Customer Reviews

I'm the King of the Castle

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The horror of this book creeps up on you. Susan Hill paces the plot superbly, unfolding the evil in measured doses as she pulls the reader into the story. The characters are so well-crafted. Hooper is one of the most thoroughly vile characters I've encountered in a long time, and the influence completely good character in the book, is the perfect contrast in the story, and he unwittingly enables Hooper to sink to even greater depths of vileness.. Just a superb book, crafted by a master.

This is a novel about irresponsible parenting, and as such should be read by adults as well as children. Susan Hill wants us to see the connection between the tragic events and the conduct of the two parents, Mrs Kingshaw and Mr Hooper. Either parent could have prevented the tragedy if they had been more sensitive to their children. More than anything, it is a novel about a lack of parental love, written by an adult who seems to take the problems children face very seriously indeed.

In the character of Mr Hooper, we see how this lack of love is passed down from generation to generation, like a family legacy. As a child he was forced to see value in the collection of dead moths and butterflies belonging to his father, and prevented from exploring the fields around Warings, the family house. Mr Hooper's relationship with his father was distant, the latter instilling the value of material things, and of the Warings house as an inheritance. Apparently not knowing any better, Joseph Hooper instills the same values in his son, with disasterous consequences. He thinks he can buy the child's affection with material goods, and expects Edmund to go out to play when he wants to be alone. By bringing the Kingshaws to Warings, he thinks that he can create a family, and end the loneliness that he and his son are suffering from. But people are more complex than property. In one scene, Charles Kingshaw tries to force a piece into a jigsaw he is making, but the piece won't fit. It is a metaphor for the way the adults have been trying to make a family.

Mrs Kingshaw, complying with Mr Hooper's attempts to make a family, is equally insensitive to her son's feelings. Their life has involved moving from hotel to hotel, without a stable domestic or family background. So eager is she to put down roots that she ignores the hostility between Charles and Edmund. Both Mrs Kingshaw and Mr Hooper share a fantasy that the two boys are best friends, despite Charles' repeated protests. While we can sometimes sympathise with her as a lonely, single woman, she does not provide Charles with love, and is ignorant of his suffering. The result of both parents' fantasy of happiness, and their failure to give love, is the tragic ending.

Susan Hill's depiction of two parents who are unable to really understand their children is a sobering one; it serves as a warning. Neglect goes some way towards explaining why events unfold as they do; though, in Edmund Hooper, there is something beyond nurture that makes him act cruelly. Nevertheless, in the case of both families, a more loving, understanding environment for the children would have prevented the novel's tragic outcome. The book appeals to teenagers because it does not condescend to them; it shows an awareness of the trials children face but adults dismiss as being of little consequence. Susan Hill writes extremely well, but her major strength, at least as far as this novel goes, is in character (Whilst Edmund is viewed only from the outside, the character of Charles is a brilliant, sensitive depiction of a trapped, distressed child). Guaranteed to provoke debates in the classroom, and should be required reading for parents who like to plan their children's future.

I had to buy this book as we had to use this book for our literature lessons.
Initially, you may feel there is somehow a hidden meaning or something lacking in the story. However, as you read on, the story unfolds and you will realize the messages Susan Hill is trying to convey to the reader. The main themes of the book are fear, isolation, courage, human relationships and lastly, evil within the soul of a person. Readers will be shocked by how a child can lack innocence, as referred to Edmund Hooper, an important character in the story. Charles Kingshaw, the character we sympathize with greatly, will move us by the devastating circumstances he lives in.
Bullying is no longer a light matter. It can leave a huge scar in one's life and even drive him to suicide. The story holds many symbolic situations and meanings. Parents should no longer underestimate the powers or the deep feelings a child has.
Indulge into the story where you will discover the dark aspects of life.

It was a very exciting book, it kept me on the edge of my seat. It was the first Susan Hill book that I have read and i am definitely going to read another one of her novels. I like the use of characters, and how they changed thoughout the book. I think that more people should be reading her books, because they are superb.

Although I have no doubt that "I'm the King of the Castle" is perfectly composed and uses all necessary writing techniques, I must say that in some places it seems cold and sterile. The plot is perfectly feasable, however, and the ending is worth the wait. But if, like me, you have to read it 4 times for school, you may not enjoy it quite as much. Take my advice- ask your teacher to use "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

I thought that the book was very well written and Susan Hill is a talented author. The characters were well built up throughout the book and I really felt that they were realistic. The book was believable and a book that, even if it's not your cup of tea, you can't put it down because it is written in such a way that you have to keep going and read on.....

This book is such a great one that I was quite chilled by the feeling of evil while reading the book. Susan Hill had expressed this childhood evil in a sense that we, as readers, may correspond to the characters, the will of having power to control other people while in our young age. From what I thought, this book is an example of the bullyings that had occured all over the world, and it had expressed the feeling of the bullied.

I am the king of the castle is aintriguing book.It makes you wantto read the whole whole book n one.The book is about 200 houndred pages of complete and uter conflct and exitement.It is about a widow with a child moving into a hous with another child and a lonly desperet man.The children hated each,they fought and fought, both children had weaknessso they knew how to get round to each other.The boy couldn't wait to go home.When he herd that the two parents were marrying he went and commited suisied So this the basic idea of the book.

I thought this book was sensational. It was intellectually thought evoking. This book made me grasp for more and made me sit on the edge of my seat through the whole thing. I loved it.

The following review was written by a group of 18-year-old German students who read Susan Hill's novel in an English language class at a German high school:

" Bullying is a very important topic today which concerns a lot of young people. The writer has a lot of good ideas to convince the reader of the enormous consequences of bullying. However, the two main characters are too extreme and only stereotypes. They are psychologically unrealistic, especially Hooper, who is more calculating and evil than an eleven-year-old boy normally is. The long descriptive and symbolic passages make it difficult to read for a foreign reader. In general, Susan Hill's approach is interesting but she could have varied the subject a bit more. "