Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books Review - The Unicorne Files: A Dark Inheritance - by Chris D'Lacey

When Michael saves a dog in a clifftop rescue is the opening line to the synopsis on the back of the book. You may be forgiven for thinking that this book sounds unappealing and pass this one by, but you would be sadly mistaken.... 

This is a cracking book by Chris D'Lacey. It has been about two years since his last published book. He has since moved house and county which has perhaps had some influence on his latest book. This is the first book in The Unicorne Files entitled A Dark Inheritance - the next installment has already been written and is called ALEXANDER’S ARMY which I'm eagerly waiting for. 

What is the series about? 

It’s about a young boy called Michael Malone, who is recruited by UNICORNE because he has an extraordinary ability to alter his reality.  At the start of the series Michael’s father, Thomas, has been missing for three years after disappearing during a business trip.  What Michael doesn’t know, however, is that his father was also a UNICORNE agent.  Michael’s quest to find out what happened to his father forms the general arc of the series.

The narrative takes the reader through a twisting and gripping story that hooks you the further you explore the story. You are transported into a supernatural thriller full of danger, action and teenage reality. This makes a fantastic blend that anyone can relate to regardless of age or gender. 

Who are the main characters? The principal character is Michael.  He lives at home with his mum, Darcy, and his younger sister, Josie.  Michael is recruited into UNICORNE by the smooth-talking Amadeus Klimt, who claims to have information about Michael’s father.  Klimt is aided by two other agents, a feisty young French woman called Chantelle and an ex-marine who is only ever referred to by his surname, Mulrooney.  During the course of his first investigation, Michael also meets the principal female character, Freya Zielinski, a goth with a troubled past and a dark secret… 

You will love both the male and female characters in the book as they are well represented and well written. They are not written about in too much detail, which gives them a sense of mystery, and the character dialogue is just enough without detracting from the story. 

Why should I read this book? This is a quick paced walk down the fantasy paranormal; a journey of action, reality and a spoonful of the dark and mysterious. It is a well plotted story for fans who enjoy exploring their imagination. Whilst the ending introduces a shadow of what is to come in the next book. More UNexplained Incidents Cryptic Occurrences and Relative Non-temporal Events coming your way soon.....

Chris is embarking upon a seven-date blog tour discussing all things A DARK INHERITANCE. Check out the blogs at the links below:

26th August - BOOK ZONE FOR BOYS

27th August - MR RIPLEY'S ENCHANTED BOOKS

8th August - DEATH, BOOKS AND TEA

29th August - FICTION FASCINATION

1st September - BOOKTRUST

2nd September - TEEN LIBRARIAN

3rd September - BOOK ANGEL BOOKTOPIA

+++ Tom Becker - While The Others Sleep - Book Review +++

                            

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this before about Tom Becker, but he is rapidly becoming one of my favourite authors. Therefore, when I received this book in the post I was very excited to read it. Especially as it is a book that I have really wanted to read this year.

This is the seventh book that has been published so far by Tom Becker and I hope there will be many more to come. He has written five great books in the fantastic Darkside Series. However, the sixth book 'The Traitors', which is Tom's first standalone book, is one of my favourite reads from last year and has been longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2013.  

With this book, While The Others Sleep, Tom has pulled out another cracker. He has written a good, old-fashioned, supernatural thriller that will surely become a classic one day. Alfie Mandeville is the newest patient to be sent to the sanatorium for children. Sent by his father for treatment to make him better, as he suffers from sleep insomnia, he finds himself in a complicated situation. Be warned that reading this book will not help with the curing of any sleep insomnia. Alfie tries to uncover what is going on, but he ends up wrestling with his need for a logical explanation against his sleep-deprived imagination.

Scarbrook House is a sanatorium for wealthy children, it's a fantastic setting for this book. Picturesque on the outside whilst creepy and edgy on the inside; it's a dark place full of twisted secrets. Terrible things have happened within the house and are still continuing to happen throughout the story. This book delivers a mixture of both supernatural horror and mayhem.

