave all his friends behind. He discovers a girl, Yasmin, wandering, trespassing through the woods.
Whilst they do not initially bond, Callan has an opportunity to make a friend and to explore. Yasmin lives with her family and younger, incorrigible, slightly annoying brother, Raf, in one of the estate cottages beyond the grounds and that Callan’s family now own. Her neighbours include Angus, who clearly is self-assured and clever, and has nothing to prove. He irks Callan who feels the need to compete and prove himself, more so when he discovers the special skills Angus Yasmin and Raf have and the creatures they can communicate with and, to a degree, control.
Callan’s new bedroom is rather spooky, with a huge stone gargoyle outside the window. On exploring the other floors and rooms, he discovers a bedroom. Within he finds someone’s diary. Taking it, he is intent on reading more about this person, and rather intriguingly, their role in what they describe as being a Guardian of the Source. The Source he will discover is a well that, whatever goes in comes out magnified – good or bad. The Guardians who through generations have protected the Source, have the power to awaken the great gargoyles that surround the house.
Once awoken they become the fearsome fur, feather, scale, flesh and breathing creatures they formerly depicted. In fact, the Guardians are expected to bond with a gargoyle. Think Avatar and choosing your own ‘Ikran’ or ‘Mountain Banshee’.
Seeing this as a great opportunity to prove himself, and get one over on Angus, Callan tries to awaken and befriend his own gargoyle, that outside his window, but only manages to invite a deadly ghast into his bedroom. Not a great start. Only a trained Guardian has the right to summon a gargoyle.
Behind the scenes, Callan’s dad, is struggling with the house. An old friend and structural engineer says the place is unsound and that he should sell up and move his family out before it falls down.
As things worsen with the house, and a family secret related to the diary, so Callan and his dad come to blows and drift apart. Something else is also happening, the catalyst for the events and ill feelings. The well that contains the source is being awoken, and what was previously held within, an evil force, is starting to assert its power. And when it does, it will unleash disaster and ghasts on the world. But knowing that what goes into the well is magnified, who or what is feeding it evil?
Callan has challenges ahead of him, not just navigating friendships, his father and the hidden secret of the diary’s owner. Having started off wanting his own gargoyle friend to impress Yasmin and Angus, he very soon realises that he needs to be a guardian proper to not only save the house but his family and the good magic in the well, the source, that is being usurped by the evil.
The problem is Zariel, the gargoyle outside his window, is far from willing to be befriended, or impressed with Callan, and considers far too young and grossly undertrained to be a guardian.
Time is running out, and only a Gargoyle and Guardian as a pair can fight the looming threat that is growing in the shadows.
So, what did we think?
We have lived in a large, old creaking house, with rambling wild garden and a stream running through. I often dreamed that there was far more lurking within and without than just stray mice and creepy crawlies in the damp vegetation and the river's sometimes placid sometimes fast waters. Sadly we had no gargoyles, only long since dead and stuffed jewel eyed creatures, and let me assure you that they are scary enough. But if we'd had gargoyles I bet they would have talked and been just like those in this adventure. This is exactly the kind of fun I would love to have had, but likely would have not been as brave as Callan.
What I love is that the journey Callan goes on involves his parents, particularly his dad. We get a real sense of the angst of friendship building for the kids, and a real dilemma for the parents as key elements of their lives, past and present, create problems tensions for them all, amplified by the evil that seeps into the house.
The story eases us gently into characters, location and situation, steadily enough to allow for the ensuing series to have fresh reveals along the way. There is plenty of action once we start uncovering the secrets of the mansion and the family past and present. The plot is original, and we can recall only one other gargoyle in a middle grade book series, though they weren't as central to the story as Zariel is. More grumpy gargoyles more often I say!
There is an admirable mix of the fantasy elements and human interaction without the reader feeling lost or overwhelmed by a new new world. How this changes with the new book remains to be seen. I have every confidence that the head of steam built up will continue to delight and draw younger readers in.
