Customer Reviews

Cold Shoulder Road (Red Fox Older Fiction)

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'Cold Shoulder Road' is the latest installment in Aiken's juvenile series set in an alternative Victorian England. Beginning (more or less) with 'The Wolves of Willoughby Chase', continuing through 'Black Hearts in Battersea', 'Nightbirds on Nantucket', 'The Stolen Lake', 'The Cuckoo Tree', 'Dido and Pa', and 'Is Underground' the stories present the adventures of the Twite family as they frustrate attempts by 'Hanoverians' to unseat the Stuart dynasty, who in Aiken's fictional universe still rule Britain.

In the previous novel the heir to the throne, the King, AND the Hanoverian 'pretender' died (together with a large chunk of the population of England's east coast.) This story finds the telepathic Is Twite and her cousin Arun wandering through the miserable ruins of England's flooded coastal towns, trying to find Arun's mother, a devotee of a glum, abusive sect known as 'the silent folk'. Arun's mother is in hiding having discovered the identity of the 'Merry Gentry', a brutal gang of murderous smugglers and child - kidnappers. She has with her a depressed child of mysterious heritage left with the silent folk as a kind of counter-hostage.

Aiken's characters and action is imaginative, but the tone of the series is increasingly despairing.

If you are a Joan Aiken fan, you will love her latest book about the Twite family. This exciting sequel to Is Underground continues the story of Is and Arun. They have yet another rollicking adventure filled with telepathy, deceit, and shady characters. The Merry Gentry make a repeat appearance, and Penny is rounded out as a person.

If you haven't read Joan Aiken's books, they're excellent! However, you will need some background to understand the beginning situation in this one. It is best to start by reading The Wolves of Whilloughby Chase, and work your way up through all the adventures of Dido first. Once you start, you'll want to read them all!

Older readers who have already read all these books enough to move on, will be happy to know that there are many Joan Aiken books for adults of varying lengths. You will be pleased to find tiny connections between all her books.

I thought this book was witty and exciting, but a little strange at times. For an example, people have this thing called "Thought Language". And Arun, one of the main people, used to think he was a cat, and some of the times he starts to look like one.
I like the way the whole story fits together, and you have just as much a chance to figure out the mysteries as the people from the book do!!

If you are looking for an exciting book, read this one!!!!!!

This was a good quick read. I enjoyed the Dido Twite books a lot more, but Is Underground and Cold Shoulder Road are entertaining though darker than Joan Aiken's other Wolves' books.