Ludlow Lost

If You Only Read One Fairy Kidnapper Book This Year....

The basic premise - fairy kidnaps clever eleven year old and they have adventures with strange creatures - feels a bit worn. Blurbs and comments describe the book, without much further explanation, as "charming", "special", and "cute". You might be forgiven if, with just those clues, you might hesitate about committing. Well, please excuuuuse me for being such a patronizing, know-it-all snot. It turns out that this book is fresh, amusing, and remarkably good-natured, (with a few mysteries, action, and several surprises tossed in for extra measure).

Here's the deal. The narration is dry and deadpan, but with personality. It feels like the reader is being told a story by someone who is very good at telling stories, has a sly sense of humor, and is subtly and gently teasing the reader. The effect is light and energetic, and the book invites the reader inside almost as though the reader is participating in the story. You get touches of that sort of thing with writers like Roald Dahl and David Walliams and Philip Ardagh, and that's pretty fast company.

The fairy, Adhair, (call me"Harry"), has kidnapped Ludlow Osgoode, but has been double-crossed by her Banshee employer and so has ended up teamed up with her kidnappee, with both of them now plotting escape. Adhair is short tempered and feisty, but fundamentally goodhearted, which is how I like my fairies. Osgoode is calm, kind, patient, and resourceful, and often observes the adventure with rather bemused detachment and cheerful resignation, (but a fair amount of grit and the right stuff), which is how I like my child heroes. You can imagine what a keen team these two make for what becomes an engaging buddy-adventure-comedy. A few surprise additions expand the team as the story progresses.

No spoilers, but Osgoode has to get back home, Adhair has to get even with the cheat who double-crossed her, and it's going to take a bit of a fantasy quest and a number of mini adventures for all of that to happen. Along the way we'll meet a wide range of fantasy creatures. Many of them are a mix of bad and good, but all of them seem designed to tickle a younger reader's funny bone, even if sometimes also introducing just a bit of something sterner and perhaps a bit scarier, (think of a banshee whose wail won't kill you, but will give you a terrible, terrible tummy ache).

The upshot is that the book was funny, inviting, a bit dry in an amusing way, a bit suspenseful, crisply restrained, and completely satisfying. A nice and especially well crafted find for, perhaps, the younger crowd.

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

What a magical wonder of a book ; filled with amazing creatures and a great story tat brings you on a magical journey.
I definitely will have to find more books from this author because I need to read more books like this one.