Just Finished Reading: The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School by Kim Newman (FP: 2015)

She took her mother’s warning very seriously. How indeed could anyone even think of marriage to someone like her? She would just have to try harder, try to be more normal. But it was so hard. She tried carrying stones in her pockets and thinking heavy thoughts but still, if she lost control for a moment….. The final straw was that morning, that embarrassing morning when her mother came to wake her. It wasn’t her fault really. After all there’s little you can do when you’re fast asleep. But it was the look, a mixed look of horror and disappointment, which said it all. But there’s not much you can say to someone when you’re floating inches from your bedroom ceiling. At her wits end there was only one thing that her mother could realistically do. She recognised that now but the new boarding school, miles from anywhere and filled with the strangest girls, was quite a shock to the system. To be dropped in, mid-term, in the third year was enough to force her feet to remain solidly on the ground. But her new friends and roommates helped. One was a beautiful and exotic Indian princess, another was the daughter of stage magicians (presently incarcerated) and the third was a member of the British aristocracy. Settling in was taking a while. New school, new rules. New names for things, people to avoid, and lots to learn. But there were also the oddities and the downright strangeness of the place. There were rumours of ghosts and rules about going near the cliff edge or into the woods. But when one of her new friends vanished in mysterious circumstances and few seemed to be disturbed by the event there was only one thing to do – to band together with her roommates and use their combined skills to solve the mystery and save her friend from what would no doubt be a very sticky end.

I’m read a few of this author’s works and have always been impressed by his inventive reimaging of various fantasy and classic crime tropes. This work was the result of lots of research and deep mining into the literature and culture of British school tales – most particularly designed for girls between the World Wars – with a decided Newmanian twist. Imagine a mix of Harry Potter/Hogwarts, Professor Xavier’s School for the Gifted and St Trinian’s School for Wayward Girls and you’ll get an idea of what the author was going for. The school – a far from ordinary establishment – is home to daughters of master criminals, outlaw scientists and magicians. But even stranger are the small number of ‘Unusuals’ who have special gifts that few others possess and many fear – like main protagonist 13 year old Amy Thomsett who can float at will and who is learning to float other things too. But she is far from the strangest among them. Others can see the future or into other, darker, realms and some can travel to places not on any map and bring back things that have never existed on this Earth. This was honestly a delight to read. Part homage to a lost style of storytelling from the 1920’s and 1930’s, part (at times fairly dark) fantasy, part coming of age saga this story mostly followed Amy as she adapted to the new school life, learnt to embrace (rather than supress) her natural powers and become an active agent in the world rather than simply a child who existed at the behest of others. Although not, I believe, a children’s novel per se this did manage to tread the fine line between being too ‘adult’ and too childish. There was peril here but a good deal of that took place ‘off stage’ and what violence there is here is pretty minimised. The ‘other realm’ was suitably creepy (especially if you’re not fond of insects or the colour Purple) but not really nightmare inducing. Over all the feel was classic children’s adventure written by someone who obviously understood the genre and used that knowledge with real skill. As I said this was a true delight to read and I enjoyed it immensely. I enjoyed even more finding out that it has a sequel which I shall be buying and consuming at my earliest opportunity. Highly recommended – especially if you enjoyed Potter or X-Men!