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Grimstone's Ghost
Cian O'Horgan inherits a gloomy old house from his great-uncle. A mysterious blue light, followed by a stifling heat and a foul stench, give Cian the distinctly creepy feeling that the house is haunted. Disturbing and mysterious events lead Cian and his sister on a mission to find out just who or what is spooking the place. They witness dangers from the past, which they have to stop becoming dangers of the future. But can they survive the sheer evil force of the ghost of Captain Grimstone, as he tries to reclaim the Celtic treasure?
Audio Cassette
First published August 7, 2000
8 people want to read
About the author
Mary Arrigan
48 books3 followersMary Arrigan is an award-winning writer of fiction for children and teenagers. She has been shortlisted for the Readers Association Award, the Bisto Award and the White Raven Award.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 8, 2018
This was... Not good.
It was so weird reading this again because I literally couldn't remember anything from it, more than the fact that I never finished reading it. When I started reading it again I quickly felt that this is a book for kids and that I am far too old for it, but since I dislike that mentality and love books for kids I decided to give it a proper change and read it all. I have much to talk about so let's divide the book into three categories:
THE SETTINGS AND SURROUNDINGS:
AKA the best part of the story. The author has a great way of describing surroundings, buildings and the atmosphere, to a certain point that is. For some reason she was excellent at it and then it was just like she got lazy, or didn't bother anymore. I think I can count up to 50 times that she uses the same adjectives to describe things. "The horrible stench", "the heat was unbearable!" etc. (remember that I'm reading the Swedish translation so words may vary), after a while it all becomes dull and not existing anymore. Variation is so important if you feel the need to describe the same feeling multiple times in a chapter, and this book had none.
THE STORY:
It was good. It was okay. I didn't get hooked too much (maybe because I didn't care at all about the characters) and some parts I didn't understand, and didn't bother to try to understand either. The story felt very forced at some parts and really deep at other parts. The cup with the deep history and the old Scottish tales; Interesting and well written. The blue fart ghost going around being cranky; boring and uninteresting. A blue sauna ghost isn't interesting, it just isn't.
THE CHARACTERS AND DIALOGUE:
Oooooh boy. Where do I begin? At first, I hated these characters. The mother was such a stereotypical mother that you could just as easily replace here lines with "stereotypical mother talk here". She's close to being completely unnecessary for the story, actually. Remove her, make the kids find the castle instead, for some reason not being able to leave for the night, and old lady who tells a scary story and then dies and voilá,; you have a ten times more scary and interesting story!
Cian made me insane in the beginning, and I hated the fact that he was our main character. At one point I made a note saying;
He was either an asshole, immature and actually quite interesting, but then a tiny noise somewhere and he turned into a person with serious heart disease from what I could understand. There were FAR TOO MUCH "I could feel the sweat on my forehead" and "my heart was pumping loudly" for him to be anything else than sick. He was just so uninteresting, you could never predict what he was going to do, or actually you could, because the book told you. "I suddenly felt I wasn't scared anymore", que doing something slightly heroic. I feel he was supposed to be this heroic boy á la Artur from "The Sword in the Stone", but they failed completely since Cian had a sister who needed to share the spotlight. Speaking of her, another note I've written is:
Both she and Cian really went over steep hills with their character traits. If you asked me to tell you five main characters traits from them, then sorry, I can't. They were too wide, both of them. Cian was angry, then he was scared, then he was stupid, then he was angry again, then he was scared, then he was brave, then he was the total opposite from the beginning of the book. Jo was snooty, then she was childish, then she was brave and smart, then she was scared, then she was mature, then she was whatever, and she was exactly the same in the end of the book as in the beginning. If the book hadn't told me their ages, I would have NO idea about how old they were. Cian could be anything from 10 to 15, Jo could be anything from 6 to 12.
It feels so forced having her being the younger sibling (a girl, nonetheless) taking control, being the smart and brave one and solving everything in the end. It makes me sigh. It's not interesting anymore, and all it does it showing what a lousy character Cian is. If you want to make an interesting young girl character and you're afraid of putting too much focus on the boy, then remove the boy! Or better yet, make them both girls.
The ghost was uninteresting. Everytime he was mentioned I just saw a blue fog or a flashlight of some sort in front of me. I had a note in which I wrote:
______________________________________
It feels like I'm ranting like crazy, and in one way I am. This book has so many tiny flaws that makes me sigh and roll my eyes, but then again, I've read a lot of books and I'm 23 years old. If I would've given this a proper chance as a 10-years old I might've thought it was quite exiting. Especially in the end, when they're out in the garden, fighting the sauna ghost (yes that's my new name for him). One last note I had for the book while reading it was:
The book has potential, and I have no major complains. It's not a bad book for kids, it's just badly written. Therefore I wont give it 1 star, but 2.
