Ghostheart

Secrets of Carrick #3

by Ananda Braxton-Smith

Her brothers and sisters are fearless, light as scuds, quick as hoppers. Not Mally. She knows too many secrets, that one. She is frighted, all right. Frozen at the edge of the shore, lonely as a cornstalk in a saltmarsh. But in Carrick things are changing and Mally needs to change too. Out of nowhere has come Dolyn Craig – a sneak and a bully but that’s not the worst of it. He’s also unexpected with it. What could he want with poor frightened Mally?

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Historical

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2013

About the author

Ananda Braxton-Smith is a journalist and children’s writer who is passionate about communicating history to young people in new and innovative ways.

Reviews

[Law · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: Death of a character

6/10, well where do I begin with this one; I was hoping that I would enjoy this book which turned out to be book three in the series however each book can be read as a standalone and it's sad to see that the library removed books one and two because not enough people read them or they were too old yet they didn't get rid of this one yet so I'm perplexed at the inconsistency considering that this book is a decade old now. That being said the entire book is a slog and I doubt that the other books in the series are enjoyable as well but this one begins with Mally living in a medieval village on the Isle of Man when she sees a ghost and talks to them, wow where have I seen this one before; how original, anyways she deduces that the ghost is the spirit of a character who died long ago and there's a part explaining the story of the ghosts however the execution isn't all that great as it didn't need to be that long and that much of a slog and should've been cut down to make way for more scenes involving Mally and also Dolyn Craig was the antagonist however he was mostly in the background and wasn't integral to the book. She is a bit reckless though as she goes into the rockpool and cave system and almost dies in the process but fortunately she wasn't killed, in the end, it mentions that there was another ghost and he came into being when part of a house fell into the sea and killed someone which was kind of sad but I didn't care for them nor any other one in this book since they weren't that well written which was a shame. This series should be way more popular than it is now because it is so unique since it is set in some fantasy village in the Isle of Man where anything could happen and if you like low fantasies like this one pick this but there are other good ones like The Midnight Girls by Alicia Jasinska you can try.

[Katharine (Ventureadlaxre)]

Katharine is a judge for the Sara Douglass 'Book Series' Award. This entry is the personal opinion of Katharine herself, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team.

I won't be recording my thoughts (if I choose to) here until after the AA are over.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a strange, complex, wonderful read that is very hard to categorise and even harder to write a review.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teenage fantasy by a local author