The Wolf in the Attic

This book is a delight. It started out just okay, but had me intrigued by the end of the first few chapters and hooked by the half way mark - like a cart headed down a gentle slope, slowly at first and then gaining momentum until all the sudden you realize it's moving to fast to jump off of. If that's the first half then approaching the end you've plummeted off of a cliff.It's one of the best written that i've read in a while, for starters. It strikes that balance between story and art that only the best books attain, the sweet spot.The main character never once is a character, even at the start she's someone you're getting to know. Every one else is the same, without fail, there isn't a faltering step in any of them.As i've already said the plot is excellently paced, moving from measured into dynamic without any noticeable or unnatural transitions. One thing that is beautifully combined with that is the setting and mythos, revealed as it goes on at just the right speed and with just the right level of uncertainty, the same uncertainty we experience in life.I could go on and write a literary review breaking down pieces and symbols and connections in it but i don't need to because you'll read this book because it's a delightful story for anyone. I don't mean that as a cliche but as another point: I can't think of a demographic that this book wouldn't entrance, even including, i think, that rare and arrogant find the "Literary fiction reader". Read it.

WARNING--POSSIBLE SPOILERS.I don't understand this book. It's beautifully, beautifully written. The language is like wading through flowers.But the story makes no freaking sense. We have CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien both making totally gratuitous appearances (really, folks, WHY were they there? Are we supposed to believe that at some point later in her life Anna goes back to them and tells them there really ARE monsters, so they get the ideas for their books?)We have a girl living in poverty with her alcoholic, purposeless father. The girl is a likable character, but in her spunky independent "I'm gonna go out in the dark because my dad doesn't want me to" way she witnesses a killing. This ties her in with Luca and his family, a group of gypsies who are harboring shape-shifters. Why? because Anna is, in ways we don't quite get, one of them. She has the "old magic." Okay, this is where it gets weird. At some point we learn that the gypsies are down to the last two shape-shifters and in order for the lineage to continue she needs to (someday--after all, she's like 12 or 13 at most) marry Luca, the last of the shape-shifters, mate with him, and produce lots more little shape-shifters. Anna isn't terribly pleased about having her life so mapped out and pitches a hissy fit and leaves, whereupon they chase her. Now she has become great friends with Luca, so why she's so opposed to the notion of ever loving him down the line is curious enough, but when the two of them go on the lam together (and actually end up part of the same family together) it seems to me that, given the way the book ends, all the gypsies really had to do was sit back and watch. Anna and Luca are headed on the road to matrimony whether they want to be or not.Normally you think of a story as some conflict between characters and some obstacles to overcome (I'm oversimplifying). But it's not really normal to have the characters overcome the conflict and the obstacles and end up exactly where neither of them wanted to be...and have both of them happy as pigs in slop to be there. Thus, my scratching my head at the end of this book and saying "what the heck just happened?"

This is a fine book. at first the book seems well grounded in the 20th century.Anna and her Pa are ethnic Greeks who fled to England from Smyrna when Turkey reclaimed it. But as Anna explores into the words near her home, she comes into contact with the surviving remnants of mythic groups. I would say the magical nature of these groups is emphasized. They represent an older way of balance of forces roughly equivalent to summer and winter. It Anna is the focus of the story, and the conflict between groups is not Dark vs Light as in Sudan Cooper. Briefly Anna meets C.S. LEWIS and discusses religion, but he is not the ardent Christian then. In a way I find echoes of other stories in the book.

Rich with ancient imagery and beautiful prose, the story of Anna and Lucca resonates with me in these uncertain times. What if all the stories you were told, the ones that helped you know who you were, were only partly true? Who among us hasn't felt alone and unwanted, yearning to belong? Belong to what is the question. Anna doesn't belong to the world her father has brought them to, full of committee meetings and prejudices against her Greek looks and independence. No one seems to care at all for the unbearable trauma she has faced. So she wanders and meets Lucca. And his family. And the mysterious men who pursue them. There is many a half-truth told and things are not as they seem. The Old World is living just below the surface of the new and Anna has to decide where she belongs.I had some misgivings about how the story deals with the Great Mother and the Britons. But I will let the story be enough as it is and ponder where I fit in to it.My only criticism is that I wanted more! Anna and Lucca must be bound for more adventures, for sure!

