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A review by onceuponacarm
The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire Legrand
3.0
A creepy, dark tale about a mysterious orphanage in a town where everyone is "perfect." Those who aren't perfect have a tendency to go missing and are soon forgotten. When Victoria, straight-A student and perfectly proper, takes outcast Lawrence under her wing, she does so not in order to have a friend but in order to help him become more "normal." Then Lawrence goes missing and Victoria finds herself the only person in town who notices that something is wrong. She uncovers the sinister secrets of the old Cavendish Home at the end of the road and tries to undo the damage caused by its proprietor, Mrs. Cavendish.
This book was inventive and unique, but had a very slow start--you're halfway through the book before anything really happens. The slow pace is contrasted by a quick ending, but it would have been more effective to pace the novel more evenly. It will lose a lot of readers early on because of the lack of action and minimal suspense in the first 100-150 pages. The author may have been trying to set the scene, but it could have been done in less than half the time. The first half seems to hint at something creepy going on, but less observant readers may not realize what they're getting into until it's too late--the imagery in this book is extremely disturbing. It makes it difficult to recommend to kids--it's best suited for 5th and 6th graders, but the reader will have to have a high tolerance for scary stuff but also the stamina to get through all of the scene-setting. While I'm glad I read this, I did not like it as much as I expected to.
This book was inventive and unique, but had a very slow start--you're halfway through the book before anything really happens. The slow pace is contrasted by a quick ending, but it would have been more effective to pace the novel more evenly. It will lose a lot of readers early on because of the lack of action and minimal suspense in the first 100-150 pages. The author may have been trying to set the scene, but it could have been done in less than half the time. The first half seems to hint at something creepy going on, but less observant readers may not realize what they're getting into until it's too late--the imagery in this book is extremely disturbing. It makes it difficult to recommend to kids--it's best suited for 5th and 6th graders, but the reader will have to have a high tolerance for scary stuff but also the stamina to get through all of the scene-setting. While I'm glad I read this, I did not like it as much as I expected to.