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Dangerous Spaces
Two cousins living in a house that is haunted are drawn at night into a dream world which threatens to overwhelm their real world
Hardcover
First published April 1, 1991
3 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Mahy
400 books291 followersMargaret Mahy was a well-known New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. While the plots of many of her books have strong supernatural elements, her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up.
Her books The Haunting and The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance both received the Carnegie Medal of the British Library Association. There have 100 children's books, 40 novels, and 20 collections of her stories published. Among her children's books, A Lion in the Meadow and The Seven Chinese Brothers and The Man Whose Mother was a Pirate are considered national classics. Her novels have been translated into German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Catalan and Afrikaans. In addition, some stories have been translated into Russian, Chinese and Icelandic.
For her contributions to children's literature she was made a member of the Order of New Zealand. The Margaret Mahy Medal Award was established by the New Zealand Children's Book Foundation in 1991 to provide recognition of excellence in children's literature, publishing and literacy in New Zealand. In 2006 she was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award (known as the Little Nobel Prize) in recognition of a "lasting contribution to children's literature".
Margaret Mahy died on 23 July 2012.
On 29 April 2013, New Zealand’s top honour for children’s books was renamed the New Zealand Post Margaret Mahy Book of the Year award.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret...
Her books The Haunting and The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance both received the Carnegie Medal of the British Library Association. There have 100 children's books, 40 novels, and 20 collections of her stories published. Among her children's books, A Lion in the Meadow and The Seven Chinese Brothers and The Man Whose Mother was a Pirate are considered national classics. Her novels have been translated into German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Catalan and Afrikaans. In addition, some stories have been translated into Russian, Chinese and Icelandic.
For her contributions to children's literature she was made a member of the Order of New Zealand. The Margaret Mahy Medal Award was established by the New Zealand Children's Book Foundation in 1991 to provide recognition of excellence in children's literature, publishing and literacy in New Zealand. In 2006 she was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award (known as the Little Nobel Prize) in recognition of a "lasting contribution to children's literature".
Margaret Mahy died on 23 July 2012.
On 29 April 2013, New Zealand’s top honour for children’s books was renamed the New Zealand Post Margaret Mahy Book of the Year award.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret...
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
December 8, 2024
Eleven-year-old Anthea’s parents drowned in a sailing accident six months ago. Their bodies were never recovered. She is now living with her same-aged cousin Flora and Flora’s liberal, noisy, and disorderly family, the Wakefields, who have a sort of back-to-the-land project going: a vegetable garden, chickens, and pigs. The family lives in the house that belonged to her and Anthea’s deceased grandfather, “Old Lionel”. Everyone says the dwelling is haunted. The old man’s portrait hangs in the hall and his spirit drifts about the place, making clear that he disapproves of his son’s—Flora’s dad’s—desultory attempts at renovation. Lionel Junior has stripped the panels from the walls of “the big room,” exposing all the wires and pipes, and there’s a huge hole in the wall between Anthea’s and Flora’s bedroom. Anthea feels as though she has no private space here.
The story opens with Anthea’s reporting a strange dream at breakfast one morning. In this dream, she emerged from a crack in the earth in a high, windy place. The world she found herself in—and, indeed finds herself in repeatedly on subsequent nights—is linked with the old picture cards found in the spare room. As children, Grandfather and his younger brother (“dead Henry”) used to view these cards with a stereoscope (an old-fashioned device which merged two photos of the same scene or object, providing a sense of depth and solidity.) It doesn’t take very long for Anthea to realize that the dream world she is entering is based on these cards. Dead Henry (who seemingly did not live into adulthood) created and mapped this world, known as “Viridian”. He and his older brother appear to have played some sort of imaginative game in which they travelled there, using special names—“Griff” for Henry and “Leo” for Lionel.
Forsaken for years by his brother, who obsessively guards the house instead of travelling with him as promised, Griff has now settled on Anthea as a companion. In her he recognizes the loneliness and desire for space that he craved as a child. He wants her to make the long journey with him to the dragon-shaped island in the inland sea. For her part, she believes she might find her parents there.
