The Stonewalkers, by Vivien Alcock
Poppy Brown is a lonely girl whose relationship with her mother has been troubled since her mother had a long hospital stay and Poppy had to live with foster parents. Possibly because of this or maybe just exacerbated by it, Poppy has a lying habit. They’re harmless lies, the sort many imaginative kids tell to get attention or because they’re bored or it just occurs to them. But it gets her a lot of adult disapproval and other kids thinking she’s weird.
One day she puts a friendship bracelet around her favorite stone angel statue, Belladonna. Belladonna comes to life. But she’s not friendly. She’s inhuman, alien, terrifying. And of course no one would ever believe anyone who says they’re being stalked by a statue, much less a known liar like Poppy. Luckily for her, she finds an unexpected ally; lucky for Poppy, but maybe not so lucky for her new friend, who then also attracts Belladonna’s attention…
This odd, funny, scary book is a sort of quintessential old-school British children’s book: quirky, vivid, pithy, and very well-written a way that you’ll recognize if that’s a favorite genre of yours. If I’d read it when I was nine, it would have scared the living daylights out of me. As an adult, it’s still pretty unsettling. I wonder if Belladonna was the inspiration for the Weeping Angels in Doctor Who, or if at least two writers just independently thought that those angel statues were creepy, with their blank white eyes, and how much creepier would they be if they started inexorably moving closer… and closer… and closer…?
The Stonewalkers
Crossposted to https://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/2211275.html. Comment here or there.
One day she puts a friendship bracelet around her favorite stone angel statue, Belladonna. Belladonna comes to life. But she’s not friendly. She’s inhuman, alien, terrifying. And of course no one would ever believe anyone who says they’re being stalked by a statue, much less a known liar like Poppy. Luckily for her, she finds an unexpected ally; lucky for Poppy, but maybe not so lucky for her new friend, who then also attracts Belladonna’s attention…
This odd, funny, scary book is a sort of quintessential old-school British children’s book: quirky, vivid, pithy, and very well-written a way that you’ll recognize if that’s a favorite genre of yours. If I’d read it when I was nine, it would have scared the living daylights out of me. As an adult, it’s still pretty unsettling. I wonder if Belladonna was the inspiration for the Weeping Angels in Doctor Who, or if at least two writers just independently thought that those angel statues were creepy, with their blank white eyes, and how much creepier would they be if they started inexorably moving closer… and closer… and closer…?
The Stonewalkers
Crossposted to https://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/2211275.html. Comment here or there.