HEADLESS CUPID

Favourite book from childhood, so happy to have found it again

親がそれぞれ再婚したことによって大家族となり、田舎の大きくて古い家に引越しをします。その家は、昔、お化けが住んでいる家ということでうわさになった家でした。義理の妹、Amandaのオカルト趣味が眠っていた彼らを呼び起こしてしまいます。Amandaの新しい妹や弟は生意気ながらも自然と人間嫌いのAmandaの心をなごませ、お化けの恐怖がなぜか新しい家族の絆を深めていきます。ちょっと変わった物語ですが面白いのは間違いなしです。

I enjoyed reading The Egypt Game by this same author so I decided to try this one. The title, Headless Cupid sounded spooky and fun and I was sure I would like it. But I hated it, absolutely hated it. I didn't like one single character in there, especially Amanda, who is a horrible, spoiled, snotty little brat - mad at her mother for remarrying into a family with four younger kids and leaving her well off father who is never around and just throws money at her for anything she wants. At first, I was sympathetic to Amanda and the entire situation, because these are circumstances out of a kid's control and trying to blend into a new family situation is never easy.The oldest in the other family is a boy named David. He's slightly more tolerable because he has morals and has helped out raising his siblings which is a lot of pressure for a kid. But most of the time, he's just a doormat for Amanda's creepy witchcraft interests. The parents don't do one thing to help blend the family together, they're totally absent most of the time and Amanda just manipulates all the kids into terrible things like stealing and killing animals (she calls them sacrifices). And the whole thing with the game, "Slaves & Slavedrivers"...well, I know it was written in 1971 but reading that whole scene made me cringe! The girl was whipping them all! Yes, it was with a piece of cloth that didn't actually hurt but still! You couldn't write that kind of thing in a kids book now and get away with it (at least I hope not).I kept reading for awhile, hoping that eventually, something would happen to integrate the families and give Amanda more peace and security, but that never really seemed to happen. She planned almost all the creepy poltergeist stuff and even though she gave up the witchcraft in the end, I never really felt that she was different or changed in any significant way. She only gave it up because that last stunt that she had nothing to do with freaked her out, not because she realized that the stuff she was doing to the other kids was mean.I have always liked spooky, fun, ghost stories but not ones that are just flat out mean and horrible. I can't understand why this was a Newbery Honor Book.

Loved it when I was a kid. Cool old book. For me, it withstood the test of time. I think most kids would like it a lot.

This was purchased as gift for my niece who turned 11. She's a reader. When I was about her age I LIVED at my school's library.. The librarian was my idol I read everything I could get my hands on by Zilpha Keatley Snyder; particularly relating to her characters for being "different" and supernaturally inclined. The librarian arranged for me to travel with her (quite a distance I remember) to meet Ms. Snyder at a luncheon after she was presented an award...it was the best day of my life. I was thrilled to find this book, still popular with children and still in print.