Customer Reviews

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows: A Flavia de Luce Novel

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Buckshaw, the huge house of the de Luce family, is mostly shut up. There is very little money to maintain the house and Colonel de Luce has had to agree to allow a movie crew to use the house as a film set just to make enough money to fend off bankruptcy a little longer. Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce regrets that the crew's use of the great hall means the family won't be able to put up the usual Christmas tree and decorations, but she plans to compensate for the loss with the entertainment of secretly observing the visitors.

As always, Flavia is also deeply occupied with various experiments in her fully-equipped chemistry laboratory, originally outfitted by her uncle Tar. At the moment, her chief experiment is a fairly simple one. She has whipped up a super-sticky birdlime to coat Buckshaw's chimneys. This is intended to prove her hypothesis, much derided by her elder sisters Ophelia and Daphne, that Father Christmas exists. If he does exist, Flavia expects to find him adhered to the chimney on Christmas Eve and to join all of the house and surrounding countryside in admiration of the stupendous fireworks display Flavia has planned with all the firepower she has managed to cook up in her lab.

Before all that, though, there is another exciting event. The vicar has persuaded lead actors Phyllis Wyvern and Desmond Duncan to help raise funds for the church roof project by enacting the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet in the great hall to an audience from the nearby village of Bishop's Lacey. During the thrilling show, a blizzard rages on outside, snowing in the villagers. That means we have a normally nearly-empty Buckshaw now full to the rafters with the family, the film crew and half the village. A perfect setup for a murder, which obligingly occurs.

Of course it's Flavia who discovers the body, and she is determined to crack the case, despite the usual dire warnings from Inspector Hewitt to stay strictly away from the murder scene and refrain from conducting her own investigation. Flavia's sleuthing results in a dramatic Christmas Eve resolution in which the case is solved and Flavia's chemistry experiments play out in wildly unanticipated ways.

If you're not familiar with Flavia de Luce, she's a little like Eloise: endlessly curious, irrepressible, no fashion plate, and a constant trial to her relations and acquaintances, but endearing in spite of it all. I also think of her in some ways as the anti-Harry Potter. Supremely confident in her intellectual powers and chemistry expertise, where Harry is self-doubting and hopeless at potions (at least until he finds that book . . . ). But they have some things in common, too. Both have suffered a parental loss that affects them deeply; Harry being an orphan and Flavia having lost her mother and living with a distant, heartbroken father. Both are tormented by other children; Harry by his cousin and by Draco Malfoy, and Flavia by her sisters. And, most important, both are featured players in a series of books enjoyed by adults.

I enjoyed reading this fourth installment in the Flavia de Luce series. Alan Bradley is skilled at characterization and setting his scenes. In this entry in the series, he subtly advances the background plot of Flavia's mother's loss and Flavia's difficult relationship with her sisters. He's not as strong at mystery plotting. In the end, his whodunnits tend to resolve themselves more than to be solved through hard evidence and deduction. But the charm of the books generally overcomes this weakness. Anyone who enjoys a lighter mystery should give the series a try. It's not necessary to read the series in order, but if you would prefer to do that, here they are:

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag: A Flavia de Luce Novel
A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Novel
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows: A Flavia de Luce Novel

I liked this one, but not as much as the others in the series. It took a while to get going.

The entire book is set in Buckshaw, Flavia's epic estate. This incredible mansion would be a fine enough setting, but I missed Flavia zipping around Bishop's Lacey on her trusty bicycle, Gladys. At the half-way point, the residents Bishop's Lacey comes to Buckshaw for a show. Ah-ha, Flavia doesn't need to travel to Bishop's Lacey; Bishop's Lacey will come to her! This is when I finally became invested in the book, only to be a little disappointed when the quirky residents are under-utilized. I've wanted Flavia to have another chat with the town's little gossip maven, Maximillion Brock, ever since her debut novel.

Many of the new and returning characters are also haphazardly sprinkled about. Two or three of movie crew seem to exist purely to lurk around and be shady suspects, and a returning character from The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag makes an appearance that serves absolutely no narrative purpose.

Flavia does spend a bit of the novel pre-occupied with capturing Saint Nicholas. Her brilliant scheme to trap him--of course involving an ingenious chemical mixture--reminds us that despite her brilliant scientific and deduction skills, Flavia is still an eleven-year-old girl.

