Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Zoë Marriott

I love this book. I read it for the first time when I was eight, and I fell so in love with the story and characters that I walked around in a daze for months. A lot of time has passed since then, but I still love this book just as much.

Laura Chant, the fourteen year old heroine of this lyrical story, is a 'halfway house' - a normal girl who is sensitive to the currents in the world around her and can see through people's surfaces to what's really underneath. But she has lived happily with her mother and little brother Jacko since her parents divorced - and the only thing that disturbs the peace of her existance is Sorrensen (Sorry) Carlisle, a prefect in her school whom she is sure she recognises as something like a witch. Sorry recognises what she is too, and they exchange charged glances across the playground for a year, but neither makes the first move.

Then Laura's happy life is shattered when her brother falls ill with a mysterious disease which slowly but surely begins to kill him. Laura's mother and the doctors don't know what's wrong - but Laura does. Jacko has been possessed by Carmody Braque, an evil little man lurking in the shadows, who is literally feeding on the brilliance of Jacko's young life.

Laura's only hope is to go to Sorry to ask for his help, and that of his mother and grandmother. Laura relies on the strong attraction between her and Sorry to keep her safe. But Sorry and his strange family have their own agenda, and the help they give may cost Laura more than she bargained for....

This is story is one of the finest ever written for young adults, and should be part of any girl's collection.