Jumping on the Chime bandwagon
I haven't written a book post in ages, but Chime by Franny Billingsley is so good that it deserves one. Here is the review from Booklist:
*Starred Review* Since her stepmother's recent death, 17-year-old Briony Larkin knows that if she can keep two secrets--that she is a witch and that she is responsible for the accident that left Rose, her identical twin, mentally compromised--and remember to hate herself always, no other harm will befall her family in their Swampsea parsonage at the beginning of the twentieth century. The arrival of Mr. Clayborne, a city engineer, and his university-dropout son, Eldric, makes Briony's task difficult. Clayborne's plan to drain the swamp has made the Old Ones unhappy, particularly the Boggy Mun, who has plagued the village's children with swamp cough in retaliation. When Rose's lingering illness turns into a cough, Briony knows that she must do whatever it takes, even revealing her secrets, to save her sister. While thwarting the advances of an arsenic-addicted suitor, Briony must also deny her feelings for Eldric, even as he helps her solve the puzzle that has become her life. Exploring the powers of guilt and redemption, Billingsley (The Folk Keeper, 1999) has crafted a dark, chilling yet stunning world. Briony's many mysteries and occasional sardonic wit make her a force to be reckoned with. Exquisite to the final word. Grades 8-12. --Angela Leeper
Such lovely writing! So much humor.
" 'Us mixes wine an' bread, Mister Eldric, an' puts it round by the door an' by the windows so them Old Ones doesn't come creeping in.'
...Wine and bread. This has always seemed rather ghoulish to me, as though one were smearing the threshold with Puree of Christ."
" 'I'm awfully tired,' I said. 'Can you be quick about it?' Poor Cecil, consumed by a grande passion, only to be told to compress his love manifesto into a haiku.' "
"My mask was one great rumple. It would need hours of smoothing."
Gosh. Nice.
Creepy, suspenseful, satisfying, clever, complex. I loved it.
*Starred Review* Since her stepmother's recent death, 17-year-old Briony Larkin knows that if she can keep two secrets--that she is a witch and that she is responsible for the accident that left Rose, her identical twin, mentally compromised--and remember to hate herself always, no other harm will befall her family in their Swampsea parsonage at the beginning of the twentieth century. The arrival of Mr. Clayborne, a city engineer, and his university-dropout son, Eldric, makes Briony's task difficult. Clayborne's plan to drain the swamp has made the Old Ones unhappy, particularly the Boggy Mun, who has plagued the village's children with swamp cough in retaliation. When Rose's lingering illness turns into a cough, Briony knows that she must do whatever it takes, even revealing her secrets, to save her sister. While thwarting the advances of an arsenic-addicted suitor, Briony must also deny her feelings for Eldric, even as he helps her solve the puzzle that has become her life. Exploring the powers of guilt and redemption, Billingsley (The Folk Keeper, 1999) has crafted a dark, chilling yet stunning world. Briony's many mysteries and occasional sardonic wit make her a force to be reckoned with. Exquisite to the final word. Grades 8-12. --Angela Leeper
Such lovely writing! So much humor.
" 'Us mixes wine an' bread, Mister Eldric, an' puts it round by the door an' by the windows so them Old Ones doesn't come creeping in.'
...Wine and bread. This has always seemed rather ghoulish to me, as though one were smearing the threshold with Puree of Christ."
" 'I'm awfully tired,' I said. 'Can you be quick about it?' Poor Cecil, consumed by a grande passion, only to be told to compress his love manifesto into a haiku.' "
"My mask was one great rumple. It would need hours of smoothing."
Gosh. Nice.
Creepy, suspenseful, satisfying, clever, complex. I loved it.