Fire Spell

It is Victorian London. In a big house in a fashionable square a lonely rich girl waits in excited anticipation for her birthday party. It is going to feature a special treat; a puppet show. In a slum tenement, two children prepare to help the puppet master, Grisini, with the performance. A witch burns as she plots to rid herself of her curse. A mother and father mourn. All are connected through the irresistible power of the fire opal. But how will it end?

This is rich fare and requires stamina. The plot is gothic in its sprawl, the narrators multiple, demanding an agile imagination as we move between the characters. However, the author has managed to create a cast with very different and distinct voices – the witch Cassandra, desperately seeking redemption, yet as self-centred and selfish as ever, Grisini, wholly obsessed with his desire for power, lonely Clara, practical Lizzie Rose and Parsefall, single mindedly pursuing his own dream. Even the father, Dr Winterbourne, emerges from the fog. It is the fog that permeates the narrative, creating a Dickensian atmosphere that includes a household locked into a past grief. This is not the only reference to the world of Victorian fantasy and fairytale. It is Christmas, Clara, becomes a puppet that dances at the instigation of a magician We are in the world of The Nutcracker and Coppelia. Hints of Andersen, Wagner and Macdonald among others all enrich the background. This is both a strength, making it an absorbing read, and a weakness as the narrative moves  slightly uneasily between a well realised reality to a dark fantasy.

This novel is not for the fainthearted. Richly imagined, densely written, ambitious in its plotting, it is to be recommended to mature young readers at the top of KS2 who are prepared to be taken on a journey into the darker side of fairytales with characters who are more than mere ciphers.