Tuesday 3 June 2014

GoodRead - The Serpent House

As you are probably aware, last month, I had the author Bea Davenport on my blog, chatting about her book, The Serpent House as part of the Countdown to 5th June (which is such a cool idea! Please check out their website and their twitter!). If you haven't read her post, click here to read it. Read it? Ok, well, because of this, I was very kindly sent a copy from the publisher, Curious Fox.

And because of this, I made myself not find out ANY information about this book till I either started the book or when I had the book in my hands so I could read the blurb.

In 1898, Annie is taken away from her aunt by her brother to Hexer Hall, where he has found employment as a gardener. But when she's there, the lady of the manor, Lady Hexer takes an interest in Annie. An interest that makes Annie travel back in time to a 11th century leper hospital. A hospital which is ran by a strange doctor who has snakes. A hell of a lot of snakes! Lady Hexer demands a book that the doctor has, but the more Annie goes back in time, the more unsettled she is about the book...

I am going to admit this here and now. This isn't my typical read. I wouldn't normally pick this type of book to read. I mainly read YA (as you are probably aware), and this is more Middle-Grade (and oh, how I dislike that term. I'm not sure why, though...). And while I did like this read, this wasn't my cup of tea of a read.

I do like the ideas of the book - history, time travel, with a touch of darkness and snakes. But there are one or two points I wasn't thrilled over. There was one scene with a nasty character called Becky and I recoiled from it. It was such a horrible scene and I found it vile.

I think younger fans of Doctor Who with a taste for history will enjoy this read. But this wasn't my cup of tea read.

2 comments:

  1. Oh! Gutted that you didn't enjoy it! But thanks for giving it a go when it wasn't your usual thing. Bea

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Bea, I am so sorry I didn't fall for it, but I do think fans of Doctor Who might... I think I might "gently push" your book into their hands...

      Delete