Finally but not least, is the cover. It is colourful and shiny, and so very ably brings together every part of the adventure, characters and place and shows them off to best catch the eye. It did us, and I am so glad we chose it for review.
So, Crunch time.
A well-crafted, atmospheric blend of fantasy, magic and adventure, with a healthy dose of spooky and dark to bring a big book feel. The delightful and compelling scene setting leads to a pacy and satisfying grand finale. Which in turn heralds another, soon to be released adventure for Callan and his new friends, humans and Gargoyles alike.
And now for my Sunday Selfie . . . .
Was the cat outside looking at me, or the cat food Mrs H brought from Amazon? One thing for sure is that all the cats in this neck of the woods like the pate and biscuits Amazon sell. A good pricec and quality. Have any of you tried it also?
We are joining the Sunday Selfies, hosted by the wonderful Kitties Blue and their mum, Janet Blue, from the Cat on My Head blog in America.CLICK THIS LINK to visit their site and to get the code to add to your own blog . . .
Hello, and welcome to my weekend Book Review featuring this week an Adventure in Adult Fiction from CWA member and prolific writer of cosy and less cosy mysteries and adventures, Mollie Hunt.
No rambling intro this week, so let's dive straight in to a chilly adventure where things very soon HOT up. . . .
AUTHOR: MOLLIE HUNT
Cover art by: Roslyn McFarland
Published by: Independently published
Publication date Paperback: 19/12/2020
Paperback ISBN: 198 406 2247
Cover price for Paperback: £11.95 / $15
Kindle price: £4.73 / $5.99
Pages: 365
Age range: Adult
Any dogs or cats? As this is Mollie, there are lots and lots of cats, with some human companions/cohabiters
SPOILER ALERT
Some as to plot direction and characters.
Thank you to...
I treated Mrs H to this as I was keen to see what happened next. So, unusually, it is Mrs H thanking me!
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 that we hope they, their family, friends and students will enjoy.
The plot
Our main protagonist is Slayter, an elegant and lithe black cat, who lives with another feline, Emma, in the home of their cohabiter human, Claire.
We also have Zaadkiel, an entity that had recently attained consciousness in the cosmic soup from which all life and planets began. In the beginning, we see how this entity changes over millennia, finally through curiosity reaching out across all of time and space to become informed.
It is the eve of a new season, Spring, and snow is in the air and on the ground. But it is also a moment in time called the Winter Verus, a time when winter stops still, literally suspended, and things can no longer be measured in time as we recognise it. Snowflakes are frozen mid-air, and a deafening silence swallows all who tread this space. During this period, nine feline emissaries of the council can slip between the seconds to execute the Rectification of the Variants and put to right the human wrongs, at least those they can impact. In doing so, they reset existence for Earth and every creature hereon.
The two cats head off on a mission; two of the nine cats chosen by a feline council to correct the wrongs that have happened. It is a given the wrongs or incidents that need correcting all involve humans. Incidents that, though seemingly trivial, if not corrected and the humans sent the right way, will lead to tragedy and travesty on a scale dangerous to all species and the planet. Simple choices that, when corrected, would stop an individual man from committing a second murder, which would have led to starting a dangerous cult, causing widespread death and fear.
Each of the nine cats chosen for this year's Verus has a connection to the events and humans that cause the variants. Each cat has come from afar and wouldn't, under normal circumstances, have worked in a group. They meet up, and after introduction, the adventure begins, but not without tensions evolving into blows. It is more than a quest and potentially far more perilous.
When Slayter's task differs from the others, things take a turn for the worse. He arrives in a place and amongst people, scientists and cosmologists, he does not know. It seems that all he had to do was awaken one of the astronomers from his sleep. In doing so, the man sees something in the night sky far away that otherwise he would have missed. But Slayter senses something terrible, a shadowy malevolence lurking beyond sight and mind. It is the same evil that Zaadkiel, the star-chameleon entity deep within its black hole, could feel, too. It was a poison in the new world he had so very recently discovered. The entity knew this disease must be cut out.
