I Am Half Sick of Shadows

I Am Half Sick of Shadows. Alan Bradley. 2011. Random House. 300 pages.

Tendrils of raw fog floated up from the ice like agonized spirits departing their bodies.

If you love Flavia de Luce, if you've enjoyed following her adventures, then you MUST read this one! If you haven't met this quirky eleven-year old yet, well, you need to give the first novel a try. You may just find yourself charmed because there is something so fun, so quirky, so lovable, so just-about-right, about this little heroine!!! (The first novel is The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. The second is The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag. The third is A Red Herring Without Mustard.)

In this holiday novel, Flavia finds herself almost a stranger in her own home. Her family in desperate need of money has rented out their home for movie production! It's just a few days before Christmas and everyone has started to arrive--including a very famous actress. But this holiday may not go as planned....

I just LOVE this character. I am not sure this is the best Flavia de Luce novel in the series. But. It is so much fun to spend time with a character that you love. And the novel certainly keeps you hooked!

If cooking were a game of darts, most of Mrs. Mullet's concoctions would be barely on the board. (35)

I'd been spending so much time sitting halfway down the stairs that I was beginning to feel like Christoper Robin. (61)

Theater, I suppose, is a form of mass mesmerism, and if that's the case, Shakespeare, despite his chemical shortcomings, was surely one of the greatest hypnotists who ever lived. (129) 

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews