The Dark Unwinding [Hardcover]

Sharon Cameron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2012

A spine-tingling tale of steampunk and spies, intrigue and heart-racing romance!

When Katharine Tulman's inheritance is called into question by the rumor that her eccentric uncle is squandering away the family fortune, she is sent to his estate to have him committed to an asylum. But instead of a lunatic, Katharine discovers a genius inventor with his own set of rules, who employs a village of nine hundred people rescued from the workhouses of London.

Katharine is now torn between protecting her own inheritance and preserving the peculiar community she grows to care for deeply. And her choices are made even more complicated by a handsome apprentice, a secretive student, and fears for her own sanity.

As the mysteries of the estate begin to unravel, it is clear that not only is her uncle's world at stake, but also the state of England as Katharine knows it. With twists and turns at every corner, this heart-racing adventure will captivate readers with its intrigue, thrills, and romance.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 7-10-Katherine Tulman, 17, faces an impossible decision when she arrives at Stranwyne Keep, in 1852. Her avaricious aunt wishes to seize the profitable estate and orders Katherine's visit so that she may declare her husband insane. Upon her arrival, however, Katherine learns that her eccentric uncle's clockwork factory employs hundreds of individuals plucked from workhouses. Doing her aunt's bidding would undoubtedly send them back into poverty. Katherine receives a warm welcome from her likely autistic uncle and a quirky village girl, Mary Brown. Her uncle's brooding assistant and his aunt treat her with greater suspicion. Katherine wonders if she, like her Uncle Tully, is losing her grip on reality as she struggles with nighttime visions. She must decide between her self-interest and her uncle's well-being even as more sinister characters begin to emerge. Cameron's debut novel reads like a steampunk fantasy. Detailed descriptions of the keep and grounds make for admirable world-building. Secret passages, canals, and Victorian furnishings drip from every page. Tully's clockwork creations seem wondrous, even eerily animated, adding to the story's chilling sense of dread. The villain's identity will be obvious to readers, and Katherine wavers overlong in her deliberations, but teens are not likely to mind as they experience Katherine's romantic and moral dilemma. Hand this to fans of Kenneth Oppel or Libba Bray, and readers who pursue history, invention, or romance. They will find Cameron's scientific fable to their taste.-Caitlin Augusta, Stratford Library Association, CTα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Review

Praise for The Dark Unwinding

Recipient of the SCBWI Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award

"Cameron's debut creates a fascinating world within a world and features a unique and memorable cast... This novel is utterly original, romantic and spellbindingly imaginative... I for one will be looking forward to the next bit of magic that falls from Sharon Cameron's pen." —USAToday.com

"Cameron's eerie and suspenseful first novel offers gripping twists, rich language, and an evocative landscape. Readers should find it easy to become fully absorbed in this gothic coming-of-age story about finding unexpected freedom." — Publishers Weekly

"[A]tmospheric and imaginative, rooted in a rich history and packed with well-drawn characters — and is a great crossover for adults." —BookPage

"[A]ny reader looking for romance, thrills, and mystery will find this entirely satisfying." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"The strong romantic influence of the Brontës is not hard to notice, but first-novelist Cameron also does justice to the Enlightenment era, with its poverty, poor working conditions, and the threat of war against France, in the assembly of this singularly polished piece." —The Horn Book

"Cameron, through wry, observant Katharine, spins a deliciously gothic tale peopled with appealing and not-so-appealing secondary characters, punctuated by the requisite madness and shot through with intrigue... By turns funny and poignant, this period mystery is a thoroughgoing delight." —Kirkus Reviews

"Cameron has produced a ripping good read with all the drama, intrigue, and romance of a Victorian pot-boiler with mystery, suspense, and hints of the supernatural thrown in for good measure." —VOYA

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press (September 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0545327865
• ISBN-13: 978-0545327862
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #367,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sharon Cameron was awarded the 2009 Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators for her debut novel, The Dark Unwinding. When not writing Sharon can be found thumbing dusty tomes, shooting her longbow, or indulging in her lifelong search for secret passages. She lives with her family in Nashville, Tennessee.