I rarely write reviews now, having become totally fed up with being verbally attacked by total strangers just because their opinions differed from my own. Now and then I feel compelled to comment on something I feel is rather special and this one is. Right from the start the prose gripped me and I knew I'd found a book I could totally lose myself in. There were shades of Phillip Pullman's Oxford and indeed Lyra to some extent at the beginning that then morphed into something more like Alan Garners Weirdstone trilogy whilst keeping its own subtle style and identity throughout. Like the works of both of these much lauded authors, I believe this is a book with timeless and ageless appeal. From accomplished young readers through to mature readers such as myself, anyone who has a youthful, open mind and a will to be whisked off on an adventure where the gritty reality of life melds with the wonder of myth and legend will be entranced. I envy young readers who enjoy books like this and then are able to revisit them as they grow up and get something different from each reading. I wasn't frustrated by the ending at all as it seemed obvious there will be a sequel. I just hope we don't have to wait too long, though I have to face the fact work like this takes longer to produce and therefore will have to be patient. Please Mr Kearney, don't make us wait too long!

The Wolf in the Attic is one of the more unusual books I have read in a while. There are fantastical elements - shape shifting people, ancient secret groups, pagan gods (or perhaps angels), even Old Nick himself - combined with a dark and gritty picture of the early twentieth century - the massacre at Smyrna, prejudice and discrimination, murder and violence - and some - such as the dark woods - which straddle the two worlds. Many of these have been assembled before in other stories you may have read but Kearney’s skill as an author shows in his ability to combine them. It is, perhaps, reminiscent of the film Pan’s Labyrinth in the way it so beautifully stitches together the parts that feel as though they are from folktales or a child’s story and a disturbing real world background. Like that film, the use of fantasy elements not only contrasts with those parts that are not but also can serve to illustrate it and to approach material that might otherwise be overwhelming or distressing. The result is a story which feels at times deeply moving, bringing emotional weight to its themes, as well as excitement in our heroine’s adventures and intellectual satisfaction in noting the influences brought together.There are clear references to other works, particularly children’s stories. As a fantasy adventure, set in Oxford, with a young girl as the central character, the presence of Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights might be expected to hang heavily over this story but this is a very different story. Instead a reader might find parts which recall the stories of Alan Garner and Susan Cooper (even at one stage Pooh Bear) combined with parts that feel like more ‘adult’ fantasies such as Holdstock’s Mythago Wood. Books aimed at children, of course, can often be more profound than those intended for adults.A book of fantastic people and creatures where C.S. Lewis and Tolkein are characters might be one where they came to dominate, but the interest is largely elsewhere. Kearney appears to have fun imagining the roots of Ents and shapechangers in Tolkein’s works, however.I should that this is not a perfect book. Its ending feels perhaps too abrupt. It is clearly the start of a story, rather than a complete work in itself. That said, this is one of the most engaging and affecting books I have read for sometime. It has lingered in the corner of my mind in a way that many books fail to.Recommended.

Paul Kearney's "Wolf In The Attic" is a strange book. Is it a Fantasy set in Oxford at the beginning of the 1930's or the thoughts of a child trying to relate to what she sees in the world around her? Either way it is a magical book to read. You view the events through the eyes of 11 years old Anna, a Greek refugee living with her Father in Oxford. The first part of the book is slow paced but seen through the eyes of young Anna, is rich and rewarding, you can't help but enjoy the richness of her view of the events (and non events) happening around her. She is a marvelously rendered 3D character and her interactions with two well written historical characters (the authors Tolkien and Lewis) although brief, is well observed. The second half of the book gathers pace as Anna wanders the countryside pursued by different factions after her father is murdered. She is alone apart from her doll and the things she sees and encounters belong to an England of pre-history, myth and Celtic legend. The book ends with her safe-ish with an old farmer who may be or may be not a demon/god and a young boy who just happens to be a shapeshifter/werewolf. Ludicrous as that may sound, it works and you believe it. The ending makes you want to read more of Anna's story. I have since found out that there is a follow up book but that at the moment seems to be unavailable as either a paperbook or an Ebook but it seems that both Tolkien and C S Lewis make a reappearance - I shall have to scour the second hand shops for it. If you want a blood and guts Fantasy epic, then this may not be to your taste. However, if you want a well written and thought out book then try 'Wolf In The Attic' out - a sort of gentler version of Mark Chadbourn's 'Age Of Reason' series

