The Lake District, 1899.
The Earl is dead and cruel Cousin Clarence has inherited everything. Twelve-year-old Lady Agatha Asquith is cast out of Gosswater Hall to live in a tiny, tumbledown cottage with a stranger who claims to be her father.
Aggie is determined to discover her real identity, but she is not alone on her quest for the truth. On the last day of the year, when the clock strikes midnight, a mysterious girl of light creeps through the crack in time; she will not rest until the dark, terrible secrets of the past have been revealed.
I started reading this book without realising where it is set in the Lake District. When the author describes the journey of Aggie and Bryn across the fell in the storm, it reminded me of Ullswater where I had been on holiday last summer. Coincidentally on finishing the book I read the acknowledgments and discovered it is inspired by Ullswater and the surrounding countryside! So obviously her atmospheric landscape description is spot on!
One of the things I love about this book, and which makes it such a page-turner, is the wilful self-deception of Aggie. You understand what she is going through but as a reader I felt frustration and despair that she refused to see sense and persisted in seeking revenge even though it feels as if it will all end badly. In fact the mastery of Strange’s writing is that, as the reader is carried along by the ever increasing layers of treachery, danger and delusion, you feel that Aggie is constantly heading into peril and all seems lost, only for her to be saved at the very last minute; until the next time. Nothing is predictable and yet the familiar trope of the gothic suspense novel is a ghostly scaffold for the compelling characters as they drive the plot to its inevitable adrenaline-fuelled conclusion.
However, there is a satisfying ending for those whose pulse requires some downtime after the series of impending tragedies, reveals and near death experiences. It’s a beautifully rounded piece of storytelling that allows the reader to be carried along on the rollercoaster ride and disembark at the end with a warm and relieved feeling that all’s well. It certainly helps that the character of Aggie is not very likeable at the beginning of the story and, through growing and learning more about herself, she slowly begins to adjust and develop as a person. This ensures that the slightly more mysterious aspects of the story become more believable as we come to understand better the feelings and behaviours of the key characters.
There is a typically evil villain in the form of cousin Clarence, who grows more and more despicable as the story progresses, to the point where you long for him to get his comeuppance. He has no redeeming feartures and if this was an adult novel he would probably have murdered everybody he came into contact with before the story is out. However, being greedy, avaricious and psychotic will have to do for this middle grade novel. He is obsessed with the two mythical and precious gem stones: the King Stone and the Queen Stone, one of which has been missing for years and the other has been bequeathed to Aggie but is yet to be delivered to her by Clarence.
The developing relationship between Aggie and her biological father is heartwarming and moving, with Aggie confused and resentful and Thomas reticent and reserved initially. Slowly they bring the finer qualities of each other’s character to the fore and in the process Aggie learns a bit more about her past. But it is still not enough to answer her questions and her pursuit of the truth leads her to the crux of the story and a graveyard on an island where the the Asquith ancestors are all buried. This would be spooky enough but you will feel chills up your spine when Aggie escapes the island on a foggy night with her new friend Bryn and sees guided a ghostly figure as they cross the lake.
This is not a story for the faint hearted, but for confident readers of 10 years and above who love a good ghost story this will keep them transfixed to the end.
Schoolbk blog 