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twistedreader93's review against another edition
2.0
This book isn't what I expected it to be glad I didn't buy it and I waited for overdrive to get it just not a good book all together it was so slow
librariandest's review against another edition
3.0
Set during WWII when many children were transplanted from London to the countryside to escape the Blitz (this seems to be a popular setting, no?). There are some very familiar elements here (e.g. the villain is a creepy witch who preys on children) but it's got some unexpected twists. It's a good page-turner, but thematically it felt a bit shallow to me. Katherine isn't a super interesting hero and indeed most of the characters felt a bit flat. Except, I will say, I always appreciate a villain with a good backstory, and that was definitely happening.
The audiobook had great narration!
The audiobook had great narration!
biblio_amy's review against another edition
3.0
Definitely a first book of building to a more exciting story in s series. I enjoyed the scenery and set-up but only enjoyed the book most towards the end with all the magic and suspense.
mirandahopeshea's review against another edition
2.0
A clever concept made irrelevant by poor construction and tedious exposition. We found nothing out for ourselves in this book, which despite it's atmospheric and intriguing premise, fell incredibly flat. An added star for the idea: a WW2 fantasy ghost story set in the highlands of Scotland. So enticing that upon discovering it, I had to have a read. What if this novel (with the same idea behind it) was written by someone with better story construction skills, better writing, and the ability to create three dimensional characters? I think it would have been a hit.
jameyanne's review against another edition
4.0
This book seems to have a lot of negative reviews, but I quite enjoyed it. It was delightfully creepy. No it wasn’t perfect. The writing was pretty telly, and sometimes there were anachronisms, and the ending will only hold up if there’s a sequel in the works (there had better be a sequel in the works), but otherwise this was a fun, kind of spooky read. I also enjoyed how it’s a fantasy novel set in wwii that isn’t just about escaping wwii. Wwii is actually part of the plot, which you don’t see a lot of in wwii fantasy books for kids (I’m looking at you, Narnia). So yes, not perfect, but still pretty good.
celsius273's review against another edition
3.0
Scary and engaging, but in a subtle way. At times exciting and haunting but - and unfortunately - lackluster in some areas.
The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle (isn’t this like the caricature of a children’s book title!) follows Kat Bateson and her friends in England during WWII. Like many other children, they’re sent away from the city in order to stay safe from the Blitz - in their case, Rookskill Castle in rural Scotland. Things seem alright when they first arrive at the manor, but then the children (well mostly Kat) stumble upon strange occurrences that indicate that they may be harboring a Nazi spy and that there’s a weird sort of supernatural going on. Things come to a climax when the other children staying at the castle start disappearing under flimsy explanations from the Lady of the manor. Kat and her friends spend the rest of the book trying to keep themselves from also “disappearing.”
See? That sounds pretty cool, but - and this may be my biggest problem with this book - the blurb literally gives that all away! I’m sitting there reading (listening) and Kat and her friends are wondering what the hell is going on and I’m just like “welp… spies and magic and disappearing children. That’s what’s going on.” It kind of took out the fun of the mystery, and since that’s kind of the basis for the whole plot, well you can see why it was a bit disappointing.
That’s not to say that the big picture mystery was everything though. I did enjoy the flashbacks to Lady Eleanor’s history, though even those basically came out and screamed “warning, supernatural-shit ahead” to me as the reader. I also liked how big the issue of who to trust became. I mean I also like it when good/bad are really clear, but keeping Kat and co. guessing was pretty captivating as well. Who will side with the Lady when Kat gets in trouble? What are the teacher’s motives? Who is wandering around the grounds at night and could they be someone the children know? These questions pervade Kat’s thoughts through the book.
In that same vein though, Kat was a bit ridiculous at times. Come to think of it, she’s unrealistic and annoying on quite a few occasions. There’s this strange subplot with a German spy and while I get why it’s included - WWII and all - is it really realistic that Kat can solve codes in like two seconds? This math oriented mindset leaves Kat to be obstinate in her refusal to believe the supernatural. That there’s a “logical explanation” is something she says all the time and it gets pretty annoying quickly. Then there was the way where she kept feeling like everyone was snapping at her for no reason when she’s clearly being a brat to them. Fine, she’s a teen and this is totally teen behavior (guilty here…) but I still wanted to reach in and slap her out of her selfishness.
On the whole, I loved the concept of the book and the little parts that we learn about the magic are also cool. However there seems to be too much trying to go on that things come across as a bit disjointed or slow at times - slow in that it’s doing a lot of jumping around or sitting around that it feels like nothing is happening - and also results in a rather rushed ending. Is this a standalone? Goodreads seems to think so but there’s so much to explore in this world I think. We’ll wait and see.
The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle (isn’t this like the caricature of a children’s book title!) follows Kat Bateson and her friends in England during WWII. Like many other children, they’re sent away from the city in order to stay safe from the Blitz - in their case, Rookskill Castle in rural Scotland. Things seem alright when they first arrive at the manor, but then the children (well mostly Kat) stumble upon strange occurrences that indicate that they may be harboring a Nazi spy
Spoiler
like a coding machineSee? That sounds pretty cool, but - and this may be my biggest problem with this book - the blurb literally gives that all away! I’m sitting there reading (listening) and Kat and her friends are wondering what the hell is going on and I’m just like “welp… spies and magic and disappearing children. That’s what’s going on.” It kind of took out the fun of the mystery, and since that’s kind of the basis for the whole plot, well you can see why it was a bit disappointing.
That’s not to say that the big picture mystery was everything though. I did enjoy the flashbacks to Lady Eleanor’s history, though even those basically came out and screamed “warning, supernatural-shit ahead” to me as the reader. I also liked how big the issue of who to trust became. I mean I also like it when good/bad are really clear, but keeping Kat and co. guessing was pretty captivating as well. Who will side with the Lady when Kat gets in trouble? What are the teacher’s motives? Who is wandering around the grounds at night and could they be someone the children know? These questions pervade Kat’s thoughts through the book.
In that same vein though, Kat was a bit ridiculous at times. Come to think of it, she’s unrealistic and annoying on quite a few occasions. There’s this strange subplot with a German spy and while I get why it’s included - WWII and all - is it really realistic that Kat can solve codes in like two seconds? This math oriented mindset leaves Kat to be obstinate in her refusal to believe the supernatural. That there’s a “logical explanation” is something she says all the time and it gets pretty annoying quickly. Then there was the way where she kept feeling like everyone was snapping at her for no reason when she’s clearly being a brat to them. Fine, she’s a teen and this is totally teen behavior (guilty here…) but I still wanted to reach in and slap her out of her selfishness.
On the whole, I loved the concept of the book and the little parts that we learn about the magic are also cool. However there seems to be too much trying to go on that things come across as a bit disjointed or slow at times - slow in that it’s doing a lot of jumping around or sitting around that it feels like nothing is happening - and also results in a rather rushed ending. Is this a standalone? Goodreads seems to think so but there’s so much to explore in this world I think. We’ll wait and see.
thepurplegiraffe's review against another edition
4.5
This swept me away and genuinely shocked me a few times with plot twists! I enjoyed it a lot!
brittaniethekid's review against another edition
DNF. It started out very promising, like a nice traditional ghost story set in the Highlands, but it was very drawn out and I didn't much care for any of the children. It focused too much on Kat who was hard to empathize with. I started skipping pages at about 150 and then decided I just didn't care how it ended.
joshgauthier's review against another edition
4.0
The plot here felt a little simplistic and over-explained in places, though I think that might have more to do with the style of a middle-grade novel than anything. Otherwise, it was an intriguing read with a fair dose of mystery, suspense, and creepy atmosphere.