Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is a great book if you like supernatural things., July 12, 1999
By A Customer
I think this is a great book because it has excitement in every chapter. The Boggart is an invisible spirit that can change into anything at any time. The characters in this book are a computer whiz named Jessup, his sister Emily, and a mischievous little devil called Boggart. Some of the pranks that the Boggart pulls are making the furniture fly around the mother's antique store and then going into Jessup's computer game and becoming a blue flame. This was a fun book to read, and I had trouble puting it down!
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Solid fantasy, June 11, 2003
Susan Cooper is best known for The Dark is Rising Sequence, a mix of modern fantasy, folklore and Arthurian legend. In "The Boggart" she goes into related but different territory, loosing an ancient Scottish spirit on a modern family. Often cute and very interestingly written. The boggart has lived in a decayed Scottish castle for centuries, making harmless mischief and shapeshifting into different forms. But when the elderly caretaker dies, the castle is inherited by the Volnik family, modern Canadians who don't know about the boggart. They arrive in Scotland to check out their rather decrepit property; the boggart decides to take a nap inside a rolltop desk... right before the desk is shipped back to Toronto. When the desk arrives, the boggart makes the most of his situation by wreaking havoc with the electricity, furniture, non-Scottish foods like pizza, and eventually with traffic. His tricks, though not malicious, can quickly spin out of control and become dangerous. But eventually he wants to go home, communicating with Emily and Jess through the computer. Unfortunately, it's not so easy to get a boggart back to Scotland -- especially when the adults believe the boggart is nonexistant, and an obnoxious parapsychologist is sniffing around. Until relatively recently, few people knew about the mythical boggart (similar to the bogle). Cooper saves this book from being a typical story of a mythical creature wreaking havoc in the real world by using a little-known Celtic spirit; the result is that the boggart is charming and likable, almost childlike in its mischief, delight over electricity, and quickly-forgotten emotions. The best parts of the book are the ones from the boggart's point of view, such as its memory of a Scottish chieftain who died long ago. "The Boggart" is a slightly less sparkling book than the "Dark is Rising" books, mostly because her prose is plainer and less detailed here. It only really blossoms when we head to Scotland, the sort of ancient atmospheric surroundings that Cooper seems most comfortable writing. The boggart, the star, is likably mischievous; Cooper manages to make it inhuman at the same time. It never thinks or acts like a human. Emily and Jessup are likable characters, with distinct personalities. Supporting characters like the parents or the actors are well-fleshed out, never acting like idiots if they don't know about the boggart. A unique mix of folklore and modern technology. This book could have been so very mediocre, but instead it's a funny, intriguing fantasy. Recommended.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"It Was Like Someone Stroked My Cheek...", May 12, 2005
Susan Cooper is best known for her five-part "The Dark is Rising" series, a sequence of fantasy novels that any self-respecting lover of fantasy should have on their bookshelf. Among her lesser known works is the time-slip adventure "King of Shadows", a picture book trilogy based on Celtic legends, and two stories chronicling the doings of a Scottish boggart: "The Boggart" and its sequel "The Boggart and the Monster".
In the Western Highlands of Scotland lives a mysterious and mischievous spirit known as a boggart. Living at the ancient Castle Keep (but often moving about the countryside), the creature of Wild Magic delights in the confusion and amusement that its daily tricks create. But when the elderly Duncan MacDevon dies in his sleep, the inheritance of the castle falls to his great-nephew Robert Volnik and his family living in Toronto, Canada.
The Volnik children are twelve-year old Emily and nine-year old computer-genius Jessup, who are surprised and delighted at the prospect at a holiday in Scotland. Their visit involves meeting Tommy Cameron (who secretly knows all about the boggart), seal-watching, sight-seeing and rationalising the strange occurrences at the Keep. As the holiday draws to a close each sibling is promised one bit of furniture each before the castle is sold: and Emily chooses a beautiful old writing desk. Unbeknownst to all, it is here that the boggart has curled itself up to slumber, and ends up travelling with them to Toronto.
The collision of the modern world and Wild Magic brings exactly what you'd expect: havoc. Exploring the technological wonders of this new world whilst keeping to its mandate of mischief making, the boggart eventually causes some rather dangerous mischief. The Volnik family don't know what to make of the surge in bad luck and strange phenomena, but eventually the children stumble to the idea of a boggart thanks to the wisdom of their father's theatre crew. Now their only concern is how to return the homesick boggart back to his rightful home: magic has long since seeped from the world, so perhaps a technological solution can be found...
"The Boggart" is a beautifully written, thoughtful and interesting book, taking a unique premise and exploring it in both a contemporary and more old-fashioned setting. Cooper is wonderful at describing countryside, circumstances and human reactions to both the mundane and the supernatural. Poignancy is also her speciality; witness a scene in which a grieving boggart affects the sleep of the entire community, who experience the shared dream of an ancient funeral. It's both eerie and poetic.
However, Cooper is on less firmer ground when she reaches Toronto. Although the boggart reacts to the change in scenery amusingly, and the chaos that it creates carries a somewhat darker edge to it, she also introduces several characters and situations that are not dealt with in a particular satisfactory manner: such as Jessup's groups of friends who (with the exception of Barry) have no real place in the story, and the character of Doctor Stigmore. He witnesses some of the boggart's behaviour and believes that it is Emily's doing through psychokinesis; he begins to harass the family and notifies a television show, but both of these plot threads are left hanging, with no resolution at all as to what happens.
One thing I did appreciate was how this story fits in nicely with "The Dark is Rising" sequence, where Cooper goes into more detail on the nature of Wild Magic. Although there is no mention of Old Ones or any other components of that series, "The Boggart" does fit into the `literary world' that she created there. The kids are interesting and realistic, the parents sympathetic and delightfully eccentric, and the Boggart is a character that shines throughout the book; a true creature of wild and untamed magic.
Long before J. K. Rowling gave us the spooky Boggarts that inhabit dark places and take the form of your darkest fears, Susan Cooper brought us this spritely, loveable, intriguing figure of Scottish legend. Look out for its sequel "The Boggart and the Monster".
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