There are some funny and tender moments, but this holiday Flavia is more of a delightful stocking stuffer than a filling Christmas feast.

There is plenty to love in this installment of Flavia de Luce's adventures, especially if you are her existing fan. "I Am Half-Sick of Shadows" is a Christmas story, with a great infusion of some new blood, which is a must for any series focusing on such a tiny place as Bishop's Lacey. Flavia's father is forced to rent out Buckshaw to a movie company to film its new feature. When the star of the movie is found murdered, Flavia is on full alert. Now she has two Christmas cases on her hands - the murder and her project to confirm the existence of Santa. Whatever you liked about the previous books in the series, is all there - the humor, the charm, the interesting characters, the mischief.

However, I feel that in their zeal to deliver "I Am Half-Sick of Shadows" just in time for Christmas, Bradley and his gang of editors and agents forgot to pay attention to the quality of this novel. To put it bluntly, it is half-baked. Besides the wonky motives of the killer, far-fetching backstories of some characters, multiple pointless cameo appearances of characters from previous books and half-hearted at best red herrings, this book lacks simple continuity. The part that especially stood out for me (unless, of course, I misunderstood it) was when a certain character in one chapter is sent out in a snowstorm to fetch a couple of people, in the next chapter is sitting in the Buckshaw's living room chatting and in the next is just coming from outside with the couple (if you are curious, I am talking about Sergeant Graves in chapters 13-15). How is it possible that an editor of this book didn't notice this discrepancy, if even I, a person absolutely unobservant, did? As usual in such cases, I am pretty sure nobody had read this manuscript before rushing it into print.

In spite of its many obvious flaws, the book was still entertaining and funny. I just hope the next one is edited and constructed better.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the precocious, delightful Flavia de Luce is one of the two most significant creations to grace the mystery field in the past decade, the other being Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander. One can only thank our lucky stars for that moment of inspired genius when she popped into Alan Bradley's head. That said, I am becoming increasingly impatient with our horrid little heroine, and Bradley's haphazard (dare I say "sloppy") storytelling. First of all, I think it's significant that in the first book the murder was discovered (if I recall correctly) at the end of Chapter One. In "Half-Sick," the murder doesn't take place until the end of Chapter Eleven. Which means that there's a great deal of time spent on local color, life at Buckshaw and what passes for "set-up," although most of the latter turns out to be wholly insignificant. The mystery itself and its denouement aren't all that interesting (or important, apparently), and while this has always been true of the de Luce books, it's even more so here (or it less?). And because we never get to know the suspects beyond their superficial characteristics, we're never invested in "whodunit."

Look, I get it, people read the de Luce books for one reason only and that's to spend time with Flavia -- and why, not, she's great company. Bradley is masterful at getting into the mind of this smarter-than-we'll-ever-be pre-teen, with her contradictory emotions. (Her growing pains in this volume are particularly well represented.) Miss de Luce is wickedly funny, touching and true to life (despite her fascination with death), and the supporting characters surrounding her have become sharper and more real with each book. (I have not, admittedly, read the third in the series.) But there's just so much of Flavia I can take when the mystery aspect of these mysteries is so weak. If only Bradley had a better handle on how to construct a plot, or reveal information that kept us riveted and eager to find out what happens next. In "Half-Sick," Bradley sets up an interesting and crucial premise (Buckshaw snowed in with half the village under its roof), but has no idea what to do with it. There's no tension whatsoever, no sense of foreboding or urgency. Flavia herself takes great chunks of time out from catching the killer to catch...Santa Claus. Amusing as this is, it completely works against the mechanics of the mystery. The book is flaccid and meandering.

I understand that Flavia is the point of the Flavia de Luce books, and I'm glad to have her on the literary landscape. But Bradley as Pygmalion seems so enamored of his pint-sized Galatea that he thinks simply putting her in a book is enough to keep us coming back for more. It's worked to a point, but I skipped the third and may skip the fifth if I don't get a sense that Bradley's storytelling has matured, even if his heroine has not.

