[books 2016] Kim Newman

[inulro]

3. The Secrets of Drearcliffe Grange School by Kim Newman

Kim Newman takes on the boarding school story, with spooky and nefarious stuff going on, in a slightly alternate world where there are people with Unusual abilities who are useful to the government but socially frowned upon.

I really struggled with the first half (or maybe third) - Newman channels St Trinian's which, from my limited exposure, is one of the most vile concepts on the planet.

Eventually there is less jolly hockey sticks and inter-war posh people slang and more spooky stuff, and it gets a lot more interesting and genuinely creepy rather than the cartoon quirkiness of the first half/third. I tore through the last 100 pages. The ending is just - confusing - though.

Not one of his better efforts and frustrating because there was a really malevolent story at its core which got buried.

Comments

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

Ha, I absolutely adored that book - apart from the ending, which I agree was muddled. Maybe it's a cultural thing.

Endings are where Newman is most likely to fall down. Happens so often. His short stories are usually his best work, I always feel.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

I agree that the ending fell down.

However it's less based on St Trinians than on the wider genre of girls boarding school fiction, of which st trinians was a parody.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

I think that was my issue - Newman leaned far too far over into parody (and it's in his notes that he was consciously drawing on St Trinian's) and I think that really detracted from the tone of the story.