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misspippireads's review
4.0
Meg Pickel's older brother, Orion, has gone missing. She is determined to find him and the Dicken's novel that he took with him. As she spies a seance from a neighbor's roof, she meets author Charles Dickens. With the help of Mr. Dickens, Meg and Charles set out to find Orion in the city of London.
The haunting begins with the seance seen from the roof. The mysterious gathering is a cover for more dangerous activity with lost and stolen children. With a ghostly character named Peter, the ghostly haunting is done. The haunting refers to the sleepless nights of Dickens and Meg. Meg is searching for her missing brother and a way to help the lost children of London. Dickens seeks a muse for another book. They are haunted by circumstances.
I am not a fan of ghostly tales, so this take on hauntings was refreshing. Readers who enjoy historical fiction will enjoy this tale. A fictional look at an author is imaginative and fun. Buzbee's piece can open the readers to the world of Dickens, his stories and his London. This is an excellent jumping point for researching the life and times of Charles Dickens, historical London, or children workers.
Reviewed from a library copy.
The haunting begins with the seance seen from the roof. The mysterious gathering is a cover for more dangerous activity with lost and stolen children. With a ghostly character named Peter, the ghostly haunting is done. The haunting refers to the sleepless nights of Dickens and Meg. Meg is searching for her missing brother and a way to help the lost children of London. Dickens seeks a muse for another book. They are haunted by circumstances.
I am not a fan of ghostly tales, so this take on hauntings was refreshing. Readers who enjoy historical fiction will enjoy this tale. A fictional look at an author is imaginative and fun. Buzbee's piece can open the readers to the world of Dickens, his stories and his London. This is an excellent jumping point for researching the life and times of Charles Dickens, historical London, or children workers.
Reviewed from a library copy.
luisasm's review
A good view into the time period, with a nice mystery to go along with it, even with some plot holes. Some things seemed a little far fetched, but you did like Meg's daring. She's a nice, fleshed out character. Sometimes it tended to be a little on the nose, maybe too blunt in it's family bonding and all. It seemed to switch genres, dropping story lines (ghosts are huge in the beginning, and then nothing is ever mentioned again.) Still, the characters are interesting, especially Charles Dickens himself.
kel_pru's review
3.0
Beautifully written in imitation of Dickens' style but not so much of the haunting that I expected from the title.
thisbookishcat's review
This is a whole lot of droning on about a whole lot of stuff I didn't realize that I wouldn't care about. I don't know what I expected but now I know why my family didn't recommend this to me.
I don't recommend this.
I don't recommend this.
wiseowl33's review against another edition
4.0
Love the way the author took the stylings of Dickens and wrote the book in that fashion. It wasn't just a novel with Dickens in it... it was very much in his style. Well done! good story. Enjoyable tale.
astrangerhere's review against another edition
3.0
I rather enjoyed this little story and the villain cameo at the end. Read it on a total whim, though I seemed to have read a lot of fictionalized Dickens stories this year.
"Maturity and experience shouldn't stop one from craving silly things like sliding down bannisters."
"Maturity and experience shouldn't stop one from craving silly things like sliding down bannisters."
jhen_squared's review against another edition
3.0
This book wasn't what I had particularly been expecting and had been in the mood for which is why I think it took me such a long time to go through and finish it. I had thought that it would have been more on the scary side of things which is what I had been craving. Regardless it was a pretty good book and some of the lines even reminded me and gave me the vibe of A Series of Unfortunate Events. I know at some other time I would have enjoyed this book more but in the end it was still enjoyable. Meg is an admirable character who isn't only determined but quite smart I must say. I found Charles Dickens to be just a bundle of laughter and fun. What has happened now is that I am most eager to finally read the four Charles Dickens books I've had in my possession for years but had never taken an interest in reading. Hopefully I'll get to them soon.
holtfan's review
3.0
While I absolutely love Lewis Buzbee's writing, I did not find the plot of The Haunting of Charles Dickens that stimulating. The characters were rather rough. I swear Meg is bi-polar. One minute she is breathing threats and anger against her "weak Father", and the very next paragraph she wants to hug him and weep. Geesh, girl. Makeupyourmind.
The Dickens of this story is definitely a polished Dickens. What he might do in the future is politely left blank. There is little mention of his wife or of his children.
is my favorite Dicken's novel, though, which is why I give this book three stars. Otherwise, a tad disappointing. It just felt....lacking.