After devouring this fourth novel to feature Flavia de Luce I've come to the conclusion that I don't actually read these books for the mystery. As a dedicated reader of mystery novels it is a bonus to have an old fashioned mystery to solve, but that's not what ultimately keeps me coming back for each book. No, what I want, and what I got in spades with this addition to the series, is the chance to spend more time with this eleven year old precious child and all the people surrounding her. This time Gladys (the bicycle) was stored in the greenhouse for the winter so Flavia couldn't ride throughout the villages and hamlets of rural 1950's England observing life among the locals. Instead, author Alan Bradley had the villagers come to Buckshaw for a Christmas Eve performance in aid of the roof restoration fund for St. Tancred church. Whatever will we readers do if they ever collect enough money to repair that roof?

Flavia has been told by her sisters Ophelia (Feely) and Daphne (Daffy) that Father Christmas is simply a folk myth created by adults so they can give their children gifts one day of the year without having to touch the little beasts while doing so. Feely and Daffy are quite cruel to Flavia at times but in this instance she is going to be able to prove her sisters wrong and do it in a completely scientific way. Flavia will manufacture her own preparation of birdlime, spread it on the chimneys of Buckshaw and Father Christmas will be stuck to the chimney until she sets him free. Proof at long last! Naturally, the plan doesn't go off without many hitches along the way. Colonel Haviland de Luce has given in to the inevitable with his heavy debt problems and allowed Ilium Films to use Buckshaw as the location for their newest film. The cast, crew, and principal actors arrive a few days before Christmas. The family is told to remain in one section of the house. Well, what curious eleven year old girl could ever follow that rule? When a murder occurred, Flavia was the one to find the body. It is as natural as breathing for her to begin collecting clues to help Inspector Hewitt solve the case.

I laughed outright or smiled during large portions of this utterly charming book. I have two granddaughters, one is 10 and one is 11 so I'm sitting perfectly placed to recognize the curiosity and complete lack of fear a girl this age exhibits. Flavia spends more of her time in this novel actually looking for clues, doing research if you will, than I have noticed in the other books. She also takes many more chances and is bold in her actions, regardless of their possible danger. She acts, in short, like a child of this age would act, just a little more exaggerated due to the fiction of the story. I enjoyed having all the regular characters from previous novels appear again even though the circumstance was a little forced and almost claustrophobic. That many people stranded in one house during a blizzard? My mind raced with all the basic problems there would have been. However, even with a slightly weak mystery, too many characters plopped down in one location, and Flavia taking physical danger to a rather high level, I would still recommend this novel to anybody who wants a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience. This time slight glimpses are given into the past lives of major characters, especially interesting were some hints of Dogger's past, and I actually began to see some acts of kindness on the part of Feely and Daffy. Colonel de Luce stayed as elusive as ever, but I still have high hopes for him in novels to come.

This fourth installment in the continuing adventures of Flavia de Luce definitely does not disappoint. Yes, Flavia is back and she's just as feisty and clever as ever. This book was so easy to read, as all the Flavia books have been. Oh that I had known someone like Flavia when I was her age--I bet I would have done better in chemistry class!

It's Christmas time at Buckshaw, and Flavia is concerned because her sisters have told her that Father Christmas is not real. Ah, but Flavia is not going to take their word for it. She has a plan--and it's a dozy. To add more excitement, the Colonel has consented to a film crew coming to Buckshaw, to help him make ends meet. Orders have been issued to Flavia, Daphne and Ophelia to stay in their quarters and not interfere with the filming. Such a hard request for someone of Flavia's spirit!

I so enjoyed this book. The writing is fluid, the characters well drawn. All the regulars are back. We learn a little bit more about Dogger, but he is still pretty much a mystery. Daphne and Ophelia still torment Flavia and Flavia still plans and plots ways to get back. I did miss Gladys, Flavia's bike; but she did make a brief appearance. After all, it is winter and it is snowing.

For me, the mystery is really secondary to the story. Although it's interesting and very well worked out, I just enjoy reading about Flavia and her escapades. The author has created a great sense of time and place and I find it so easy to just lose myself in the story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well written and entertaining story.

