Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Searching... Silver Falls Library | YA WOODING | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | YA Fic Wooding, C. 2004 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
The Alienist meets Dracula in this gripping, gothic-horror thriller from young UK phenom Chris Wooding.
Thaniel, just seventeen, is a wych-hunter. Together, he and Cathaline--his friend and mentor--track down the fearful creatures that lurk in the Old Quarter of London. It is on one of these hunts that he first encounters Alaizabel Cray. Alaizabel is half-crazed, lovely, and possessed.
Whatever dreadful entity has entered her soul has turned her into a strange and unearthly magnet--attracting evil and drawing horrors from every dark corner. Cathaline and Thaniel must discover its cause--and defend humanity at all costs.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-Jack the Ripper meets the supernatural in this Bosch-like horror tale set in an alternate Victorian London where supernatural "wych-kin" lurk around every corner waiting to prey on humans. Hot on the trail of a vampirelike "Cradlejack," 17-year-old wych-hunter Thaniel stumbles upon beautiful Alaizabel Cray, who unknowingly has been possessed by an "old wych" named Thatch. Determined to rescue Alaizabel from Thatch and the sinister cult responsible for depositing the evil spirit in Alaizabel's body, the innately chivalrous Thaniel slashes and burns his way through a nightmarish city crawling with enough ghastly human and supernatural villains to stock a wax museum. Eerie and exhilarating, this book marks a thematic and stylistic departure from Wooding's earlier, more contemporary teen novels of partying, drug addiction, and pyromania. Instead, he fuses together his best storytelling skills-plotting, atmosphere, shock value-to create a fabulously horrific and ultimately timeless underworld where heroes battle menacing foes to save the world from demonic overthrow.-Hillias J. Martin, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
"The author sets a riveting pace from the get-go, as a 17-year-old wych-hunter prowls London's Old Quarter in search of a Cradlejack known for taking babies," said PW's starred review. "An imaginative tour de force." Ages 12-up. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Middle School, High School) Most residents of this gloomy, decaying, alternate-history London fear to go out after dark because the dripping, foggy streets shelter fearsome abominations: ghouls, wights, roofcreepers, Cradlejacks, and worse. There are a few souls, however, who hunt down and destroy these supernatural ""wych-kin"" for bounty, and it is on just such a mission that wych-hunter Thaniel Fox, seventeen, comes upon a girl, crazed and feverish, her memory gone, her mind intermittently possessed by an evil wych spirit. Who is the lovely Alaizabel Cray? Why are the wych-kin drawn to her like iron filings to a magnet? The plotline -- our heroes must thwart a conspiracy of avaricious mortals who wish to loose the world's protective bonds and admit a supernatural evil -- is scarcely original, but Wooding invests his gothic London with an uncommon creepiness and menace, his manifestations with unique dread. Plenty of action moves the pace along swiftly; stalkings and night murders add suspense. The intense, emotive style at times goes over the top into melodrama, but on the whole it suits the tale, with its images of black carriages on fog-swept nights, gibbering lunatics in asylums, and decaying shades that pursue the living. Wooding takes us convincingly into his world and then gives us the shivers in ours. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Readers will get finger cramps from rapidly turning the pages of Wooding's gripping tale, an excellent mÉlange of horror, suspense, and the gothic. Set in a strange, alternative London just 20 years after a German airship fleet humiliated the British by bombing London into submission, the narrative describes a city under siege by wych-kin--supernatural monsters who prey on the human population--and Stitch-face, a weirdly masked serial murderer. Seventeen-year-old Thaniel, on a wych-kin hunt, finds a beautiful young woman, Alaizabel Cray, who has no memory of her past. His efforts to protect Alaizabel uncover threatening, unexplained incidents throughout the city. Complex plotting and structure combine with rich, atmospheric world-building in a fast-paced, tension-filled read. The growing relationship between Thaniel and Alaizabel animates the plot, and the other characters support interest admirably. This brilliant effort will appeal to readers of Philip Pullman, Cornelia Funke, and Christopher Pike as well as to older teen fans of fantasy "new weird" writers like China MiÉville. (Fiction. 13+) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 9-12. In Wooding's alternative, Victorian London, a new plague is underway: an infestation of demonic creatures known as wych-kin. Thaniel Fox, a 17-year-old wych-hunter who calls forth both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Indiana Jones, spends his time reducing wych-kin populations with methods that combine magic, superstition, and good old-fashioned gunslinging. After stumbling upon an obviously traumatized young woman on one of his expeditions, he swiftly discovers that she has escaped from the clutches of a powerful cult called the Fraternity. The connections between Alaizabel's plight, rising numbers of wych-kin, and the Fraternity's plans are revealed by tantalizing degrees, as Thaniel; Alaizabel; Thaniel's guardian, Cathaline; and several colorful allies join forces to combat evil on a terrifying scale. This is dark fare, often graphically violent (a Jack-the-Ripper-type serial killer plays a role), but not gratuitously so. Wooding delivers characters to care about, including strong-willed and capable young women, deliciously scary bogeys drawn from world legend and lore, and philosophical underpinnings suggesting an imagination heavily steeped in Tolkien and Pullman. Though the action bogs down a bit in the middle as Wooding assembles his cast of good guys, the atmospheric scene setting and attention to chilling detail ensure his hold on fantasy enthusiasts. --Jennifer Mattson Copyright 2004 Booklist