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annika2304's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
christinecc's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
In which I remember that Joan Aiken's writing is a force with which to be reckoned; find myself crying over descriptions of poetry; fail to see the really obvious big twist until approximately three pages before its discovery; and sit on the book for about a month before writing the review.
(Sorry, just a little joke. Each chapter in the book begins with description like this, so I thought I'd give it a go.)
I will always regret the fact that I have only discovered Joan Aiken in adulthood and never experienced her books as a child. I wonder if they would have traumatized me. Hmm. Food for thought.
This is the second book in Aiken's "Felix" trilogy, set in post-Napoleonic Spain, to which Felix is sailing back when his ship is caught in a storm and wrecked near a mysterious abbey in Basque country. Once there, Felix has a strange vision of a person crying for help, but there isn't anyone around! Was it a ghost? Was it a dream? And soon after, Felix falls into a coma, which is later revealed to be a trance-like state. He has been at the abbey for months. The abbey is run by THE creepiest head monk, and Felix has no idea how he can get away... until he follows a dreadful instinct and return to the clearing where he heard the voice, only to find a young boy hanging by his neck, struggling to live.
The boy is a Basque named Juan, and he is now Felix's new companion as they escape the abbey and make their way across dangerous wilderness, in search of friends along the way, with bandits in pursuit, not to mention what most definitely seems to be a man possessed by a devil. Because why not.
I loved this book. Aiken recreates a ghostly, beautiful version of historical Spain, filled with real people who have both good and bad in them. Juan and Felix butt heads and are far form the perfect travel companions, bu they are also children, and more importantly, they are in grave peril. Aiken lets them act their age and also show immense maturity, which we can see comes with a great deal of effort on both of their parts. They form such a wonderful, hard-won friendship by the end of their odyssey, one that will link them forever.
Where were we? I did not know.
Sometimes I heard Juan murmuring words; I had no strength to follow the meaning, but the sound of them filtered slowly into my throbbing head like flakes of snow:
'The wind is rising
While I am falling
While I am listening
The wind is calling...'
Then he would break off and say, 'Felix? Can you hear me? Are you strong enough to keep on--to go a little farther?
(...)
'While I am laughing
The wind is weeping
The wind is sighing
While I am sleeping'
The lilt of these words, of Juan's voice, somehow formed a band of curving smoothness, like a path over gently rounded hills, which my spirit could follow while my wretched body obediently, doggedly continued to sit on the pony and submit to endless pain. Could it have been like this for Juan, I wondered, when he was dangling by his neck from the branch of that tree? Did he suffer so> Why did I never think of that before?
Also, for obvious reasons, I love the reveal, although I wouldn't have minded either way if Juan/ Juana were a boy or a girl. As it turns out, she's a girl, which I should have seen coming. The way Felix talks about her, even before the reveal, squeezed my heart inside me. Still under the shock of the reveal afterwards, he describes her to his grandfather when he is asked whether she is handsome:
"'Oh, I don't know-- I have only seen her thin and scrawny and half starved, with her hair cut off--'
And her lies and her thefts, I thought; her deceits and her poetry and her nonsense and her kindness. No, there is nobody like her. I have to see her again."
Don't mind me, I'm just crying over here on the side. Nothing to see here.
Highly recommended for anyone who loves books with adventure, well-developed characters (warts and all), and a ghostly presence tracking you over the hillside.
(Sorry, just a little joke. Each chapter in the book begins with description like this, so I thought I'd give it a go.)
I will always regret the fact that I have only discovered Joan Aiken in adulthood and never experienced her books as a child. I wonder if they would have traumatized me. Hmm. Food for thought.
This is the second book in Aiken's "Felix" trilogy, set in post-Napoleonic Spain, to which Felix is sailing back when his ship is caught in a storm and wrecked near a mysterious abbey in Basque country. Once there, Felix has a strange vision of a person crying for help, but there isn't anyone around! Was it a ghost? Was it a dream? And soon after, Felix falls into a coma, which is later revealed to be a trance-like state. He has been at the abbey for months. The abbey is run by THE creepiest head monk, and Felix has no idea how he can get away... until he follows a dreadful instinct and return to the clearing where he heard the voice, only to find a young boy hanging by his neck, struggling to live.
The boy is a Basque named Juan, and he is now Felix's new companion as they escape the abbey and make their way across dangerous wilderness, in search of friends along the way, with bandits in pursuit, not to mention what most definitely seems to be a man possessed by a devil. Because why not.
I loved this book. Aiken recreates a ghostly, beautiful version of historical Spain, filled with real people who have both good and bad in them. Juan and Felix butt heads and are far form the perfect travel companions, bu they are also children, and more importantly, they are in grave peril. Aiken lets them act their age and also show immense maturity, which we can see comes with a great deal of effort on both of their parts. They form such a wonderful, hard-won friendship by the end of their odyssey, one that will link them forever.
Where were we? I did not know.
Sometimes I heard Juan murmuring words; I had no strength to follow the meaning, but the sound of them filtered slowly into my throbbing head like flakes of snow:
'The wind is rising
While I am falling
While I am listening
The wind is calling...'
Then he would break off and say, 'Felix? Can you hear me? Are you strong enough to keep on--to go a little farther?
(...)
'While I am laughing
The wind is weeping
The wind is sighing
While I am sleeping'
The lilt of these words, of Juan's voice, somehow formed a band of curving smoothness, like a path over gently rounded hills, which my spirit could follow while my wretched body obediently, doggedly continued to sit on the pony and submit to endless pain. Could it have been like this for Juan, I wondered, when he was dangling by his neck from the branch of that tree? Did he suffer so> Why did I never think of that before?
"'Oh, I don't know-- I have only seen her thin and scrawny and half starved, with her hair cut off--'
And her lies and her thefts, I thought; her deceits and her poetry and her nonsense and her kindness. No, there is nobody like her. I have to see her again."
Don't mind me, I'm just crying over here on the side. Nothing to see here.
Highly recommended for anyone who loves books with adventure, well-developed characters (warts and all), and a ghostly presence tracking you over the hillside.
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