I adore Flavia! Granted, if she were my child, I believe I would've probably had a nervous breakdown by now, what with all of her and her sisters' antics. However, as a fictional character, Flavia is not only the most original and compelling I've seen, she's also the most three-dimensional and undeniably real child character I've met. Usually, in fiction, even that directed towards children, child characters lack a sense of reality; they're either too precious or too nasty or just too underdeveloped. Flavia has courage, curiosity, neuroses, fears, dreams, imagination, bold ideas, harebrained schemes, and often does things at a moment's notice without truly thinking about the consequences--spot on behaviors for an 11-year-old. She tries to show her bravery in the face of her sisters' casual cruelty, yet crumbles at the last minute, succumbing to her fright or anguish. Yet, as with every book, she has her love of chemistry and all its potential uses for revenge to buoy her and propel her into the next set of adventures and dangers.

In this particular novel, it's winter, near Christmas time, and due to financial difficulties, Flavia's father, Colonel Haviland de Luce, has leased out the family manor, Buckshaw, to a film company (or a 'fillum' company, as the family cook/housekeeper/mother hen Mrs. Mullet puts it). The crumbling pile of stone that is Buckshaw soon finds itself swarming with all manner of actors, film crew and other assorted creatures and Flavia's elder sister, Ophelia (or 'Feely'), is in seventh heaven as she finds herself conscripted into the cast as an extra. Naturally, there is a great deal of off-stage drama, particularly involving the star of the movie, Phyllis Wyvern, and, also quite naturally, Flavia eventually stumbles upon a gruesome murder. With all the occupants trapped inside the house due to a ferocious winter storm (as well as orders from Flavia's nemesis/mentor, Inspector Hewitt), chaos is bound to ensue. In the midst of that, Flavia puts her chemical knowledge to good use by setting out traps to capture Father Christmas and finds herself catching the murderer instead (while also setting off the fireworks she created in her lab, thereby startling the entire countryside with their sonic booms).

As with all the Flavia books, the mystery isn't that involved or hard to figure out. Don't get me wrong, it's not done poorly; there's still plenty of 'whodunit' in the novel as various suspects and clues are found and discarded. However, the mystery is always secondary to the reactions and interactions of the characters involved, specifically Flavia. Watching her concoct everything from poisons to explosives in her chemistry lab, usually as a result of a confrontation with her sisters, with revenge being the driving force; watching her feverish brain deduct clues and scramble to solve the mystery and prove herself to Inspector Hewitt; watching her be the bright, precocious, fiendishly intelligent eleven-year-old she is is what truly drives each novel, in my opinion. What makes I Am Half-Sick of Shadows stand out is that Flavia finally confronts her sisters, something I've been eagerly urging her to do (yes, I know I'm urging a fictional character--get over it) since the very first Flavia novel. Nothing is particularly settled between the three sisters, except perhaps for a lovely Christmas truce; however, the question of 'Why do you hate me?' has been put out there by Flavia, perhaps to be answered in the next novel. And believe me, I'm most eagerly looking forward to it.

Alan Bradley takes his Flavia de Luce mysteries to new heights with I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, in which eleven-year-old Flavia, our coldhearted, hotblooded genius protagonist, copes with the chaos of a movie filming over Christmas at her home of Buckshaw Manor. The mishegoss includes on-set rivalries and injuries; the understated conflict between her family (who begrudge the filmmakers' intrusion but need their money) and the showbiz folk; terrible weather; amateur theatrics; a plot to kidnap Father Christmas; and, eventually, murder. In other words, aside from the movie angle, nothing Flavia hasn't handled before -- and at eleven, her powers are still increasing.

What makes this de Luce novel the best of the bunch so far isn't the mystery, which is so minimal as to be nearly rote. Nor is it the enjoyable characters -- especially Flavia, her sisters, her damaged father, and their loyal but even more damaged manservant Dogger; but also the other denizens of Flavia's native village of Bishops Lacey and the vivid new character, movie star Phyllis Wyvern. The characters are reason enough to follow the series, and they are developed here with Bradley's characteristic tantalizing deliberation, which left me (as always) hungry for more. But the real highlight here is the stellar quality of the prose.

Alan Bradley has always been a fine writer, but his debut, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, was notable for the high-concept protagonist of young Flavia rather than for Bradley's clear, workmanlike writing. Here, though, Bradley, while never seeming self-indulgent (and always ready to use Flavia's mordant wit to cut through any incipient treacle), achieves a hypnotic sense of mood and place that I can only compare, in the mystery field, to some of Dorothy Sayers's finest work. As Sayers was in, for instance, Gaudy Night, Bradley is so riveting and evocative that I forgot for pages at a time that I was reading a mystery and just got lost in the characters and images. The opening dream sequence by itself is worth the price of the book. Flavia's chemistry metaphors have never been more compelling, and the descriptions of the snowy English winter at Buckshaw are so powerful that I found myself pulling my reading blanket tighter around myself as I read.