Visit her website at sharoncameronbooks.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best YAs of 2012- an exciting mystery with a heroine you can root for August 22, 2012

By C.J. Listro

Format:Hardcover

the basics
I will tentatively say that this is my favorite young adult book of the entire year! It's definitely up with Pretty Amy by Lisa Burstein and Everneath by Brodi Ashton. The Dark Unwinding combines so many of my favorite things: action, hints of the supernatural, psychology, pretty Victorian dialogue, a capable heroine you don't want to punch, and a romance that builds slowly instead of sparking from first glance. Add some eerie children, evil aunts, and magical clockwork figures and you have one thrilling steampunk adventure. Cameron's writing is beautiful. She takes the Victorian style and gives it a modern flavor that teens can enjoy.

plot . 4.5/5
The only notch I took off here was for the ending. I wasn't quite sure if I was satisfied with the final reveal. To me, it made it a bit too real-world and I'd been enjoying the sort of magical isolation of Stranwyne. However, it's a small notch. The rest of the plot was fabulous, from the first (darkly funny) line. You never get a chance to be bored. Every time things begin to settle down, a new wrench is thrown into the mix. By the end, you realize that all those little details you discounted earlier fit together in a huge intrigue. It all makes sense, but you'd never see it coming. The twist during Katherine's party was my favorite moment. The romance was a close second; I don't like romance novels, but I love a good romance embedded in a thrilling plot. This was one where I was rooting for the pairing from the beginning and felt so satisfied at how long it took to develop. I was also expecting something supernatural to happen the whole time; Cameron plays a good game, keeping you guessing how much is real.

concept . 5/5
The cover blurb delivers everything it promises, and more.... Beyond the problem of her uncle's madness and saving the estate workers, there are so many more layers: Katherine's own mental struggles, the mystery of Davy's silence, the intrigue with Mrs. Jeffries, Lane's particular devotion to Mr. Tully. The clockwork workshop. The old house all in pink. Everything felt whimsical and dark at the same time. I had a hard time picking up another book after finishing this, because I wanted so badly for it not to be over.

characters . 5/5
I loved them all. Deeply. They were all multifaceted and not what you expected at first. Mr. Tully was my favorite. Cameron nailed his brand of madness, a childlike innocence mixed with a brilliant mind. His dialogue made me laugh. I wanted to hug him from the very first moment he appeared, and have him for my own uncle. Katherine was a close second. You watch her grow through the book, which is always exciting. She doesn't always make the right choices. She doesn't always know what's going on. But she learns, and becomes richer for it. Lane is more subtle, as he's quiet, but he says so much in his body language that I knew him well too. Mary--just hysterical. I could gush about every character. Just take my word: they're all lovely.

style . 5/5
I love Victorian writing. It's decorative. It's beautiful. They paid so much attention to the way things were worded back then. Like Oscar Wilde alluded to, writing was a kind of painting. Many people find it tedious because it was so dense. Cameron captures all that is good about Victorian style while updating it to do away with that tedium. She paints beautiful pictures with every word. Her dialogue is spot-on. Her language makes the book feel even more magical. But it's nothing your average teen wouldn't understand.

mechanics . 5/5
Nothing I noticed was off. It was just brilliant, all around.

take home message
One of the best YA books of 2012! An exciting mystery with a heroine you want to root for. Read more ›

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and haunting Victorian Gothic October 17, 2012

By The Housework Can Wait

Format:Hardcover

From the first page, I knew I loved Sharon's prose. I just wanted to wallow around in it. Her descriptions of the Tulman estate, where most of the book is set (and which is based on Welbeck Abbey in England, during the time of the Fifth Duke of Portland - a fascinating study in and of itself) are lush and vivid, and she does an amazing job of conveying the feelings of creepiness and mystery, but also wonder and joy, that permeate the story.

