Reviews: Crookhaven by J.J. Arcanjo and The Dark and Dangerous Gifts of Delores Mackenzie
Two reviews today, from two children’s books I read and loved.
The Dark and Dangerous Gifts of Delores Mackenzie
This dark but delicious story plunges you into the gothic atmosphere surrounding those with dangerous psychic powers and the ability to reach the dead.
Delores Mackenzie’s starts drawing troubled spirits to her peaceful home and is sent away to the creepy Tollbooth Bookshop to live with the strange uncles and pushed into a strict regime to force her to control her powers. She can do more than just see ghosts, Delores is a powerful necromancer and the wicked dead could use her to build a pathway back to the land of the living.
Learning to fight back against malevolent spirits who want to use her, Delores is determined to control her dangerous gifts as she can also see ghosts who need her help. If she fails she’ll be locked away by the psychic Adjustment Council to prevent her being used by the dead no one would want coming back through from the other side.
Yvonne Banham treads her own dark and dangerous path with this darkly imaginative story of a girl whose ability to see ghosts takes a terrifying turn. This is a gripping tale that expertly balances perfectly pitched horror for young readers with a tale of finding unlikely friendships forged in darkest of places. Perfect for young readers in search of a shadowy and sinister story.
Crookhaven by J.J. Arcanjo
Pickpocket Gabriel Avery can hardly believe he’s been selected for the secretive Crookhaven school – where future criminals are trained. Gabriel is plunged into lessons from lockpicking to forgery, plus coaching in some nifty crimnastics – in case you need to get away in a hurry. He’s also plunged into the rivalry between those who come from distinguished criminal families and those, like Gabriel, new to the criminal world.
Crookhaven is full of heist action and dangerous thrills and spills as the school tries to make master-criminals of all students. The action follows the students learning not just the lessons, but the history and traditions of the competitive criminal fraternities.
The desire to get the best criminal record means rivalry gets nasty, especially to win the Crookhaven challenge – to break into an almost impossibly well-guarded room and steal something without anyone even knowing.
Gabriel has all the makings of a criminal mastermind. Determined to win against the odds and beat those to whom crime is just a family business, he comes up with a devious plot, but needs to pull a reluctant team together. They have to break a few rules. But then isn’t learning to be a criminal all about teaching you to break the rules?
Crookhaven is criminally good fun!