I am more eager than ever to read the next in the series. But if you haven't read the previous Flavia de Luce books (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, A Red Herring Without Mustard), then I suggest you start with the beginning and work your way up to this one. The others are more traditional (but lovely and excellent) mysteries, they'll lull you into a pleasant state of expectation, and then, if you're like me, Bradley will knock your socks off with this one.

I AM HALF-SICK OF SHADOWS is the fourth Flavia de Luce book I have read and I believe it is my favorite. Could be because it has a "movie theme" and I have been star-struck since I was Flavia's age (11 years old), or perhaps because the books are set in the 1950's when I was spending what extra money I had on magazines like Photoplay, Silver Screen and Motion Picture. Whatever the reasons, I have become a fan of the residents of Buckshaw, the de Luce estate located on the outskirts of the village of Bishop's Lacey. As in past stories, cold, hard cash is in short supply, Buckshaw is still in dire need of repairs and Flavia's father Colonel de Luce has, against his better judgement, been forced to "rent" the estate to a motion picture company.

The cast of "usual suspects" return in this Christmas adventure - Flavia is still enthralled with the study of poisons - and in this particular segment has packed away her trusty bike Gladys and has been busy in her laboratory devising a cunning trap to ensnare Father Christmas. She and her sisters are still bickering, her father Colonel de Luce continues to withdraw to his study and immerse himself in his stamp collection rather than face the real world, Dogger is still suffering from shell shock but managing to perform his duties around the house, the housekeeper Mrs. Mullet is still preparing inedible food and Inspector Hewitt continues to be the unwilling recipient of Flavia's powers of observation in helping to solve this latest murder.

Before I go any further let me say that while Flavia is a delightful character she is filled with inconsistent qualities and contradictions in her behavior. At times immature and childish as illustrated by her unshakable belief in Santa (Father Christmas) and her on-going urges to get even with her sisters, she is nonetheless a virtual chemistry whiz and is observant beyond her years displaying an uncanny logic and an ability to find clues that the professional detectives have overlooked. In addition, throughout four books none of this cast of characters has aged and the tiny village of Bishop's Lacey has been the scene of four murders. I'd say that's a lot of crime in a short time frame for a mid-sized city let alone a small English hamlet. These, however, are two small complaints and did not in any way hamper my thorough enjoyment of this latest Alan Bradley offering.

What I recommend is that you, like I, just abandon logic as you did as a youth reading the adventures of Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys and just enjoy the antics of the irrepressible Flavia and the folks of Bishop's Lacey as murder and a raging snowstorm set the scene for another excursion into the heartwarming and whimsical adventures of Flavia de Luce, girl detective. Oh and by the way, this would also be an ideal holiday gift for the young adult reader in your family.

The fourth entry in the Flavia de Luce series is even better than the earlier three -- Bradley has really hit his stride, and Flavia's unique perspective and voice are a joy to read.

Flavia is an 11 year-old girl living in a rapidly-deteriorating pile of a manor house in England in 1950. Her stamp-collecting father is distant, still heartbroken over her mother's death ten years before, and her two older sisters, Ophelia and Daphne, are perfectly horrid. Flavia, however, has made her own happy world in her ancestor Tarquin's chemical laboratory at the top of the house where she has enthusiastically thrown herself into the study of chemistry. She is particularly fond of poisons, and in this book (set around Christmastime) she cooks up an enormous batch of birdlime with which to trap Santa Claus amongst the household chimneys. Her imagination is vivid, her chemists skills are impressive, and she manages to stumble into and solve a murder or two in each book.

This book finds the manor house overrun with film people who have rented it to make a movie starring the world-famous movie star, Phyllis Wyvern. In a ghastly turn of events, a murder takes place on the film set and Flavia is quickly on the trail.

Assisted by her father's shell-shocked gardener, Dogger, and evading the local Inspector (who tries to keep her out of trouble and usually fails), Flavia solves crimes with an original flair and sometimes hilarious commentary.

Awesome book, can't wait for the next one.