A fantasy style story that’s eerie and suspenseful – keeps your attention all the way through.
Publisher: W & N | Publication date: 9th October 2014 | Edition: Paperback (own copy)
I’m surprised this book is mainly aimed at a younger audience. I found this quite eerie and riveting, right up to the last page.
The underlying story was genuinely quite creepy and the descriptions were positively unnerving – the writer got these spot on. (Personally, I won’t look at keyholes in the same way again!)
A very quick version of events are as follows: An old inventor that makes animatronic robots lives in a big house where a new family have moved to. The mother begins working a clerk to answer correspondence for him. In between, the kids do kid things.
The inventor’s butler is robotic, even his animals are robotic, but there’s something a little disturbing about the clockwork creatures he has created, and particularly something run-away-scary about the shadow in the woods…
Of course, the inventor invites the kids round as they soon take an interest in his creations. Now, there’s a genuine need to read on to discover how and why the inventor recreates life in this form to resemble living things…
…And the rest is a tormented battle of survival. The ending’s a little sad, too.
Don’t just consider this as a book for ‘young adults’ and then dismiss it without a second thought. There are several layers to the book that’ll gnaw at you, not matter what age you are.
So glad I bought it now, good stuff and would be interested to read more by the same author.
Rating: 4/5
Little Bookness Lane 