Newbery Honor Book ( )

Liked Over Sea, Under Stone better.
but still looking forward to reading the rest of the series. ( )

Not my favorite type of genre to read but overall I think it was good. The plot is good, which is more like good versus evil. I think if someone likes magic and darkness- this would be the perfect fit for them . ( )

I re-read this because I just listened to the Backlisted podcast episode that was devoted to it and actually ended up bumping my rating *down* half a star.

What Cooper does beautifully is to sketch a scene -- the view from Will's bedroom window the morning of his birthday, the caroling at the manor, the great room where he first meets with the Lady and Merriman -- all were thrillingly evocative. What is fatally lacking is any depth of character and hence lack of anything to drive the plot (what there is of one) forward. Reading this again was like watching cardboard stick figures moving around on a gorgeously rendered stage. I had no memory of any of it from the first time I read it, and frankly I was so bored that it was an effort to finish it; I just didn't care.

The book that I kept comparing it to in my mind was [A Wrinkle in Time], where each character was vividly drawn and the story so compelling that although I haven't read it since I was a child, 40 years later I can remember details. ( )

The Dark Is Rising Book 2