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A review by marilynw
The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas
4.0
The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas
Narrated by Helen Barford and David Thorpe
All Hallows has a long and unpleasant past. For years it was an asylum and at first all the patients were treated the same, with dignity. Later came different management and there were rooms set aside for the wealthy, complete with flowers, fine food and drink, and personal attention from the staff. By this time the rest of the patients were treated by being drugged into a stupor, bound, chained, and stripped of their clothes and all their dignity, until there was little left of them, body or mind. This was the way things were in 1903 when an unconscious woman and her young daughter were brought to the asylum in very bad shape.
All Hallows is a boarding school in 1993. It's worse for wear and there has been some flooding so when thirteen year old Lewis is sent there, it's darker and danker than ever. At least Lewis becomes friends and roommates with surly Isak. While repairs are made on the bigger group room where the boys will eventually sleep, the two of them have a room of their own, under an old attic that has the strangest noises coming from it.
I really like Lewis. He can hardly keep his mind on anything related to school or adults. It's always going off on tangents that are interesting to him and to me. Both he and Isak are smart and creative even if their grades don't reflect it. Once they realize something strange is going on in the school they spend most of their spare time in the library or their room reading about the past of All Hallows and it's staff and residents.
The story alternates between a female narrator for the 1903 timeline and a male narrator for 1993 and most of the chapters are very short. I really like how the story was done because I never had a chance to lose the thread of either timeline. In the earlier timeline we spend time with the little girl, Harriet, and Nurse Emma, who is to take care of her while her mother recovers from her injuries. Old Emma thought her heart had hardened after her little boy died fifty years ago but she was wrong. Harriet breaks through that barrier and Emma would do anything to keep Harriet safe.
The two timelines are going to meet although it takes two creative and curious boys to allow it to happen. I like how the story is told and how the story is resolved. I definitely want to read more by this author.
Published 2021 by Boldwood Books
Narrated by Helen Barford and David Thorpe
All Hallows has a long and unpleasant past. For years it was an asylum and at first all the patients were treated the same, with dignity. Later came different management and there were rooms set aside for the wealthy, complete with flowers, fine food and drink, and personal attention from the staff. By this time the rest of the patients were treated by being drugged into a stupor, bound, chained, and stripped of their clothes and all their dignity, until there was little left of them, body or mind. This was the way things were in 1903 when an unconscious woman and her young daughter were brought to the asylum in very bad shape.
All Hallows is a boarding school in 1993. It's worse for wear and there has been some flooding so when thirteen year old Lewis is sent there, it's darker and danker than ever. At least Lewis becomes friends and roommates with surly Isak. While repairs are made on the bigger group room where the boys will eventually sleep, the two of them have a room of their own, under an old attic that has the strangest noises coming from it.
I really like Lewis. He can hardly keep his mind on anything related to school or adults. It's always going off on tangents that are interesting to him and to me. Both he and Isak are smart and creative even if their grades don't reflect it. Once they realize something strange is going on in the school they spend most of their spare time in the library or their room reading about the past of All Hallows and it's staff and residents.
The story alternates between a female narrator for the 1903 timeline and a male narrator for 1993 and most of the chapters are very short. I really like how the story was done because I never had a chance to lose the thread of either timeline. In the earlier timeline we spend time with the little girl, Harriet, and Nurse Emma, who is to take care of her while her mother recovers from her injuries. Old Emma thought her heart had hardened after her little boy died fifty years ago but she was wrong. Harriet breaks through that barrier and Emma would do anything to keep Harriet safe.
The two timelines are going to meet although it takes two creative and curious boys to allow it to happen. I like how the story is told and how the story is resolved. I definitely want to read more by this author.
Published 2021 by Boldwood Books