Her characters are varied and intriguing. There is prim and proper Katharine, the narrator, who is forced to choose between protecting her own grim future or that of her Uncle and his 900 tenants. There is wonderfully eccentric and childlike Uncle Tully, who brightened every scene he was in while also contributing a note of sadness. Katharine's wretched Aunt Alice is the "villain" hanging over the entire story, concerned only with securing wealth for her son and making Katharine as miserable as possible, and every mention of her made me grit my teeth in frustration. Then we have the tenants of the estate, the dark and brooding Lane, with his eye for faces and unwavering loyalty to Mr. Tully; mute little Davy, who sees more than anyone realizes, and his constant companion, the rabbit Bertram; Mrs. Jefferies, who protects those she loves with a fiery fierceness; Ben Aldridge, whose fascination with Mr. Tully's automatons seemed to overshadow everything else; and Mary Brown, Katharine's maid, whose constant chatter filled many a silence.

Sharon spends just the right amount of time dropping careful clues about what's going on that I was never lost, but not so many that I knew exactly what was going on.... A huge part of the story is Katharine's inner battle to figure out if she's losing her mind, and I was right there with her, questioning things that had happened, wondering what was real, and clinging to logic and reason like a lifeline. Meanwhile, there's tiny questions and inconsistencies that she notices around the estate, and tries to investigate, but we're left always wondering if those things had really happened, or if they were imagined. It was extremely well done, and I felt very satisfied when the story wrapped up and answered all those questions.

Probably my favorite aspect of the story was Katharine's interactions with her Uncle Tully. As this story is set centuries ago, when people like him were simply classified as insane, the book never comes out and says what his exact condition is, but I'm guessing it's autism. He also has some extraordinary savant capabilities, including a penchant for mathematics and his ability to invent amazing clockwork automatons that seem to defy the laws of physics. There is nothing supernatural about what he does; it is simply the outcome of his wonderfully unique brain. Katharine herself seems to suffer from a bit of OCD, even though she doesn't appear to realize it, and watching the two of them together was beautiful. I could probably have read an entire book consisting solely of their conversations and still been satisfied.

But of course, there's more to the story than that. There's mystery and intrigue, a touch of adventure, and a hint of romance. I think a problem the book has is setting expectations accordingly (which is not the book or Sharon's fault); because it's different than most other books out there, it's being lumped in with other stories that are nothing like it. The book is being marketed as "steampunk adventure," which it's absolutely not, and some people are even saying there are supernatural elements, which there aren't. If I had to classify this book, I'd say it's kind of Victorian Gothic-Light. There's mystery and creepiness, but no horror, and there's romance, but nothing blatant. The stars of the book are the intensely atmospheric prose and the beautifully developed characters.

To avoid a 100% gushy review, I'll touch on my (very few and far between) criticisms of the book. It's a very contemplative story, so if you're looking for a fast-paced adventure, this is not the book for you. It picks up towards the end, but most of the book unfolds very slowly. I was never bored -- actually, the gradual pacing allowed me to do the wallowing I talked about -- but nor was I on the edge of my seat, on pins and needles to find out what happened next. And then the ending could leave you a bit unsatisfied, depending on what you're looking for in the book. It ties up the plot arc neatly, but leaves some emotional threads dangling. Also, without wanting to spoil anything, I'll just make the very vague statement that towards the end, something happened that broke my heart in a way I did not expect to have my heart broken in a YA book. So be warned. Sadness awaits.

But honestly, my criticisms aren't even really criticism. They're more "proceed with caution" signs, so you don't rush headlong into a book that is different than what you might be expecting. But if you go in prepared, I think you'll be in for a treat.

