The Shadows
The Books of Elsewhere: Volume 1
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- 4,49 €
Publisher Description
The first volume in the chilling, thrilling, New York Times bestselling, award-winning Books of Elsewhere series, perfect for fans of Small Spaces, Nightbooks, and Wednesday
This house is keeping secrets . . .
When eleven-year-old Olive moves into the crumbling mansion on Linden Street and finds it filled with creepy paintings, she knows the place is strange—but it isn’t until she encounters its talking cats that she realizes there’s something darkly magical afoot. Then Olive finds a pair of old spectacles in a dusty drawer and discovers the most peculiar thing yet: She can travel inside the house’s paintings to Elsewhere, an eerily quiet and sinister place that’s keeping secrets. Soon, Olive finds herself ensnared in a mystery more terrifying than she could have imagined, confronting a power that wants to be rid of her by any means necessary. With only the cats on her side and an unusual boy she meets in Elsewhere, it’s up to Olive to save the house from the shadows, before the lights go out for good.
Welcome to Elsewhere . . .
First, a pair of enchanted spectacles. Next, a deadly book. Then, magical paints from which a world called Elsewhere spills like a dream turned nightmare. And lastly, strangers, come to take it all for themselves—if even darker forces don’t prevail. At the center: the flawed and tenacious Olive, three talking cats, two remarkable friends, and a hard-won trust that binds them all. This is the scary, must-read series widely praised and adored by kids, adults, and critics alike.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Poet West's debut novel is a quirky and clever beginning to the Books of Elsewhere series. The Dunwoodys, "a pair of more than slightly dippy mathematicians," and their 11-year-old daughter, Olive, have just moved into an old Victorian house. Olive has learned to be independent, given her parents' aloofness ("Her persistently lackluster grades in math had led her parents to believe that she was some kind of genetic aberration"). She explores the house's eccentricities and discovers that, by donning a pair of spectacles, she can enter the house's many unsettling paintings. Inside one, she encounters nine-year-old Morton, who brings to her attention the secrets that the house and its late owner are keeping. With the help of three talking house cats, Olive works to patch together clues to save the painting-dwellers from their dark fate. The house is as much a character as are Olive, Morton, and her family, and a wicked sense of humor tempers the book's creepiness. A suspenseful plot and insight into childhood loneliness handily amplified by Bernatene's moody and dramatically lit b&w illustrations will have readers anxiously awaiting the next book. Ages 9 11.
