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A review by melindamoor
Rotherweird by Andrew Caldecott
5.0
Welcome to the rather weird, mysterious but delightful town of Rotherweird.
To enter, tourists must leave behind their 21st-century gadgets as readers should their literary prejudices or expectations.
This is a town devoid of modern technology, but has a surprisingly high number of mastermind-children with affinity to sciences like maths, physics, astronomy.
Learning about the town's history is outlawed and there are a number of other bizarre rules governing the general and day-to-day life of its citizens. The why-s are buried in obscurity.
And then there is a most unfathomable place in the valley of the river Rother and if you happen to find it and enter, you may not be the same again after your return. Yet it seems to hold the key to Rotherweird's secret origins and history.
This book has been a delightful reading experience: it has an almost Dickensian streak of weirdness, which I found very appealing. It is a curious, but very intriguing kaleidoscope of historical fiction, fantasy, children's fiction and even Biblical elements.
Reading it was like getting a lovely ice-cream sundae with all my favourite ingredients + the paper umbrella on top: I dived in and did not come up until finished the last spoonful and licked the dish clean. :)
Some elements of the story reminded me of other, well-liked books, but this is a unique story, the author, Andrew Caldecott, has his own voice / style which is special to Rotherweird. The writing is simple yet potent- sometimes it felt like reading a dramatic play rather than a novel.
There are 2 alternating timelines and weirdly enough the present tense is used for the historical timeline and the past tense for the contemporary which creates a powerful and seductive atmosphere. The show-rather-than-tell method is applied to perfection & it hooks you right from the start.
What is also peculiar in a positive sense that there is no single protagonist as such, but a diversity of likeable / weird / hateful / compelling characters, all with their own secret agenda and parts to play, which gives a strong dynamism to plot.
Recommended: to everyone who likes books by Neil Gaiman, Ben Aaronovitch, Susannah Clarke.
Netgalley Arc, received from Publisher, Quercus Books, in exchange for an honest review.
To enter, tourists must leave behind their 21st-century gadgets as readers should their literary prejudices or expectations.
This is a town devoid of modern technology, but has a surprisingly high number of mastermind-children with affinity to sciences like maths, physics, astronomy.
Learning about the town's history is outlawed and there are a number of other bizarre rules governing the general and day-to-day life of its citizens. The why-s are buried in obscurity.
And then there is a most unfathomable place in the valley of the river Rother and if you happen to find it and enter, you may not be the same again after your return. Yet it seems to hold the key to Rotherweird's secret origins and history.
This book has been a delightful reading experience: it has an almost Dickensian streak of weirdness, which I found very appealing. It is a curious, but very intriguing kaleidoscope of historical fiction, fantasy, children's fiction and even Biblical elements.
Reading it was like getting a lovely ice-cream sundae with all my favourite ingredients + the paper umbrella on top: I dived in and did not come up until finished the last spoonful and licked the dish clean. :)
Some elements of the story reminded me of other, well-liked books, but this is a unique story, the author, Andrew Caldecott, has his own voice / style which is special to Rotherweird. The writing is simple yet potent- sometimes it felt like reading a dramatic play rather than a novel.
There are 2 alternating timelines and weirdly enough the present tense is used for the historical timeline and the past tense for the contemporary which creates a powerful and seductive atmosphere. The show-rather-than-tell method is applied to perfection & it hooks you right from the start.
What is also peculiar in a positive sense that there is no single protagonist as such, but a diversity of likeable / weird / hateful / compelling characters, all with their own secret agenda and parts to play, which gives a strong dynamism to plot.
Recommended: to everyone who likes books by Neil Gaiman, Ben Aaronovitch, Susannah Clarke.
Netgalley Arc, received from Publisher, Quercus Books, in exchange for an honest review.