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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Final mesmirising chapter in fairytale trilogy, July 16, 2002
This review is from: Pictures of the Night: The Egerton Hall Novels, Volume Three (Paperback)
I waited a long time for this to be republished in England. It begins just as the other two did, 'once upon a time', but Bella is actually speaking the words. I was looking forward to this book, not only for the story and the wrapping up of Alice's and Megan's tales, but also to discover Bella's mind. Bella is the most flamboyant and rebellious of the trio: she is constantly compared to Carmen throughout the trilogy, a nod to the allure she has for men and her troubles with them, and she is the one who keeps up with popular culture. However, although Bella loves Elvis and other rock'n'roll singers, she is deeply touched by the world of jazz and the blues. And this is a perfect example of her character: though she can seem shallow, arrogant and irritating, inside Bella is actually quite thoughtful. The agony of the blues and jazz touches her because she has had sadness in her life, the dynamics of the original fairytale being unchanged. As before, the stepmother, whom Bella wanted to love, despises her beauty and does everything she can to stifle her spirit. Therefore, Bella is, in fact, probably the most isolated of the trio, because she seems the most invulnerable. Geras brilliantly reveals the insecurities behind Bella's façade: her doubts about love, just as real as Alice's and Megan's; her distress about what happened to Alice (she was the one, after all, who decided to protect her that first night); and most of all, is Marjorie really as hostile as Bella thinks she is, or is she really being 'melodramatic' as everyone else says? The sense of doom that permanently hovered over 'Watching the Roses' is subtly changed here into a creeping suspicion, as Geras brilliantly mimicks what happened to Snow-Drop in the original fairytale, even managing to get the bit about Bella's colouring. Bella adores to sing jazz and blues, to get rid of her agony, and even the title of the story comes from a song in the story which is about chasing the blues away. The meeting of her 'prince' in Paris, on a holiday after her A-levels, is incredibly romantic, but typically the course of true love does not run smooth and he disappears, leaving Bella vulnerable. As both Megan and Alice's tales reach their end, Bella feels left out, remarking that 'it would never, never be only the three of us ever again'. Where is her happy ending? And why does she keep seeing a white cat every time something strange happens...? This story is powerful, but also sensitive as it probes Bella's mind, her defiance of the adult world and rules as personified by her stepmother, her refusal to pity herself, but also her longing for love, the one who is protected instead of the one who protects. However, it does make you wonder what it was like for Megan alone on holiday with Dorothy, and what Alice did in France. And what is Bella going to do after the end of the story? Marjorie is especially well-detailed: her jealousy of Bella is increasingly sinister, but Geras also ridicules it, and gives the reader the satisfaction of a kind of show-down between the two. Bella herself emerges as a fully rounded character, and the story ends in a very romantic, upbeat way, typical of her. Yes, there is sex, but as before it is dealt with as a fact of life, something that girls on the verge of womanhood would obviously think about. 'Pictures of the Night' will not disappoint fans of the series.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Calling all teenage girls, part three..., December 14, 2001
This review is from: Pictures of the Night: The Egerton Hall Novels, Volume Three (Paperback)
The third and final installment of the Egerton Hall series, _Pictures of the Night_, is a retelling of the Snow White story. Our heroine this time is Bella, the most flamboyant, rebellious, and wild of the three girls. This is the only one of the books not told in a diary format, which I found to be an excellent touch, since I could never see Bella sitting down long enough to write a journal. Wanting to get away from her jealous stepmother, who is upset because her hairdresser thinks Bella is prettier, Bella crashes at the house of a band, the Magnificent Seven, with whom she sometimes sings. They get a gig in Paris, and Bella runs off with them for the summer, telling her father and stepmother that she's staying with a friend's aunt. She finds ecstasy on stage, and two very different kinds of love, but always there is a whiff of fear in the air. For Bella is constantly meeting strange women, women who remind her of her stepmother, who rave of her beauty and then give her gifts which always somehow result in Bella becoming ill. Then she returns to Egerton for the fall term, and she and her friends discuss their future plans, and Bella does a lot of soul-searching. And the band is getting ready to play one last big show--and this time her stepmother will be in the audience. Bella can be obnoxious, shallow, and callous, but I accept that, because making her "sweetness and light" wouldn't be true to the Bella we saw in the first two books. My only gripe is that Miss van der Leyden does not appear in this book. Dear Ms. Geras: Please write a book about everyone's favorite housemother. There must be a story there.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Not my type of book, November 28, 2011
I just couldn't get into this book. Right from the start, it seemed like the author was trying to hide something from the reader and that annoyed me. Also, it contained too many long descriptions. Not my type of book.
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