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A review by booksnorkel
Withering-By-Sea by Judith Rossell
3.0
I was able to get an advanced copy from my work
This book appeals to my love of the Victorian era, and my love of fantasy. For whatever reason though this book took a very long time to start and a little bit too long in getting to a plot. We spend a long time in the hotel where the girl and her aunts are staying. They went because there was a ‘healing’ spring that guests can drink from. In the typical Dahl style her aunts are terrible and make her do boring lessons, and say things like ‘curiosity is lewd’ and the like. Stella, found an atlas book and it’s her favorite thing, but she has to keep it secret. She is reading it one night and sees a man hide something in the conservatory and she takes it. Eventually we find out that there are watered down versions of the old myths. The man was a dryad he was arguing with a vaudeville magician who has control over a boy who can see visions in ink. We also eventually learn that Stella isn’t 100% human and she has to keep the package from the magician. The writing was lovely and I did enjoy the book it just had a lot of book with not a whole lot of action. I think it’s more for adults who like children’s books than for a child. Probably a good read aloud book. For fifth graders on up who are looking for a Victorian fae mystery.
This book appeals to my love of the Victorian era, and my love of fantasy. For whatever reason though this book took a very long time to start and a little bit too long in getting to a plot. We spend a long time in the hotel where the girl and her aunts are staying. They went because there was a ‘healing’ spring that guests can drink from. In the typical Dahl style her aunts are terrible and make her do boring lessons, and say things like ‘curiosity is lewd’ and the like. Stella, found an atlas book and it’s her favorite thing, but she has to keep it secret. She is reading it one night and sees a man hide something in the conservatory and she takes it. Eventually we find out that there are watered down versions of the old myths. The man was a dryad he was arguing with a vaudeville magician who has control over a boy who can see visions in ink. We also eventually learn that Stella isn’t 100% human and she has to keep the package from the magician. The writing was lovely and I did enjoy the book it just had a lot of book with not a whole lot of action. I think it’s more for adults who like children’s books than for a child. Probably a good read aloud book. For fifth graders on up who are looking for a Victorian fae mystery.