The Owl Service (Junior Classics) Audio CD – Unabridged, October 7, 2008

SummaryAlison, her stepbrother Roger, her mother and stepfather are holidaying in a gorgeous, isolated valley in Wales, a few hours away from Aberystwyth, staying in an old house Alison inherited from her late father. Short-tempered Nancy and her son Gwyn have been hired to work at the house for the family’s stay, as has Huw Halfbacon, (whom Nancy hates) the strange handy-man and gardener who has worked at the house for many years. Alison, Gwyn and Roger, discover a dinner service decorated with a floral owl pattern in the loft of the house. The moment they find it, bizarre things start happening, and the teens become embroiled in the centre of a mystical curse from centuries ago, doomed to repeat the tragic legend of Bloduewedd, Lleu Llaw Gyffes and Gronw Pebr.Review – may contain spoilers!The Owl Service is a phenomenal, low fantasy book, first published in 1967. I read it for the first time when I was nine or so years old in school and was enraptured by the hair-raising mystery of the book; I went on to read it multiple times afterwards. Almost twenty years later, I ‘rediscovered’ The Owl Service and was not disappointed; I read the book in one sitting, my arms covered in goosebumps from the brooding eeriness of the tale. The story is fast-paced, comprising of mostly dialogue, nevertheless Garner manages to maintain a constant menacing, haunting atmosphere for the majority of the book.Alison, Gwyn and Roger do mirror the Mabinogion myth of Bloduewedd, Lleu Llaw Gyffes and Gronw Pebr, though the ‘love-triangle’ between the three was very subtle, being more about society-ranks than romance (though there was a noticeable tension between Alison and Gwyn), but still comparable to the triangle between Bloduewedd, Lleu and Gronw.Of all the characters in the book, Gwyn was by far the most fleshed-out and interesting. I did feel somewhat disheartened at the end when he could not give up his jealousy, anger and hatred to save Alison but Roger could.The ending of the book was very sudden. Some might find it unsatisfying, and I admit, I didn’t expect it to end so quickly – though Roger managed to save Alison, did they end the curse permanently? Or did they just ‘complete’ their parts in the curse, and the curse will repeat in the next generation, as it has before?Regardless of the sudden ending, I enjoyed the book immensely and would recommend others to read it (and read it multiple times, at that!). It is indeed a classic.Finally, due to the book’s age, it should be noted that the language is dated. I’m unsure how well a child in 2019 would read and grasp the story due to this.

I read this book because it came highly recommended. I like intricate stories, even difficult ones, but this one was a waste of my time and my imagination. I have to agree with the one and two star reviewers that the "love triangle" is anything but reoccuring with Alison, Gwyn and Roger. Up until the end of chapter 7, all is well, especially because that chapter ends with a real suspensful twist as Alison asks "What plates?"But then the story completely falls apart. No answers to anything (why do the plate patterns disappear, why exactly is Alison compelled to create these owls, what is she doing in the woods, why exactly were these plates made to begin with, who's in that room, why doesn't anybody care enough to find out by breaking the lock, etc, etc...). Worse yet, the characters become nastier by the page: Quite out of the blue, Gwyn suddenly tells his mother Nancy to drop dead (pardon me?), and he's demeaning towards Alison, calling her stupid on several occasions while they're having friendly, heart-to-heart conversations; Alison herself is a weakling with no will force or mind of her own (all she can say is "Please, be careful!" or "No, please, no!" or "I can't!" or "I daren't!" (ok, let's not forget the story was written in 1967, where girls and women were generally considered and thus portrayed as helpless and weak, but argh, how very painful...); Nancy has to be tricked into divulging some truth by means of stolen cigarettes and a shot of alcohol (I mean, reeeeaaalllly...???); Roger turns into the epitome of the British snob and "peasant" despiser ... and all throughout, the author wants us to believe that Roger is somehow attracted to his half-sister the same way Gwyn is, so as to keep that notion of the cursed triangle scenario going. By! As Gwyn would say.And then, as if all this weren't bad enough, there comes the ending, more disturbing and more wrong than anything I could have possibly imagined. I mean simply ridiculous. How this book won so much praise, let alone so many awards is beyond me.Definitely nothing I would want teenagers to read, let alone teenage girls. Every female character in this book is either weak, ignorant or vicious; but then again, so is every male character deep down inside. All in all, an unpleasant book. And the writing is nothing to write home about either.