If you are looking for something with beautiful writing, excellent characterization, an intriguing setting, and a captivating plot that unwinds gradually and intricately, then I'd suggest you try The Dark Unwinding. Read more ›

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars My Life is a Notebook YA Reviews: The Dark Unwinding September 2, 2012

By Gretchen @ My Life is a Notebook

Format:Hardcover

~This review is based off an ARC received from NetGalley~

Never before have I read an ARC and needed to insert a disclaimer into the review.

I need to do so now.

This is not a knock against the fantastic folks who allowed me and others to read an ARC of this book. This is more of why there is such a caution about reviewing ARCs. ARCs are never edited as they will be when they are released. However, The Dark Unwinding's Kindle ARC version was one of the hardest ARCs I've ever tried to read. It lacked capital letters, formatting and a lot of punctuation. The reason I'm telling you this is so that you will PLEASE take my review with a grain of salt when I talk about places of confusion while reading the ARC. It is entirely possible they will not exist in the finished version.

Now, with that out of the way, let's talk about the STORY!

This book intrigued me right from the get-go, and the world did not disappoint. I've really never read much steampunk, so I soaked in each and every description about Uncle Tully's creations. The description in this book, whether it be for the inventions or just the setting, was really fantastic, and I could always see each scene right in my head. What I really liked was that there wasn't too much emphasis placed on the "fantastical" elements of the book. Sometimes, people writing in fantasy, scifi, etc, have a tendency to hit the reader over the head with how new and exciting their setting is, but Cameron just let it roll like it was an everyday thing that needed only the slightest explanation. Infodumping was never a problem here.

The characterization of this book was interesting.... I never really connected with the main character of Katharine, and in fact for a majority of the first part of the book never even liked her. I don't think you were actually supposed to, so you could see the change in her attitude later on, but I never think that's a wise choice to start off with. We should always be able to at least understand the main character straight off. Some of the other minor characters were eh, but my favorites were Uncle Tully and Davy, the mute little boy with a rabbit and many secrets. Despite being two of the most intriguing characters, they weren't particularly given much screen time until the end.

The plot of the story was really where I had my problems. Again, I don't know if it's because I was struggling with just reading the words on the page or what, but I was in a state of "WHAT is going ON?" for most of the book. Sure, conversations and everything I could follow and I got the general gist, but some of the segways in between scenes were very abrupt and gave the reader no idea they were about to change. The best example is when the story shot from a normal paragraph to an event wherein Katharine may or may not be losing her own mind. Every time this happened, there was no warning and no preamble. All of the sudden she's just dangling off the chapel roof or something. The almost supernatural hallucinations she was having were excellently written, yes, but every time they occurred I got jarred.

The ending is really where it all got convoluted. Characters and actions started making little sense, honestly. Personally, I thought the romance between Lane and Katharine was nonexistent until it abruptly appeared at the end. (That is actually a highlight for me, but this may not be for you.) The character of Mrs. Jefferies, Lane's aunt and the cook, especially befuddled me, because her character kept morphing between someone who seemed truly evil and someone who seemed truly nice. I guess this was part of the suspense of the book, but-again-everything was happening far too abruptly to read smoothly and make sense. I'm all for mysteries, but like every other plot they should flow and never jar the reader out of the story.

A couple more really big elements were added at the end that I think should have been mentioned earlier, but perhaps that's just my preference. The ending action was certainly-and literally-explosive, which was again wonderfully written. After all the twists and turns with the characters, I found the eventually ending rather expected, but overall I was very pleased. Goodreads doesn't suggest that there is a second book, but there HAS to be. Right? RIGHT? I mean, that wasn't a cliffhanger by any means but there is certainly more stuff to go down.

I truly hope there is a next book, and I really want to get my hands on a finished copy of this book. When the editing gets cleaned up, I think this book is going to read a lot smoother and be a fantastic ride for you guys. The writing is great, the characters are interesting and the plot really does wring you around. If you like steampunk and you like mysteries, I really recommend you pick this one up. Read more ›