Darkhenge

by Catherine Fisher

Grade: Good
Story: Rob's sister Chloe is in a coma, and it is ruining his family's lives. Then there's a druid and some weird New Age people and a Catholic priest. Also Avebury.


I'm not sure about this book. I finished it (which, considering how difficult I've found it to read books recently, is quite an accomplishment), but barely. The Darkhenge was dark and creepy, and the characters were definitely themselves (I especially liked one: see below). But there was something missing. I don't know what. It reminded me of Over Sea and Under Stone quite a lot actually, so maybe it's just that it's too young for me. Speaking of too young:

Catherine Fisher seems to have something against Romantic relationships. Not that this book seemed like it needed one. It's just that there isn't really any in any of her books. Plus she is sooo vague on her website about answering questions to do with that sort of thing. Which, even if I am often rather against Romantic-ness, can actually be rather annoying.
I mean, this book is more of a younger book than Incarceron, but still.

However, on the good side.
The Catholic priest was cool. Father Mac. He a) was actually orthodox b) actually had a real personality. Many fictional priests are missing on one of those two necessities at least. The orthodoxy was especially cool in the way it was treated, I thought. In many books like this, the priest or Catholic person will either willy-nilly go along with whatever the druids and New Agers say, or they will be stubbornly and crabbily against anything at all even remotely getting close to strange happenings. But he was more like a C. S. Lewis character, in the way CSL incorporated mythology and legend and ancient beliefs into That Hideous Strength. Which, as I said at the beginning, is cool.

I keep waffling between "Good" and "All right". I've changed it back and forth at least twice now. Well, what the heck. I'll give it a good for Father Mac and sibling relationships.