In Alan Garner's modern (1960s) version of the legend of Blodeuwedd, the girl made of flowers as a wife for Lleu, who has been placed under bonds that he may have no woman as a wife. Gronw Pebr, lord of Penllyn, meets her while hunting, and they agree to kill her husband. However, Lleu's uncle Gwydion, the magician who made the wife from flowers for him, discovers Gronw wounded and returns him to health. They force Gronw to take the same position in which Lleu was killed, but allow him to hide behind a stone; Lleu's spear penetrates the stone and him and he is killed, and Gwydion turns Blodeuwedd into an owl.In the novel, this story keeps repeating every generation in its original valley, the three doomed lovers calling up the woman of flowers inexorably, because the power has been "given a thinking mind" and so can only be controlled by the re-enactment of the tragedy.However, Garner, perhaps unconsciously, underlay the story with a considerable layer of clichéd notions of Welsh soul and English rationality, with the awfully-awfully English boy coaxing the angry owl goddess that really, she doesn't have to be so awfully cross, in a not altogether convincing ending, a deus ex machina taking the impetus from the Welsh protagonist and putting it into the hands of the incomer.Perhaps it is this unconvincingness that gives the novel its power; the reader really doesn't believe it, leaving the angry flower woman with her thinking mind echoing around the story long after it ends.

Alison is holidaying for the summer in the old family house in a valley in Wales with her mother, her step-father and her step-brother, Roger. Also staying in the house is the housekeeper, who is a local woman and a very superstitious person, and her son, Gwyn, who befriends Alison - much to the displeasure of Alison’s mother who doesn’t want her daughter becoming too friendly with someone of a lower class. When Alison hears some strange sounds coming from the attic above her bedroom, she persuades Gwyn to investigate and he discovers an old, heavily-decorated dinner service patterned in green and gold flowers. Once Alison has cleaned the dust off one of the plates and made a tracing of the pattern, she notices that when she fits the two parts of the design together they make an owl. Strangely, Alison finds herself obsessed with making paper owl after paper owl, and stranger still, the pattern begins to disappear from the china. And then later the plates appear to shatter of their own accord and the plaster begins to fall off one of the walls in the house, revealing an old painting of a beautiful, golden-haired woman covered in flowers. Gwyn’s mother is terrified and warns her son not to dabble with what he doesn’t understand, but when Gwyn talks to Huw Halfbacon, a fey, otherworldly man who has lived in the valley for decades, he learns of an ancient Welsh legend of jealousy and vengeance and of a tragedy that seems to be about to revisit them.Alan Garner's 'The Owl Service' is a dark and complex story which is rich in atmosphere of landscape and legend and of how events from the past return to affect those in the present day. As Alison, Gwyn and Roger find themselves re-enacting an old tragedy, they also find tensions of a more personal nature arising between them. With themes of social class, prejudice and cultural identities, Alan Garner’s tale of adolescence and mythology relies heavily on dialogue, which gives the story an energy and a sense of immediacy and which also keeps the reader on their toes as we sometimes have to read between the lines. I first read this as a child and although I was intrigued by it, I’m not sure I really understood it; however I feel I’ve derived more from it by reading it as an adult and was involved and entertained from beginning to end. I'm now looking forward to rereading other titles by Mr Garner, such as: 'The Weird Stone of Brisingamen'; 'The Moon of Gomrath'; and 'Elidor'.5 Stars.

This was my first time reading “The Owl Service”, and I have to report that I was disappointed by it. Its reputation over the years led me to expect something better.Ostensibly a story for children, and written that way to be honest, adults have enjoyed it too over the years since it was first published, not least due to the early ‘70s television version. Having never seen that either, the story was completely new to me, and it did not entirely engage me despite picking up pace towards the end.The characters, on the whole, are one-dimensional and poorly written, especially Clive. Gwyn and his mother fare a bit better, but the most interesting character is that of Huw Halfbacon. The dialogue of the children is unrealistic and weirdly stilted, but maybe kids talked like that in the late ‘60s. The main character, Alison, is the worst of all. Events are related in a confusing way, whether deliberately or due to Garner’s poor writing skill.One good point is that a palpable sense of oppression starts to develop about two thirds of the way through the story and the landscape of Wales is well described, but the ending is rushed.Dare I say that “The Owl Service” may not deserve its reputation, and I may even go so far as to suggest that maybe neither does Alan Garner.

Bought this due to the reviews and the beautiful cover. The prose is very old fashioned which was sort of charming and reminded me of my mother’s dusty old books from her childhood. Lots of dialogue that just doesn’t exist anymore and is almost hilarious at times. I read the whole book but almost gave up because it wasn’t really what I was expecting and not really my cup of tea. I don’t really understand all the five star reviews.

I first read this book in my late teens and loved its complexity and connection to folklore. I was reminded of it recently and decided I would like to read it again. I was not disappointed! The story is still as gripping and I connected with it immediately, from the first line, which I remembered more than 50 years on! In fact, I remembered much of the script, which I think must indicate a brilliantly written book. Highly recommended for older children and adults.

This was my GCSE English book - in the 80,'s thought I get it to read to my two teenage girls - it was TERRIBLE truly awful. I can't believe they made us read this for our GCSE English lit !!!!! I love reading now but didn't really get into it til much later in life - I can see why now ! This awful book must have put me right off !! I'm reading all the Dickens books now and love them all. Both my daughters who read alot thought this book was a waste of their time !