“This is a great story, and like a good many great stories before it, it begins with a teenage girl. Her name is Ondine de Groot and she is fifteen.”
Life for Ondine is about to change. Sent to a Psychic Summer Camp by her mother, Ondine is meant to be discovering her true psychic abilities. Instead, Ondine discovers a ferret – Shambles. Soon Shambles is following her everywhere and when Ondine decides that she wants to go home from Psychic Summer Camp, Shambles comes as well. But all is not as it seems, and on her way home Shambles speaks to Ondine and forces her confront the fact that he is in fact no ordinary ferret...
Soon life for Ondine becomes even weirder, resigned to the fact that only she and apparently her mother can hear the Shambles speak. Ondine starts to have particularly weird dreams - she dreams that “Shambles had become a real man, and a stunningly handsome one at that” before he turns “back to being... a ferret”. Soon, Ondine is forced to question everything. What if her dream came true? Is Shambles actually a man? And if so, who is he?
When I first started reading this book I found the storyline a bit slow to begin with, however as the book progressed the story picked up and became much faster and more exciting. McKenna has crafted a modern fairytale that is both unusual and funny, featuring Counts, Witches and magical creatures.
I would recommend this book to younger readers who enjoy reading modern-day fairytales.
Review by Summer
This book sounds so good! I love modern fairy tales. Great review, Summer!
Posted by: Sophie | 11 May 2010 at 10:43 AM
Sounds cool!
Posted by: Ria | 11 May 2010 at 05:34 PM