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ericarobyn 's review for:
The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls
by Claire Legrand, Sarah Watts
I really enjoyed this book! When I started reading, I discovered that I was hearing the story in my head as narrated by Stephen Fry (the narrator in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy), though I'm not sure why...
This book definitely gave me a Coraline/Lemony Snicker vibe, so of course I loved that! However, once I finished the story, I realized just how similar it is to Coraline...and I'm not sure exactly how to feel about that.
The storyline itself was decent (though again, very similar to Coraline). I truly thought this story was creepy though! And I LOVED the creep factor. Especially for a children's book! I mean, some bits would have absolutely terrified me if I had read it when I was younger. At age 26, I was so creeped out thinking about the story after I finished it at 11pm that I used the light on my phone to get into bed after turning off the lamp that was across the room... This doesn't happen very often, so I was impressed.
The characters were a bit meh for me, but I enjoyed them. Even though the main character, Victoria, really drove me nuts with her uptight and perfectionist personality. Though it was so extreme that I found it a bit funny. Especially the, "I swear on my academic report" bit. I do wish we had gotten to know Lawrence just a bit more.
My biggest irks included:
1) The repetition (my usual irk). There were just numerous times where I read a sentence and thought "didn't I just read this?" This happened mostly when Victoria was trying to pump herself up so she wouldn't be scared. But more than a couple of times I read something repetitive and was just like, "okay...she's scared...she doesn't understand...etc. We got it the first two or three times she said/thought it."
2) That the illustrations didn't always match up to the story. Don't get me wrong, I thought the illustrations were lovely! Just in one we see Victoria in her normal clothes when she was supposed to be in PJ's... And in another she was supposed to be carrying the dog, but she wasn't... When I look at illustrations I want them to actually fit the story perfectly. Maybe that's unreasonable. But when I saw these two illustrations, I wondered if the artist had even really read the story, or if the author changed things up after the artist had done the illustration.
Overall a very good read. I would definitely recommend this book!
Favorite lines/passages:
She wore fancy aprons in the kitchen even though she didn’t cook, because she looked lovely in aprons, and that’s what one is supposed to wear in a kitchen, after all.
Victoria hated that feeling, and any between feelings, for that matter. Things should be one or the other, not somewhere in the middle, and lately, everything was in the middle.
This book definitely gave me a Coraline/Lemony Snicker vibe, so of course I loved that! However, once I finished the story, I realized just how similar it is to Coraline...and I'm not sure exactly how to feel about that.
The storyline itself was decent (though again, very similar to Coraline). I truly thought this story was creepy though! And I LOVED the creep factor. Especially for a children's book! I mean, some bits would have absolutely terrified me if I had read it when I was younger. At age 26, I was so creeped out thinking about the story after I finished it at 11pm that I used the light on my phone to get into bed after turning off the lamp that was across the room... This doesn't happen very often, so I was impressed.
The characters were a bit meh for me, but I enjoyed them. Even though the main character, Victoria, really drove me nuts with her uptight and perfectionist personality. Though it was so extreme that I found it a bit funny. Especially the, "I swear on my academic report" bit. I do wish we had gotten to know Lawrence just a bit more.
My biggest irks included:
1) The repetition (my usual irk). There were just numerous times where I read a sentence and thought "didn't I just read this?" This happened mostly when Victoria was trying to pump herself up so she wouldn't be scared. But more than a couple of times I read something repetitive and was just like, "okay...she's scared...she doesn't understand...etc. We got it the first two or three times she said/thought it."
2) That the illustrations didn't always match up to the story. Don't get me wrong, I thought the illustrations were lovely! Just in one we see Victoria in her normal clothes when she was supposed to be in PJ's... And in another she was supposed to be carrying the dog, but she wasn't... When I look at illustrations I want them to actually fit the story perfectly. Maybe that's unreasonable. But when I saw these two illustrations, I wondered if the artist had even really read the story, or if the author changed things up after the artist had done the illustration.
Overall a very good read. I would definitely recommend this book!
Favorite lines/passages:
She wore fancy aprons in the kitchen even though she didn’t cook, because she looked lovely in aprons, and that’s what one is supposed to wear in a kitchen, after all.
Victoria hated that feeling, and any between feelings, for that matter. Things should be one or the other, not somewhere in the middle, and lately, everything was in the middle.