Initially, Anthea’s nightly trips into this vast realm are mysterious and exhilarating. However, as she begins to be assimilated into her new family, she has reservations about Griff, Viridian, and their destination. (I kept envisioning Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin’s eerie 1883 painting The Island of the Dead [https://artsandculture.google.com/ass...] and wonder if Mahy may have had it in mind when writing this novel.) The path to the sea that holds the island eventually becomes treacherous, and an ominous dark cloud follows the children. Recognizing Anthea’s increasing doubts about continuing with him, Griff becomes desperate and threatening. I have to say that even as an adult reader, I found him frightening. (I’m familiar with Mahy’s skill in evoking such moods, having read her wonderful novel The Haunting, which kept me up late into the night the first time I encountered it.) The story’s conclusion involves Anthea’s cousin coming through for her in an unexpected way.
While Dangerous Spaces is billed as children’s literature, it is really a very sophisticated and rather abstract psychological novel. I cannot imagine that it would have much appeal to most older children. There are no details about Henry/Griff’s early death, his sense (while living) that there was no space for him—that he was crowded out by his older brother. The reader is also left in the dark about Old Lionel’s sadness and why his spirit will not leave the house. What is actually holding him there? A great deal must be inferred and much—too much, I think— of the book operates on a symbolic, psychological level. Descriptions are intricate and require careful reading and strong mental visualizing capacities in the reader. Since so much of Dangerous Spaces involves the dream world, the story quite naturally lends itself to Jungian interpretation.
While this is an interesting novel with some marvellous writing,I cannot in the end recommend it for anyone but diehard Mahy fans.
The story opens with Anthea’s reporting a strange dream at breakfast one morning. In this dream, she emerged from a crack in the earth in a high, windy place. The world she found herself in—and, indeed finds herself in repeatedly on subsequent nights—is linked with the old picture cards found in the spare room. As children, Grandfather and his younger brother (“dead Henry”) used to view these cards with a stereoscope (an old-fashioned device which merged two photos of the same scene or object, providing a sense of depth and solidity.) It doesn’t take very long for Anthea to realize that the dream world she is entering is based on these cards. Dead Henry (who seemingly did not live into adulthood) created and mapped this world, known as “Viridian”. He and his older brother appear to have played some sort of imaginative game in which they travelled there, using special names—“Griff” for Henry and “Leo” for Lionel.
Forsaken for years by his brother, who obsessively guards the house instead of travelling with him as promised, Griff has now settled on Anthea as a companion. In her he recognizes the loneliness and desire for space that he craved as a child. He wants her to make the long journey with him to the dragon-shaped island in the inland sea. For her part, she believes she might find her parents there.
Initially, Anthea’s nightly trips into this vast realm are mysterious and exhilarating. However, as she begins to be assimilated into her new family, she has reservations about Griff, Viridian, and their destination. (I kept envisioning Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin’s eerie 1883 painting The Island of the Dead [https://artsandculture.google.com/ass...] and wonder if Mahy may have had it in mind when writing this novel.) The path to the sea that holds the island eventually becomes treacherous, and an ominous dark cloud follows the children. Recognizing Anthea’s increasing doubts about continuing with him, Griff becomes desperate and threatening. I have to say that even as an adult reader, I found him frightening. (I’m familiar with Mahy’s skill in evoking such moods, having read her wonderful novel The Haunting, which kept me up late into the night the first time I encountered it.) The story’s conclusion involves Anthea’s cousin coming through for her in an unexpected way.
While Dangerous Spaces is billed as children’s literature, it is really a very sophisticated and rather abstract psychological novel. I cannot imagine that it would have much appeal to most older children. There are no details about Henry/Griff’s early death, his sense (while living) that there was no space for him—that he was crowded out by his older brother. The reader is also left in the dark about Old Lionel’s sadness and why his spirit will not leave the house. What is actually holding him there? A great deal must be inferred and much—too much, I think— of the book operates on a symbolic, psychological level. Descriptions are intricate and require careful reading and strong mental visualizing capacities in the reader. Since so much of Dangerous Spaces involves the dream world, the story quite naturally lends itself to Jungian interpretation.
While this is an interesting novel with some marvellous writing,I cannot in the end recommend it for anyone but diehard Mahy fans.
October 16, 2023
A psychological ghost story about profound loss, family dynamics, and the spaces allotted to us physically and emotionally. Anthea's parents were lost at sea, and she's been brought into her cousin Flora's family. There is tension between the two girls - quite different to each other - and all kinds of repressed grief in Anthea (it's at this point that I'd like to point out that the cover image is meant to be stereoscopic, and that was described as a black octagonal plinth, and a VEILED bust of a stone statue entitled "Modesty", veil knotted at the chin, crying real tears out from underneath... it bugs me when the artist leaves out crucial details. Ah well).
There's also tension within the house itself. It belonged to Flora and Anthea's grandfather, Old Lionel, who designed and painstakingly built its additions. He loved the house, and would not stand for it being altered. The son, Lionel Jr., decides to renovate it... and cannot follow through. There are exposed pipes and beams and wires, walls without cladding, holes between rooms. There are chickens everywhere on the verandah, and a litter of puppies has just been born, and there's a toddler, Flora's brother Teddy - it's a chaotic mess. Lionel Jr. doesn't even finish dressing for work until he's driven outside of the gate. They're living in a constant state of transition, not able to move forwards.
Heavy on the metaphors, this book isn't one of those juvenille thrillers which starts darkly atmospheric only to lighten up intolerably (I'm thinking of you, The Nightmare Man by Tessa Krailing!). It grows steadily in its creepy implications, and becomes genuinely chilling, before a satisfying resolution (also ghostly and mysterious and yet readily identifiable if we fear to look).
I haven't read any of Mahy's other novels, but this didn't put me off them. She's obviously someone abounding with great, resonating ideas about the magic and truths of life, reassuring or otherwise. I think there might have been a few too many good ideas at play here. Would have been nicer to have fewer, but more fleshed out.
There's also tension within the house itself. It belonged to Flora and Anthea's grandfather, Old Lionel, who designed and painstakingly built its additions. He loved the house, and would not stand for it being altered. The son, Lionel Jr., decides to renovate it... and cannot follow through. There are exposed pipes and beams and wires, walls without cladding, holes between rooms. There are chickens everywhere on the verandah, and a litter of puppies has just been born, and there's a toddler, Flora's brother Teddy - it's a chaotic mess. Lionel Jr. doesn't even finish dressing for work until he's driven outside of the gate. They're living in a constant state of transition, not able to move forwards.
Heavy on the metaphors, this book isn't one of those juvenille thrillers which starts darkly atmospheric only to lighten up intolerably (I'm thinking of you, The Nightmare Man by Tessa Krailing!). It grows steadily in its creepy implications, and becomes genuinely chilling, before a satisfying resolution (also ghostly and mysterious and yet readily identifiable if we fear to look).
It's funny about space. You have to have it, but you can't just stay in it for ever. You have to make way or there's nowhere for anyone else to go.I also learned what bidibids are (NZ burrs), and if this were ever made into a movie (I think it would work!), I would want so much to audition for the part of Flora. I wouldn't fit the bill of course, but she'd be a riot to play! What a character.
I haven't read any of Mahy's other novels, but this didn't put me off them. She's obviously someone abounding with great, resonating ideas about the magic and truths of life, reassuring or otherwise. I think there might have been a few too many good ideas at play here. Would have been nicer to have fewer, but more fleshed out.
March 30, 2015
Two cousins live in a house which accesses a dangerous dream world.
Not Mahy's most memorable novel.
Not Mahy's most memorable novel.
July 16, 2025
Dangerous Spaces is a new all time favorite book for me! It is a beautiful, weird, unsettling, funny, and moving book! It deals with grief, death, family dynamics, and generational trauma.
Here’s the setup: after 11-year-old Anthea’s parents die, she moves in with her wacky, funny, and disorganized uncle, aunt, and cousins’ family. If all of that wasn’t difficult enough to deal with, the house seems to be mildly haunted by her grandfather. To top it all off, Anthea is drawn into a strange dream world at night.
The dream world aspect was a perfect combination of creepy and very beautiful. The waking world was an excellent mix of serious, humorous, and realistic emotions and interactions.
This is one of the most effective books I have read for helping the reader to see things from multiple points of view. The author lets you see, understand, and sympathize with the very realistic flaws of all the characters, but without disliking any of the characters themselves. Each character also has their own excellent qualities as well.
Dangerous Spaces was written in 1991 in New Zealand by Margaret Mahy. From the rating and other reviews I see that many people either didn’t like it or that it wasn’t their favorite Mahy book. This is the first book I have read by Margaret Mahy and it hit perfectly for me! Sometimes it is worth giving a book with a lower rating a chance because it may end up being just right for you.
Here’s the setup: after 11-year-old Anthea’s parents die, she moves in with her wacky, funny, and disorganized uncle, aunt, and cousins’ family. If all of that wasn’t difficult enough to deal with, the house seems to be mildly haunted by her grandfather. To top it all off, Anthea is drawn into a strange dream world at night.
The dream world aspect was a perfect combination of creepy and very beautiful. The waking world was an excellent mix of serious, humorous, and realistic emotions and interactions.
This is one of the most effective books I have read for helping the reader to see things from multiple points of view. The author lets you see, understand, and sympathize with the very realistic flaws of all the characters, but without disliking any of the characters themselves. Each character also has their own excellent qualities as well.
Dangerous Spaces was written in 1991 in New Zealand by Margaret Mahy. From the rating and other reviews I see that many people either didn’t like it or that it wasn’t their favorite Mahy book. This is the first book I have read by Margaret Mahy and it hit perfectly for me! Sometimes it is worth giving a book with a lower rating a chance because it may end up being just right for you.
December 24, 2025
Dangerous Spaces features a Jungian-esque plot with majorly creepy vibes! It drifts back and forth between the real world and a very unique dream world. While tween cousins are the main characters, this could easily be enjoyed by adult readers, too.
One of the most impressive things Margaret Mahy does in this book is finding a way to talk about one of the saddest subjects ever (both of your parents dying) and making it feel not devastating to read about.
Dangerous Spaces is such a thoughtful book. There were a handful of sentences that were so profound that they stopped me in my tracks while reading. The book also dips into horror territory, with quite a few spooky scenes that were unlike anything I’ve read before.
Most likely to be enjoyed by readers who are interested in dreams, delving into the psychology of characters, and who don’t mind the pacing being wonky here and there!
One of the most impressive things Margaret Mahy does in this book is finding a way to talk about one of the saddest subjects ever (both of your parents dying) and making it feel not devastating to read about.
Dangerous Spaces is such a thoughtful book. There were a handful of sentences that were so profound that they stopped me in my tracks while reading. The book also dips into horror territory, with quite a few spooky scenes that were unlike anything I’ve read before.
Most likely to be enjoyed by readers who are interested in dreams, delving into the psychology of characters, and who don’t mind the pacing being wonky here and there!
March 18, 2024
3,5 ⭐
La penna di Margaret Mahy è sempre, sempre una garanzia. Questa volta ci narra la storia di due cugine, Flora e Anthea: quest'ultima, purtroppo, è rimasta orfana e va a vivere con cugina e zii, in una casa in campagna. Il problema è che Anthea ci azzecca ben poco con Flora, perché è meno rustica e più sognante, meno maschiaccio e più dolce; è romantica, sonnambula e coi capelli molto lunghi. Questo, chiaramente, la fa sentire fuori posto, fuori luogo, come se non appartenesse affatto a quelle persone o a quella casa che la ospita, con annesse galline, animali, fango e alberi. Almeno finché Anthea non trova uno spazio e una compagnia tutti suoi, libera dagli sguardi di Flora o degli zii, solo che questo luogo di Anthea non è reale, sembra legato a dei vecchi fantasmi che infestano la casa e alle loro vite.
Una storia sulla perdita, questa, ma anche sulla difficoltà che ne consegue, del sentirsi soli e non accettati: la Mahy la affronta con la sua splendida scrittura, sempre così delicata e profonda.
La penna di Margaret Mahy è sempre, sempre una garanzia. Questa volta ci narra la storia di due cugine, Flora e Anthea: quest'ultima, purtroppo, è rimasta orfana e va a vivere con cugina e zii, in una casa in campagna. Il problema è che Anthea ci azzecca ben poco con Flora, perché è meno rustica e più sognante, meno maschiaccio e più dolce; è romantica, sonnambula e coi capelli molto lunghi. Questo, chiaramente, la fa sentire fuori posto, fuori luogo, come se non appartenesse affatto a quelle persone o a quella casa che la ospita, con annesse galline, animali, fango e alberi. Almeno finché Anthea non trova uno spazio e una compagnia tutti suoi, libera dagli sguardi di Flora o degli zii, solo che questo luogo di Anthea non è reale, sembra legato a dei vecchi fantasmi che infestano la casa e alle loro vite.
Una storia sulla perdita, questa, ma anche sulla difficoltà che ne consegue, del sentirsi soli e non accettati: la Mahy la affronta con la sua splendida scrittura, sempre così delicata e profonda.
January 9, 2013
It was kinda creepy (I was reading this at night) and the plot was set too fast but it was a good idea and gave dept to the characters. I got kinda annoyed at Flora but she's okay.
November 3, 2020
Anthea on joutunut muuttamaan sukulaistensa luokse, kun hänen vanhempansa ovat kadonneet purjehdusmatkalla. Sopeutuminen meluisaan ja sekaiseen taloon on hankalaa, Anthea kun on tottunut aivan toisenlaiseen elämään. Kotiutumista ei myöskään edesauta se, että talossa kummittelee. Yksinäsisyyden ja epätoivon täyttäessä Anthean mielen tulee hänestä otollinen kohde haamuille, jotka ovat myös omien epätoivon tunteiden vallassa, ja siksi sidoksissa tuohon taloon. Kun Anthea sukeltaa yhä syvemmälle henkiolentojen luomaan maailmaan, on hän vaarassa hukata lopullisesti itsensä.
Ihanan rauhallinen ja viipyilevä kertomus menetyksen tuskasta sekä sopeutumisen ja uusien asioiden hyväksymisen vaikeudesta. Teskti ja sanat ovat jo sen verran vanhanaikaisia, että joitakin asioita oli hankala tunnistaa (veikkaan, että harvalla nuorella on hajuakaan siitä, mikä esimerkiksi stereoskooppi on). Kovin pelottavana en tarinaa pitäisi, pikemminkin fantasiahenkinen hieman jännittävä seikkailu.
Ihanan rauhallinen ja viipyilevä kertomus menetyksen tuskasta sekä sopeutumisen ja uusien asioiden hyväksymisen vaikeudesta. Teskti ja sanat ovat jo sen verran vanhanaikaisia, että joitakin asioita oli hankala tunnistaa (veikkaan, että harvalla nuorella on hajuakaan siitä, mikä esimerkiksi stereoskooppi on). Kovin pelottavana en tarinaa pitäisi, pikemminkin fantasiahenkinen hieman jännittävä seikkailu.
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December 13, 2025How did I miss this Mahy?
A terrific balance between a spooky supernatural story and a fully realised family setting. Themes of grief, and tension between cousins forced to live together and share the love available in a home. And some beautiful writing from Mahy on nature:
“She could feel the tree working, almost as if she had become the tree itself, doing all the things Molly had talked about during the afternoon: lifting water up through the channels of its trunk, busy in the dark altering the energy of daylight it had gathered into sugars the tree would be able to live on.