Many of the characters have an eerie and disconcerting quality about them. Each character has a story to tell; they are all patients with sinister ailments that need to be overcome. However, they all seek treatment from a rather drunk Dr Grenfell who, in my opinion, needed a little bit more life injected into him as a character and perhaps more background detail in order to enhance the story. 

I think that you will love this book as much as I do. You may find that there are some similarities with another book (e.g. stately building with a twisted historical past told as a psychological thriller) that I have already reviewed this year, but that was also a cracking book. 

This book finishes with a climatic seat-of-your-pants experience. It is written in a very clever way with some amazing touches of imagination. It is a book that certainly lived up to my very high expectations and in more ways then one. I am looking forward to reading the next instalment.  

Published By Scholastic - 4 March 2013

Tom Becker - The Traitors - Book Review

                                         

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic; 1 edition (5 April 2012)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 1407109529
• ISBN-13: 978-1407109527
• It has been quite a long time since I last read the Darkside book 'BlackJack' by Tom Becker. That was, until last year, when his new book dropped through my letterbox. Although, whilst I wanted to read this book straight away, I knew that this wasn't a wise decision as it wasn't due to be published for another 6 months. In my opinion, that is a little bit too early to post a review as readers can become frustrated with the time lapse. However, as soon as it started to get a little bit closer to the publication date I could feel myself being unable to wait any longer. Therefore, I gave into temptation and read it - it was definitely well worth the wait!
• 
  
  This book is another dark and deep story. It has a great plot - although if you really thought about all the possible hows and whys then you could find some possible holes.
  The story begins with a moral betrayal - Adam, the main character, kisses the girlfriend of his best friend. From this moment things take an eerie turn. Especially when the radio in his bedroom suddenly springs into life stating "this is the Dial calling". However, when Adam's name is mentioned alongside the word traitor, the story suddenly finds Adam running for his life. 
• • But who can he trust in a world full of traitors...?

• • 
    

The first aspect I enjoyed about this book was the backdrop that the author created. "The Dial" is a particularly great setting that I was able to visualise with ease. The book is full of the unexpected - lots of timely twists and turns that keep you on your toes. The book hooked me with its many varied characters, some may make comments about the possible stereotypical portrayals. This maybe so, but it works for me. 
• Two particular areas that I wanted to explore within the book were the library - this sounded like an amazing place for discovery. There are opportunities to visit this brilliant place on a number of occasions in the story under the watchful eye of Bookworm the librarian. The other area that I wanted to explore was the sport being played inside "The Dial" called Bucketball. This entails one ball, two teams and two buckets. It takes no prisoners - whilst there might not be many rules, there are certainly plenty of broken bones and scrapes. I will leave the rest to your imagination!
 
This is one of the best books that I've read this year - I loved every minute of it. There's plenty to get you hooked such as the dark atmospheric feel you get, also the dangerous world that is introduced as well as the great character dialogue.  Some of the inspiration was taken from real-life prisoner of war stories from the second world war. Aspects of these are deployed throughout this book which really give it feeling. 
This book has a number of brilliant and awesome moments. Through different discoveries, we peel away another layer and add more to the story. It has a real punch to the end but with a promise of so much more, which I would really love. Buy this book, read this book and then share it with friends.  
You Can Run But You Can't Hide..........

Clare Chambers - Burning Secrets - Book Review

                                                

• Pages 352
• Published by HarperCollins 
• Date 3 March 2011
• Age +11

Daniel has dark secrets and a troubled past. So when his family move to the island of Wragge, a gentle backwater where local life remains undisturbed he feels he’s escaped.
But outsiders aren’t always welcome and the more Daniel tries to conceal, the more he reveals about sinister goings on. Does this picture perfect community have something even greater to hide?