Lost in a daydream about his strange task, Slayter catches up with the others to discover one of the cats has arrived at their scene to find the human they needed to help was dead. A husk that, on touching, disintegrated with a curdling scream into dust and a small ashen pellet.
It is thought to be a freak coincidence, yet, in this suspended between-seconds world, there is only one true answer – a murderer is running amok.
Fearful of what may have happened or will happen to Claire, Slayter and Emma rush home. It is from here on that Claire becomes involved. Slayter's fears over what is happening, the scientist, and the malevolence he feels cause him to reveal the cats' ability to speak, the task and the dangers. If anyone can help the cats, Slayter feels it is Claire, which, indeed, she can. Having contacted the scientist, the three head off to meet him.
Now, from here on in, things ramp up. The malevolence gets a name, in fact, two, the first being 'the Other'. It is intent on consuming all things on a galactic and dimensional scale. But he has found adoration among the tiny worthless inhabitants of one of the many planets he seeks to destroy. He will spare them as he is vain and loves the adoration. He loves to watch how, when he turns one of their number to dust, they praise him more. Yet, on the same planet, there is an irritation, a force that can harm him. The Other is aware of Zaadkiel, too, and seeks to destroy it, to suck out its energy.
Zaadkiel needs help to remove the evil, which they realise they can't do themselves. Reaching out across time and space faster than light, it finds, or rather senses, an ally on Earth in the form of a small sentient being known as Slayter.
And so Earth becomes the battleground for two mighty opposing forces. Primordial good and evil incarnate. It becomes a place where the fight to save everything from the moment of creation forward will transcend time, space, and even life itself. All actions have consequences, and Slayter and his newfound friends have only one chance to put right the biggest variant of all. They also have a whole new earth-bound enemy, too!
So, what did we think?
I was half expecting this to be an extension of the first-in-series and wasn't entirely sure what 'new' could be brought to a previous all-encompassing and seemingly complete story. And for a moment, in the opening chapters, it seemed I was right. I really needn't have worried, as soon enough, with obligatory character introductions and scene setting complete, we ventured where no reader has boldly gone before. The cast of felines, naturally enough, have more than an inkling as to what must be done. Thankfully, they, too, were unprepared.
Like the best, and I do mean the best, sci-fi movies, we were enthralled by diving ever deeper and ultimately into an almost maelstrom of physical and astral planes through which our protagonists must travel. The text is rich, evocative, and full of terms that had Mrs H reaching for her science dictionary and brought added credence (though not needed for us) to the plot.
We both, after trying to draw comparisons to works we already know, especially movies/TV, which many more will be familiar with than sci-fi fantasy books. We came up with four: Inception, Contact (by the late great Carl Sagan), Interstellar, and Quantum Leap.
It is highly appealing that this book inhabits time and space, has earthy, earthly and unearthly characters, good and heinous, and has a spiritual flavour, something for everyone. And it does all that with so much aplomb. It became a seat-of-the-pants tale that was wholly satisfying.
Fear not; this story isn't spaceships and warp-speed antics. Though those have their place, elsewhere, for those who need them. This tale found its feet for us when we ventured to an earlier and brutal human civilisation.
I always hope to do a book justice without giving too much away. I can give away the fact that I just didn't see the end coming and that the build-up was intense, a volcano erupting tense. As I said, this is real seat-of-the-pants stuff.
So . . . .
Crunch time.
Molly has taken cat adventures to a whole new level, and our reading has never been more exciting or rewarding. It's an all-around delight and deliciously satisfyingly different. Onwards to book 3!
Want to buy a copy?
You don't have to transform into a feline to get a copy. Lovely though that would be, there is nowhere to carry change or credit cards. Just get yourself down to your local independent bookshop. Or order online. However or from wherever you buy, you support an independent author, fellow cat carer and member of the Cat Writers Association.
Mollie Hunt's web page can be found HERE or type this: https://molliehuntcatwriter.com/
