Customer Reviews

roscoe's leap

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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.

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!