When this book found its way into my hands, I had no idea what the book was about. Sometimes, I find that it's good not to read the synopsis on the back of the cover, and instead to go in unknowingly. Interestingly, the book cover also reveals very few secrets as to the story inside, so I really did turn to the first page with little knowledge. However, I soon found myself uncovering a world of intrigue and mystery . . . . . 

When Daniel's family move to an idyllic new life, on the remote Island of Wragge, unfortunately things are not quiet right. It's too perfect. However, something sinister lies underneath this facade.

The author sets out the story from the very first page. As a result, it stays in the back of your mind to the very end. The flashback at the very beginning sets the tone through a very telling brief encounter. This leads into a mysterious past which collides with an even more mysterious future! 


The story is fast paced and very well written. I really enjoyed this book and soon felt myself becoming one of the characters. I really was living and breathing the story through Daniel. As him, I was analysing and predicting events through the different clues. Some of these came courtesy of a few timely flashbacks, whilst others were much more subtle. However, what was clearly evident, was the energy that oozed through the writing. The sinister and creepy events left you, at times, clutching the surface with the very tips of your fingernails. This book certainly delivered some timely twists and turns. 


I felt that this was really quite a challenging read through the real-life questions that were posed. Whilst these may be issues teenagers face everyday. It also questioned other issues including having a false sense of happiness and what it's like not to feel any emotions. In fact, to be devoid of any emotional capacity.
 
This is a cracking classic which will leave you breathless. Buy yourself a copy, read it and then let the time simply ebb away.


My thanks to the good people at HarperCollins for sending me the book.

Will Cleveland - The Baboons Of Dawn - Book Review

                                                   

Synopsis:
Three curious youngsters, an unsolved disappearance dating back to 1976, and a strange stone monkey engraved with Egyptian hieroglyphs—the ingredients for a bizarre and scary journey through history on a quest to get back to the present. Twelve baboon statues are scattered through the ages, and Maggie, Ben and Zoltan have to find them all. In the process of doing so, they witness some of the most catastrophic events in history, from the Great Fire of London to the destruction of Atlantis, and encounter everyone from Marie Antoinette at the height of the French Revolution to Montezuma at the moment of the bloody Spanish conquest of the Aztecs. In the course of their civilization-hopping adventures, they find their own lives in mortal danger. Will they escape from the Well of Death and make it back to their own time? Will they solve the mystery of the missing Colonel Moon? And will Mum and Dad—who think the youngsters have only popped out to play—ever get a whiff of the amazing journey through time that they embarked on that eventful evening when they decided to dig up the Colonel’s overgrown garden in an effort to find his body.


Book Review
The first thing that I need to mention about this book is its cover - it's very different. In fact it leaps off the cover in an amazingly striking way. I love the use of colour against the image in order to get a sense of the story behind the cover. A really good job has been made of this.


The story has a great start, with the intriguing mystery of a missing person. . . . Three children find themselves on an amazing journey of discovery, which sends them off to the far reaching corners of the world (mostly historical places), through varied time travelling action. Unfortunately, in my opinion, a down side to this idea was that some of the places that they visited needed to be a little longer in content. I really wanted to know more about the people and the places that they visited. Instead it felt like a sprint to the end. 


Anyway, the children find themselves on a quest to seek out twelve stone monkeys in order to eventually get them back home. However, each one that they find leads them into more and more danger. This idea felt both original and fresh, through the interesting historical and mythological element, in which it was contained.


The book was very enjoyable to read - towards the end it became quite surreal and was not at all what I expected. It was perhaps not quite in keeping with the story, but I felt the ending finished well; making it open for more possible adventures. 


All in all this is another great book to have been published by the versatile publishing company, Book Guild.

Stephanie Parker - The Green KIng - Book Review

Back in September, I got an email regarding this book. It was the kind of email that I love to receive - it informed me of a new book that was being released and asked whether I might like the chance to read it. After reading the synopsis and the details, I jumped at the chance to be able to read and review it. Hence the, somewhat, hasty email reply that was sent.

