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Organ Music
"Watch the road! Watch the road!" screamed David. "I don't have to," Harley replied in a strangled voice. Slumping back in his seat, he took his foot off the accelerator and held his hands away from the wheel. The soft hum of the car's motor did not decrease. The car did not lose speed. If anything, it seemed to move even faster than before. "It's driving itself," Harley said. A thrilling tale of danger, ghosts and secret experiments hidden deep in the forest.
92 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1997
3 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Mahy
399 books290 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 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 31, 2022
This was a story about two boys who found a nice car at the side of the road with its keys in it and decide to take it for a ride. Unfortunately, the car decides to take them for a ride instead, and they end up drugged and captured at a strange facility that specialises in organ donation 😲
March 17, 2018
This was such a weird story.
Good weird in a way, but man, these kids should really learn about stranger danger.
From the moment they meet the kind mechanic and are taken into the faclity, there were multiple alarm bells going off in my head.
You'd think that the kids would question what is happening to them, or the things that are asked of them... But they don't!
I know they are just 13 but still, learn to be at least a TINY bit paranoid of the people you don't know. Escpecially when they start asking your entire medical history, clearly intend to keep you in the facility overnight and won't let you contact anyone.
Lesson learned: don't trust shady government-sanctioned(? questionable at best) research institutes that make you sign non-disclosure agreements out in the middle of nowhere after you were brought to them via automated car.
Despite the meek acceptance of the kids however, I found myself genuinely enjoying the book. It was a hell of a lot creepier than I thought (this book is filed for 10+ year old kids in my library). I found myself shouting at the characters to 'Just get the hell out of there! For the love of... The creep's (doctor) probably got a dead body stashed somewhere (okay, so it turns out he DID). Self-preservation kids, SELF-PRESERVATION!
Moral of this review: don't judge a book by it's cover (yeah I know).
And most of all, just because a book is targeted towards younger kids (or the librarian made a huge mistake filing this one), doesn't mean that it can't be massively creepy to read as an adult.
I really enjoyed this one, so I'll definitely be looking out for more of miss Margaret Mahy's works!
Over and Out!
Good weird in a way, but man, these kids should really learn about stranger danger.
From the moment they meet the kind mechanic and are taken into the faclity, there were multiple alarm bells going off in my head.
You'd think that the kids would question what is happening to them, or the things that are asked of them... But they don't!
I know they are just 13 but still, learn to be at least a TINY bit paranoid of the people you don't know. Escpecially when they start asking your entire medical history, clearly intend to keep you in the facility overnight and won't let you contact anyone.
Lesson learned: don't trust shady government-sanctioned(? questionable at best) research institutes that make you sign non-disclosure agreements out in the middle of nowhere after you were brought to them via automated car.
Despite the meek acceptance of the kids however, I found myself genuinely enjoying the book. It was a hell of a lot creepier than I thought (this book is filed for 10+ year old kids in my library). I found myself shouting at the characters to 'Just get the hell out of there! For the love of... The creep's (doctor) probably got a dead body stashed somewhere (okay, so it turns out he DID). Self-preservation kids, SELF-PRESERVATION!
Moral of this review: don't judge a book by it's cover (yeah I know).
And most of all, just because a book is targeted towards younger kids (or the librarian made a huge mistake filing this one), doesn't mean that it can't be massively creepy to read as an adult.
I really enjoyed this one, so I'll definitely be looking out for more of miss Margaret Mahy's works!
Over and Out!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 4, 2018
This was a really awesome quick read. For a short children's book, it had some real twists and turns and a badass female character which made this story enjoyable to read. I would definitely recommend it for a younger reader or even an adult who wants an easy, non-frightening novel to read.
March 28, 2024
It's a kids book, I don't know what I expected lol
May 28, 2024
Had the potential but it’s a kids book so I get it the ending has to be happy lol
December 17, 2022
This book gets a second star purely for the made up word “stupidosaurus” which I will be using to insult people from now on.
October 12, 2010
I'm not entirely sure what to think of this one.
Theme, and some of the action, is more suitable for an early-teen audience, while the font and layout seem to aim it towards a younger age group.
Two boys jump into a car, which drives itself into a forest. There, they become victims of a scientist, driven mad after his daughter's death. They are - at times - accompanied by a girl. The scientist has been gathering up the users of society - homeless people, criminals - and is harvesting their organs for rich patients. The girl is a ghost - when revealed, her injuries are dramatically and gruesomely described.
Theme, and some of the action, is more suitable for an early-teen audience, while the font and layout seem to aim it towards a younger age group.
Two boys jump into a car, which drives itself into a forest. There, they become victims of a scientist, driven mad after his daughter's death. They are - at times - accompanied by a girl. The scientist has been gathering up the users of society - homeless people, criminals - and is harvesting their organs for rich patients. The girl is a ghost - when revealed, her injuries are dramatically and gruesomely described.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 1, 2013
Not really sure what to make of this one. It's about two kids who steal a car and get whisked away to a factory in the woods where organs are harvested from "criminals" (anyone willing to steal a car it appears) and donated to rich folks. Kinda creepy and somewhat dark with some downright gruesome moments. It's largely dialogue with a dash of black humour. One of the boys is a rebel and the other is a geekier lad with a love of making up words. I think it might appeal to young boys, but it didn't do much for me.
November 13, 2013
Pretty out there in the ideas factory!
January 20, 2014
THIS BOOK WAS TERRIFYING START TO FINISH GREAT THANKS I COULD NEVER READ IT AGAIN it was great
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews