Customer Reviews

Thicker Than Water

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Plump and plain Becky deeply resents her cousin, Will, when he suddenly enters both her life and her Derbyshire home. How is she supposed to feel sorry about the death of her mother's never-before-mentioned twin sister? Or feel sympathy for this distinctly foreign-looking cousin dropped into her smugly anti-social world? Both kids are carrying around considerable emotional baggage as it is--too deeply mired in their own problems to help each other. This is a grimly stark YA novel, where a ghost Uses the Living to put closure on the Past.

Why is Will the only one to hear the wailing of a ghost boy--buried alive in a forgotten tunnel of an abandoned mine a century ago? Who is likely to be blamed for a poltergeist's rampage? Neither kid appeals to the reader at first, as they outdo each in being sullen, selfish, uncommunicative, ungrateful, spiteful--deliberately perverse. The adults around them stuggle with anger and frustration. Can a boy from the London slums lay to rest the tormented spirit of another boy, whose mother seemed to desert him too? Family relationships are questioned. Readers must be flexible, as each chapter alternates between the cousins as narrators. A Chilling Tale for middle school kids.

I should perhaps begin by saying that I have been rather disappointed by every single other Farmer book I've read. While the premise of each of her books is intriguing, I've never felt they lived up to their potential.

But this story was a very pleasant surprise---I thought it was absolutely first-rate. The structure of the book, in alternating he-said/she-said chapters, with each chapter being told in the first person by one or the other of the two main characters, works very well for this story. I particularly felt for Will---poor kid, he had a lot to deal with; he was given some very unfortunate blows by life. And it is easy to see why the wandering spirit of the boy lost in the mines all those years ago latches on to him, as they (in an odd way) share a similar unhappiness, spanning two hundred years. I was totally engrossed in the story, and couldn't wait to see how it turned out. The only drawback to the novel, to my way of thinking, is that I wanted one final chapter as told by Will. The absolute climax of the story---what exactly he sees at the end when he goes after the spirit that has been haunting him---takes place off-stage, as it were. And while I imagine the scene quite clearly in my mind, I wanted to see it on the printed page! Though perhaps that is the point---maybe the author wanted the reader to think it through for themselves. The way I picture it is very vivid, and quite touching....

Plump and plain Becky deeply resents her cousin, Will, when he suddenly enters both her life and home in Derbyshire, Englander. How is she supposed to feel sorry about the death of her mother's never-before-mentioned twin sister? Or feel sympathy for this distinctly foreign-looking cousin who dropped into her smugly anti-social world? Both kids carry around considerable emotional baggage as it is--each too deeply mired in their own problems to reach out to the other. This grim, stark YA novel presents a suffering ghost who uses the living to put closure on the past.

Why is Will the only one to hear the wailing of a ghost boy--buried alive in an abandoned mine shaft a century ago? Who is likely to be blamed for a poltergeist's rampage? Neither kid appeals to the reader at first, as they outdo each other in being sullen, selfish, uncommunicative, ungrateful and deliberately perverse. The adults around them struggle with anger and frustration. Can a boy from the London slums lay to rest the tormented spirit of another boy, whose mother seemed to desert him as well? Family relationships are questioned, as Becky tries to mature. Readers must be flexible, as the chapters alternate between the cousins as egocentric narrators. A Chilling tale for middle school kids.