The book was promptly sent (but unfortunately during a busy period in my life) and I must confess, it got lost in a large stack of books. However, recently the stack of books took a huge tumbling and on picking them up,  I stumbled upon the vivid green cover. I was again, suitably intrigued to read it and I'm so glad that I did.

When her parents move from London to a country town on the edge of a massive wood, Charlotte is sad to be leaving her city friends behind. Yet she's entranced by the spectral image of a green man who seems to metamorphose before her very eyes. . . Slowly but surely, Charlotte finds herself being inexorably drawn into a magical world of dark and light, good and evil; a world where something mysterious, something wonderful and something terrible is happening in the woods. Together with her shadowy neighbour - a boy who has spent his life exploring the woods - and another who was inexplicably lost there as a child for a week, the three unearth a terrible secret that threatens to destroy not only the woods but also potentially our whole world; and in exposing the mystery they discover their destinies.

The book is written in a highly descriptive way; slowly drawing you into the imaginative world of the story.  The author has a great way of describing the natural surroundings through each character. They describe to the reader what they can each see and feel, whilst still continuing to hurtle through this mysterious adventure.

I was both hooked and excited to follow Charlotte and her new friends on this dark and chilling tale of good overcoming evil. I really did enjoy the power of such a good story but told in a more traditional style. The more I read, the more I was submerged in the plot. The author unleashes some fantastically creative ideas, which are layered throughout with quirky characters. The magical element of the story is very subtle but adds depth, whilst still keeping a tight focus on reality. Which is incredible as the story is developed over three different worlds.

When I was eventually forced to put this book down, in order to go to work, I found it very hard. But the great thing about this book was that I was able to lock it inside my head until I got the chance again to finish reading it - a testament to the power of good writing.

Just be aware that this book does have some slightly strange word entries. A couple of times I had to read sentences more than once in order to try and deliberate as to whether the word choices were intentional - still not sure! But in a way I actually loved the book more for this.

I would have loved to have had the opportunity to read this book as a young person, as it powers up the imagination on all fronts! But what I really want to know is, is there going to be a sequel?

Thanks to Kevin at Grimoire Books for sending out this book.

John Boyne Noah Barleywater Runs Away - Book Review

                                   
One of the events I attended at the Edinburgh book festival this year was the John Boyne book event 'Noah Barleywater'. All I can say is that it was a privilege to be there, as we were the first people to hear John read, and talk about his new book. Each person came away from the event clutching a shiny proof copy, although there was a bit of a scramble and queue to get it signed, as well as an incredibly early opportunity to read this book.

John Boyne's first venture into the young adult book world, was through the emotional book 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas', which brought him great success and acclaim. The subsequent film introduced adults and children alike to his literary prowess. Therefore, his next book was always going to have a hard act to follow. The question is, has he managed to do this?

Noah is running away from his problems, or at least that's what he thinks, the day he takes the untrodden path through the forest. When he comes across a very unusual toyshop and meets the even more unusual toymaker he's not sure what to expect. But the toymaker has a story to tell, a story full of adventure, and wonder and broken promises. And Noah travels with him on a journey that will change his life for ever. 

I want to say a great deal about this book. However, I'm not going to be able to do this, as it may spoil your reading pleasure. Therefore, I will do my best to keep this review free from too many secrets. 

This book could have only been written by an Irish man, it has all the charm of a leprechaun - I was never quite sure of the forest path that he was leading me down (so to speak!). However, it is beautifully written and cleverly displays the writer's craft throughout.

The book starts with Noah, an eight year old boy, who is running away from home. The question posed to the reader is why he's running into the forest during the early hours of the morning.  The book reads like a modern day fairytale, leading into a much bigger and well-known fairytale by the end. The final outcome doesn't become clear until the very end, even though there are different clues and hints that are shared along the way.

The book is gripping and full of character. The author (for the first time) has been let loose within the imaginary world to tell a really powerful story. In fact so much so, that once you put the book down, it brings you back to the real world with an emotional bang. The book dances along to its own Irish jig - a blend of humour and whit that flow through most pages of the book. But the story also has a magical element to it, which uncovers a more poignant side to life - this doesn't always end happily.

