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jessalynn_librarian's review
3.0
This is an atmospheric, melancholy story about a teen boy visiting Scotland with his father. His brother has recently died, the family is crumbling, and he's started hearing voices - vivid conversations - and seeing scenes that he finds engrossing and peaceful. He's at loose ends in Scotland, wandering the countryside and befriending the local bookseller and the couple who run the castle-turned-hotel where he and his father are staying.
The story seems to fit into that type that I read a lot of as a kid - slightly eerie occurances, mysterious events from the past overlapping with our own time, old letters and photos and voices from the past. But while I was curious to see where the story went, there were so many loose ends never tied up, and so many plot strands that added a bit of atmosphere or character but no real plot.
It was a bit like watching an odd foreign film, the kind of moody thing where you're intrigued but never quite sold on the whole set-up, and where the end leaves you in serious need of resolution. At the same time, though, you're admiring the cinematography and acting. Which is all to say that I'm conflicted - slightly admiring, slightly confused, and wishing I could find out what on earth Eleanor Cameron was trying to do with this book.
The story seems to fit into that type that I read a lot of as a kid - slightly eerie occurances, mysterious events from the past overlapping with our own time, old letters and photos and voices from the past. But while I was curious to see where the story went, there were so many loose ends never tied up, and so many plot strands that added a bit of atmosphere or character but no real plot.
It was a bit like watching an odd foreign film, the kind of moody thing where you're intrigued but never quite sold on the whole set-up, and where the end leaves you in serious need of resolution. At the same time, though, you're admiring the cinematography and acting. Which is all to say that I'm conflicted - slightly admiring, slightly confused, and wishing I could find out what on earth Eleanor Cameron was trying to do with this book.
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