The Dickens of this story is definitely a polished Dickens. What he might do in the future is politely left blank. There is little mention of his wife or of his children.
ladybedivere's review
3.0
Meg's brother Orion is missing. On a midnight rooftop escapade she runs into Charles Dickens, a family friend and fellow insomniac. They witness a fake seance, which leads them to believe that Orion may be prisoner somewhere and it is up to them to find and free him. With the help of the rest of Meg's family and a sundry cast of worthy Victorian characatures, they set out on a quest to bring him home.
Quite a good book for what it is. I sense that it's well-suited to the upper-middle-grade/youngish-young-adult set (thought having always been super ahead of my age in reading level I don't necessarily have the best perspective of what that actually is). But it's well written, has a strong female protagonist, and a great family dynamic that I really enjoyed. It's true to the period without being graphic or inappropriate, and it conjures up the world and style of Dickens himself nicely for kids/teens who may not be quite ready to bite off the Great Man himself.
My quibble with the book comes from the way it conjures up Dickens; I constantly felt like it was trying so hard to be clever that it undercut the very things that it was doing so well. My two main issues were:
1. The author very specifically sets this book after the publication of Great Expectations and before the publication of his next novel (his attempt to find inspiration for it forming some of the plot, hence, the spoiler tag). The MC, Meg, has explicitly read all of Dickens' published work. So, when Meg and Dickens start running into characters who are named after (and essentially ARE) the characters from Dickens' novels (a workhouse master named Mr. Bumble, a thug named Bill Sykes, etc.), I found it incredibly distracting that they didn't comment on it. Some of the characatures were more subtle, and alluded to Dickens' work without sharing names, and those were great. I wished that had been the convention all, the way through.
2. Early on, Dickens and Meg meet a genuine ghost, who provides Dickens with some inspiration for his next novel. He comments that "A ghost can ruin any novel, if it's a ghost simply to have a ghost. A ghost must be the ghost, must have a purpose beyond haunting." I love that statement as it applies to both craft and intent in the art of writing. And then I felt like this novel almost broke that rule, because the ghost never came up again, and nothing else supernatural happened.
Those two mini-rants aside, I did enjoy the book, and I would gladly recommend it as a gateway to Dickens/Victorian literature for younger readers.
Quite a good book for what it is. I sense that it's well-suited to the upper-middle-grade/youngish-young-adult set (thought having always been super ahead of my age in reading level I don't necessarily have the best perspective of what that actually is). But it's well written, has a strong female protagonist, and a great family dynamic that I really enjoyed. It's true to the period without being graphic or inappropriate, and it conjures up the world and style of Dickens himself nicely for kids/teens who may not be quite ready to bite off the Great Man himself.
My quibble with the book comes from the way it conjures up Dickens; I constantly felt like it was trying so hard to be clever that it undercut the very things that it was doing so well. My two main issues were:
Spoiler
1. The author very specifically sets this book after the publication of Great Expectations and before the publication of his next novel (his attempt to find inspiration for it forming some of the plot, hence, the spoiler tag). The MC, Meg, has explicitly read all of Dickens' published work. So, when Meg and Dickens start running into characters who are named after (and essentially ARE) the characters from Dickens' novels (a workhouse master named Mr. Bumble, a thug named Bill Sykes, etc.), I found it incredibly distracting that they didn't comment on it. Some of the characatures were more subtle, and alluded to Dickens' work without sharing names, and those were great. I wished that had been the convention all, the way through.
2. Early on, Dickens and Meg meet a genuine ghost, who provides Dickens with some inspiration for his next novel. He comments that "A ghost can ruin any novel, if it's a ghost simply to have a ghost. A ghost must be the ghost, must have a purpose beyond haunting." I love that statement as it applies to both craft and intent in the art of writing. And then I felt like this novel almost broke that rule, because the ghost never came up again, and nothing else supernatural happened.
Those two mini-rants aside, I did enjoy the book, and I would gladly recommend it as a gateway to Dickens/Victorian literature for younger readers.
penguininabluebox's review against another edition
3.0
Eh. The writing was really weird - it just felt like it was trying too hard most of the time. Like it was trying to be poetic and beautiful, but it didn't quite work out and just felt a bit bumpy because of it and that hindered the flow of the story for me.
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