I feel that this book is John's finest work to date, and heartily recommend it to everyone. It will change the way you see even your own life, at least that's what happened with me! The most memorable read this year.........

Book Published by David Fickling Books 30 September 2010

Bruno Vincent - Grisly Tales From Tumblewater - Book Review

Mr Ripley's Book Review - Warning Not for the faint-hearted

Once upon a time there was a boy called Daniel, who was sent out on a journey to be educated in the fine arts of being a surgeon. His trip took him to place called "Tumblewater" - a very dark and strange place full of mysterious folk, who like the tales of the strange and dark ....

The book covers eight creepy stories that are all rolled into an adventure. Connected to the same story, each tale is told in a macabre and Gothic new voice, that has the reader on edge and leaves a some-what evident feeling of terror.

Daniel soon finds himself being lead by unpredictable circumstances. Whilst the clouded boys past becomes evident through the murky and dangerous underground world he now finds himself in.

I really loved this book; I felt it to be written in a similar style to Chris Priestley's - Tales of Terror books whilst displaying the great storytelling characteristics/traits of Neil Gaiman.

The world of Tumblewater is particularly well written through its imaginative use of description. The ending of each individual story leaves a mild mannered feeling of shock. It's a great piece of Gothic horror; all told in a clever slice of the unnatural, which is gripping to the end.

This is a great debut childrens book and one to look out for next year when more grisly tales will follow. Four out of five and looking forward to more.

Book synopsis: Welcome to the very damp and woeful world of Tumblewater, home to a creepy collection of depraved characters. Meet a young boy punished most appallingly for picking his nose; a pair of devilish bakers with murderous intentions in their buns; and a dentist whose strange, colour-changing eyes belie his perfectly gleaming smile. This title contains horrifying tales for good children and fair warning for bad!

Presents the very damp and woeful world of Tumblewater, home to a creepy collection of depraved characters. This title features a young boy who is punished most appallingly for picking his nose; a pair of devilish bakers with murderous intentions in their buns; and a dentist whose strange, colour-changing eyes belie his perfectly gleaming smile.

Sam Osman - Quicksilver - Book Review - Jan 2010

Mr Ripley's Book Review

I last mentioned this book in December 2008 and was particularly looking forward to reading it. Now it's 2009 and I have just been sent a copy to read, but I must say it has been worth the wait. Perhaps when I mention that the book has been longlisted for the Waterstone's Book Prize 2010 and has a great chance of success, you'll begin to realise its full potential. The story flows really well following the mysterious adventure of three children, who have been brought together by circumstances out of their control. The children find links with each other and their lives, and these discoveries eventually drive them to an ancient thousand-year-old prophesy which has them on a epic course of discovery. It's an epic fantasy novel inspired by the earth's ancient leylines. The author has a great narrative voice in telling both the story and character dialogue. The historical inter-twining of the ancient past works particularly well to develop realistic events.The plot feels and is original, which can be hard to find in books these days.The further you read into the story, the faster you turn the pages wanting to uncover the untold history and understand the complex system of our planet whilst still engaging with the children and their adventures. This is an outstanding read which will have every reader gripped to the end. I give this book five out of five - a great ending with lots to keep the reader entertained. I am looking forward to the next book by this exciting new author.

Book to be published by Marion LLoyd Books 4 January 2010 (An older book cover I had back in Dec 2008. Which one do you like the most?)

SYNOPSIS
Dark powers from the past are searching for three extraordinary chilren... Wolfie, Tala and Zi'ib were born on the same day on opposite sides of the world. They are brought together by astonishing coincidence - or so it seems. But only they can fulfil an ancient prophecy - and find a treasure of incalculable power. Can the mysterious energies that flow through the Earth's prehistoric leylines be controlling their lives? And will they discover the chilling truth of who they really are?