There are occasions - far too few - when I begin a book which I know is special. It’s not simply the story, important though that obviously is, but writing that you can taste, smell and is goosebumpingly, richly evocative A book you can sink into (with a thankful sigh). I feel that this is the author’s best work and I urge you to read it if you enjoy darkly vivid, well-written fantasy. I apologise for the lack of a plot description, but it’s been done already by better hands than mine. There’s myth, magic, history and ancient beliefs wrapped in imagination and skilful language.On a less positive note, I wanted to mention that the sequel “The Burning Horse” does not seem to have been published, although it may have come close. I endured computer-generated apologies from Amazon for a couple of years before giving up on my pre-order. Although I completely respect the right of anyone to read bus tickets if that's what they prefer, I’m at a loss to understand why this might not be a commercial success (if that’s the issue) - perhaps if a few more of us give it a whirl, someone in charge of coffers might hear a jingle and perk up. Fingers crossed.

This was an extraordinary read: a real shapeshifter of a book. It began like a children’s story, full of the innocent fancies of an isolated little girl, but then morphed into an eerie fantasy full of symbolism and old magic. The most frustrating thing about the novel is that its final pages introduce a whole new potential canvas and then, with so many questions unanswered, and so much backstory unexplained, it simply finishes. I worried over whether that was meant to be it, or whether I could hope for more. Since reading it, I've heard that the author plans a sequel (given enough interest in the first book). And let's hope that comes off, because this is a genuinely gripping world and much remains to be said.Our heroine is Anna Francis, aged eleven, who lives in shabby gentility with her father in Jericho in Oxford. It is 1929 and Anna and her father are refugees from Smyrna where, seven years earlier, they lost Anna’s mother and all the rest of their family. Blunted by his pain, Anna’s father has withdrawn into himself, less interested in his little daughter than in the dream of repatriation, and in the endless meetings he holds with others of the Greek expatriate community. Anna is taught at home – useless things, like French and algebra – and has no friends except her doll, Pie, with whom she shares all her secrets. She’s alone, but not exactly lonely, because there are always stories to cheer her up, whether those are E. Nesbit’s tales of the Psammead, or the tales her father used to tell her about Achilles and Agamemnon. And she explores. And it's during one of these expeditions that she encounters a group of people who will change her life forever.There’s something about Oxford: the fantastical otherness of the place, and its quaint old street names, its twisting lanes and soaring spires, make it perfect for fantastical stories. I wouldn’t say this is outright fantasy, though. It occupies the grey area on the brink. Certainly there are elements of the otherworldly, but Kearney makes them feel real, part of an ancient world that has managed to survive beneath the flimsy surface of our own. The inevitable comparison is His Dark Materials, though even that is more of a fantasy than Kearney’s novel (at least in the first part). And of course the author is well aware of Oxford’s distinguished fantasy past. It’s no accident that two well-known figures make cameos here: Jack, a don from Magdalen more formally known as Professor Lewis (anyone?) and his drinking buddy, Ronald, whom Jack calls ‘Tollers’ (take a guess). Their works, though, have a firmer presence than they do: Kearney’s story has hints both of Narnia and Middle Earth.It’s very hard to explain what I liked about this book, but I did like it. I enjoyed the sense of elemental, old magic bound by the sacred sites and ridgeways of old England, and I enjoyed the restrained sense of fantasy. But, as I said earlier, Kearney has come up with such a tantalising world that I want to know more about it. The book is very slow-paced and, by the time the action starts happening, we’re virtually at the end. I've been left burning with questions!This is one to savour on the long dark nights before the spring comes. Partly a moving tale of a refugee’s struggle to fit in, partly a paean to the lost myths of England, it has whetted my interest in Kearney as a writer. If you haven’t come across him before, give this a go. You might find Anna’s narratorial voice rather childish to begin with, but stick with it. This is a chilling story that could just work its way into your bones. And then join me in demanding more!For a full review, please see my blog.