It was so weird reading this again because I literally couldn't remember anything from it, more than the fact that I never finished reading it. When I started reading it again I quickly felt that this is a book for kids and that I am far too old for it, but since I dislike that mentality and love books for kids I decided to give it a proper change and read it all. I have much to talk about so let's divide the book into three categories:
THE SETTINGS AND SURROUNDINGS:
AKA the best part of the story. The author has a great way of describing surroundings, buildings and the atmosphere, to a certain point that is. For some reason she was excellent at it and then it was just like she got lazy, or didn't bother anymore. I think I can count up to 50 times that she uses the same adjectives to describe things. "The horrible stench", "the heat was unbearable!" etc. (remember that I'm reading the Swedish translation so words may vary), after a while it all becomes dull and not existing anymore. Variation is so important if you feel the need to describe the same feeling multiple times in a chapter, and this book had none.
THE STORY:
It was good. It was okay. I didn't get hooked too much (maybe because I didn't care at all about the characters) and some parts I didn't understand, and didn't bother to try to understand either. The story felt very forced at some parts and really deep at other parts. The cup with the deep history and the old Scottish tales; Interesting and well written. The blue fart ghost going around being cranky; boring and uninteresting. A blue sauna ghost isn't interesting, it just isn't.
THE CHARACTERS AND DIALOGUE:
Oooooh boy. Where do I begin? At first, I hated these characters. The mother was such a stereotypical mother that you could just as easily replace here lines with "stereotypical mother talk here". She's close to being completely unnecessary for the story, actually. Remove her, make the kids find the castle instead, for some reason not being able to leave for the night, and old lady who tells a scary story and then dies and voilá,; you have a ten times more scary and interesting story!
Cian made me insane in the beginning, and I hated the fact that he was our main character. At one point I made a note saying;
"I'm still getting annoyed by the way the characters are described and how they're talking. The old lady getting angry felt very out of character [and] Cian is shifting between moods like crazy."
He was either an asshole, immature and actually quite interesting, but then a tiny noise somewhere and he turned into a person with serious heart disease from what I could understand. There were FAR TOO MUCH "I could feel the sweat on my forehead" and "my heart was pumping loudly" for him to be anything else than sick. He was just so uninteresting, you could never predict what he was going to do, or actually you could, because the book told you. "I suddenly felt I wasn't scared anymore", que doing something slightly heroic. I feel he was supposed to be this heroic boy á la Artur from "The Sword in the Stone", but they failed completely since Cian had a sister who needed to share the spotlight. Speaking of her, another note I've written is:
"Jo as a character is so... Weirdly written. At times she acts like a 17 year old, the next second she's like a 5 year old. I feel that the author has no idea how a 11 year old acts or talk - or she tried to create a smart, brave, young girl (á la Hermione Granger) but tragically failed somewhere making Jo suddenly being very out of character att times."
Both she and Cian really went over steep hills with their character traits. If you asked me to tell you five main characters traits from them, then sorry, I can't. They were too wide, both of them. Cian was angry, then he was scared, then he was stupid, then he was angry again, then he was scared, then he was brave, then he was the total opposite from the beginning of the book. Jo was snooty, then she was childish, then she was brave and smart, then she was scared, then she was mature, then she was whatever, and she was exactly the same in the end of the book as in the beginning. If the book hadn't told me their ages, I would have NO idea about how old they were. Cian could be anything from 10 to 15, Jo could be anything from 6 to 12.
It feels so forced having her being the younger sibling (a girl, nonetheless) taking control, being the smart and brave one and solving everything in the end. It makes me sigh. It's not interesting anymore, and all it does it showing what a lousy character Cian is. If you want to make an interesting young girl character and you're afraid of putting too much focus on the boy, then remove the boy! Or better yet, make them both girls.
The ghost was uninteresting. Everytime he was mentioned I just saw a blue fog or a flashlight of some sort in front of me. I had a note in which I wrote:
"[...] Also, this ghost figure, Grimstone, I still have no freaking idea how he looks like or how he is or anything because he's only described as "the blue light"."
______________________________________
It feels like I'm ranting like crazy, and in one way I am. This book has so many tiny flaws that makes me sigh and roll my eyes, but then again, I've read a lot of books and I'm 23 years old. If I would've given this a proper chance as a 10-years old I might've thought it was quite exiting. Especially in the end, when they're out in the garden, fighting the sauna ghost (yes that's my new name for him). One last note I had for the book while reading it was:
"I've just realised something - There's actually nothing wrong with the story itself, it's actually quite suspenseful and I'm eager to find out what happens. It's the way its written that I can't stand. The way the characters react etc., it all feels forced or wrong - like my own old books I wrote when I was ten and had no idea how to write good characters or dialogue."
The book has potential, and I have no major complains. It's not a bad book for kids, it's just badly written. Therefore I wont give it 1 star, but 2.
June 15, 2018
brukade tycka den här var SÅ läskig när jag var liten haha, nu va den rätt tråkig tbh... det bästa var det keltiska, spoken like a true humanist
December 3, 2024
Sättet som Cian desperat ville heta Fred var det bästa med hela boken😭
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews