Roscoe's Leap [Mass Market Paperback]

Gillian Cross (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1989

Roscoe's Leap - that's the name of the strange old house where Stephen and Hannah had grown up. For Hannah, it was a place where the heating was always breaking down and she was the one who had to fix it. But for Stephen, it was a place of secrets, a place where something had once happened to him, something dark and terrifying which he couldn't quite remember, yet couldn't quite forget. When history student, Nick Honeyball arrives, Stephen's emotions are thrown into turmoil. Here's a man whose obsession with revealing the patterns of the past, begins to unlock the terror that Stephen has kept inside him for so long.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up A chilling psychological drama from a master of suspense. A young man researching Roscoe's Leap, the 200-year-old home of an eccentric millionaire, upsets the tightly controlled household in which 15-year-old Hannah and 12-year-old Stephen live with their mother. On the other side of the house, whose two wings are built on either side of a waterfall, live mad Great-Uncle Ernest Roscoe, grandson of the original owner; and Doug, his nephew and companion. The atmosphere of the home is tenseconversation is polite, no questions are asked, no voices ever raised. All of this ends when the stranger's research reveals the French Terror, a life-size model of a guillotine that has working parts. It is this guillotine around which the threads of the story are woven. Characters act their roles perfectly, from the mother who is as unbending and rigid as the rock into which the house is built; to tormented Stephen, blocking out some terrifying event from his childhood; and mechanical Hannah, who prefers machines to people, for she can control them. In a breathtaking conclusion, the events of the past become the present, and secrets are unveiled. This is a compelling but difficult story, but it is well worth the effort and thought that it takes. It demands a second reading in order to pick up all that is beneath the surfacethe guilt, the hedging, the unraveling of emotional armor with which the characters have protected themselves. All of the pieces of the story, as well as Cross' expert choice of words and language patterns, fit as neatly together as Hannah's beloved machines, leaving no loose ends or extra parts. It is a tragic story, and yet at the end, readers can hope that the pieces of the family will be put back together. Trev Jones, ``School Library Journal''
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Gillian Cross is one of Britain's most prominent children's authors. She has won both the major awards - the Whitbread Children's Novel Award and the Carnegie Medal - and many others --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Laurel Leaf (July 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440204534
• ISBN-13: 978-0440204534
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,562,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Psycological Suspense for Teens and Young Adults, January 15, 2001

By 

Manda Hughes (NJ , USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roscoe's Leap (Hardcover)

Roscoe's Leap is a very fascinating book for several reasons. First of all, it gives young Americans a glimpse of the daily life shared by their Brittish counterparts, complete with slang, etc... Secondly, author Gillian Cross creates a story that functions well on two levels: a mysterious thriller and the story of a wounded and dysfunctional family struggling to pick up the pieces. First, the thriller aspect. Hannah and stephen are two adolecent's who live in the decaying mansion of their eccentric great-grandfather who was a Victorian millionaire. When a young student named Nick comes to visit the house, Roscoe's Leap, to do research on their famous relative, the three are drawn into a web of mystery as they discover and investigate Roscoe's prodigious collection of 18th and 19th century automatons, including the gruesome "toy" guillotine, the "French Terror". Hannah, Stephen, and Nick set about to restore the infamous "Terror", each of them unraveling in the process. Next, the familial aspect: Roscoe's Leap is also the story of a very dysfunctional family, whose fractioning has a major bearing on the plot. In the end, the reader can see that the real monster that Hannah and Stephen have to battle is not the French Terror but themselves, and the grief and pain they are feeling from their mental and physical abandonment of their parents. Guilt and anger play major roles in the psyche's of all the characters, even the less featured adults. Lastly, I would highly reccommend Roscoe's leap for anyone 14-18 years of age. It is compelling, well-written, and imaginative. I do not know if an 18th century automaton comparable to the "terror" exisited, if not I must give Gillian Cross credit for imagining such a gruesome plaything. If you read this book and like it, I also reccommend Cross's "The Dark Behind the Curtain", a reworking of the Sweeney Todd tale set in a school play.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Only Book I Would Read, April 25, 2011

By 

S. Donohue (Boston) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Roscoe's Leap (Mass Market Paperback)

I cannot believe I have finally found this book, or rather, someone from the website Loganberry Books (Stump the Bookseller) actually understood my description and was able to give me a title. It has literally been 20 years since I have read this book which, at the time, was the only book I had read in years. My high school teacher knew that I was much more into math and science and read Cliff's Notes (Spark Notes' uncle!) for any of the class books we'd be assigned to read. He was so tuned in that he knew I'd be into this book. I definitely was! A total page-turner! I absolutely cannot belive after all these years of searching and searching I can finally order this book and read it again. It's awesome!