Photosynthesis, Molly had said (as if the scientific word were as magical as abracadabra). Plants do it, and everything lives by it. Flora was standing beside a green magician with the power to transform worlds, a magician who was silently altering the air around them.”
A terrific balance between a spooky supernatural story and a fully realised family setting. Themes of grief, and tension between cousins forced to live together and share the love available in a home. And some beautiful writing from Mahy on nature:
“She could feel the tree working, almost as if she had become the tree itself, doing all the things Molly had talked about during the afternoon: lifting water up through the channels of its trunk, busy in the dark altering the energy of daylight it had gathered into sugars the tree would be able to live on.
Photosynthesis, Molly had said (as if the scientific word were as magical as abracadabra). Plants do it, and everything lives by it. Flora was standing beside a green magician with the power to transform worlds, a magician who was silently altering the air around them.”
April 12, 2023
In a way, quite brilliant. Just the right amount of eerie mystery, and some nice family stuff, too. Who can forget the dad who cannot get around to finishing the work on the house, because (cue creepy music). And the names of the pets, Glorious, Taffeta, and Zeppelin.
Can't be read at a normal pace. Some bits are to savor, some bits challenge. Best read while awake, in big chunks, immersively.
LFL find that I might just have to reread. Even though I'm not fond of paranormal or ghost stories, personally.
Can't be read at a normal pace. Some bits are to savor, some bits challenge. Best read while awake, in big chunks, immersively.
LFL find that I might just have to reread. Even though I'm not fond of paranormal or ghost stories, personally.
April 19, 2022
About a girl whose parents have died, and she gets sent to live with her cousin and her family.
* There's a bit of friction between the two girls, and Flora doesn't like it when she has to do chores and cousin doesn't because she's an orpha.
* Bit strange the going into another world through a toy.
* Bit strange that their grandfather haunted the house because he didn't want them to make changes 🤣
* This did feel longer than it was though, considering it was only 160 pages.
* There's a bit of friction between the two girls, and Flora doesn't like it when she has to do chores and cousin doesn't because she's an orpha.
* Bit strange the going into another world through a toy.
* Bit strange that their grandfather haunted the house because he didn't want them to make changes 🤣
* This did feel longer than it was though, considering it was only 160 pages.
August 14, 2017
This has such a unique plot. I like that the two girls are tied to the two brothers, and both need each other to manage through this experience. Anthea is a little whiny for me, but in the end she matures enough that I can stand her.
April 11, 2018
This book was too fastly paced could not be bothered and skim read it the end. May read again in future if I can be bothered.
July 7, 2021
I can't imagine most kids like ghost stories
August 31, 2021
There are so few authors who can marry the completely usual world to a fantasy world, and Mahy does it well and consistently.
March 20, 2016
Flora e Anthea sono due cugine di undici anni. Flora è rotondetta, vivace e ha una famiglia amorevole e sconclusionata. Anthea è dolce e beneducata, e vive con Flora perché i suoi genitori sono morti. Anthea si sente fuori posto, solo quando comincia a giocare e sognare con un apparecchio stereoscopico si sente meglio...
Niente di che, un mix di realtà e sogno che qualche volta diventa difficile da distinguere.
Niente di che, un mix di realtà e sogno che qualche volta diventa difficile da distinguere.
December 25, 2015
ENGL420 set text. There were parts of this I really liked - particularly Fiona's interactions with her father - but overall far from my favourite of Mahy's books.
September 11, 2010
ENGL420 set text. There were parts of this I really liked - particularly Fiona's interactions with her father - but overall far from my favourite of Mahy's books.
October 16, 2012
it was ok i read it for school years ago and my other classmates did`nt seem to like it but i thought it was quite good.
December 1, 2012
I really enjoyed this growing up and ended up taking it out the library again and again. The relationship between dream and reality facinated me.
Want to read
March 4, 2015Listed as Q4 = Exceptional!, P3 = A booktalk on this title will excite most people’s interest
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews