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The Bonehill Curse by John Mayhew
Oct. 28th, 2015 11:56 pmThe Blurb On The Back:
Be careful what you wish for …
Necessity Bonehill has unleashed an evil djinn from his bottle. Now she has just seven days to put him back. But the djinn has a different plan, and returning to his prison isn’t part of it.
With her friend Azuli and a fierce flying carpet, Ness must race against time to stop the djinn from carrying out his deadly last wish – whatever it takes.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
The last book in Jon Mayhew’s loose middle grade historical fantasy is another well-written tale filled with pots of adventure and deliciously dark villainy. What’s particularly good about this book is that Ness is initially a pretty unpleasant character – a wilful, stubborn bully who terrorises the other girls at her boarding school and enjoy fighting the local boys. Mayhew skilfully gives her a convincing emotional backstory to explain this behaviour while also making clear that those qualities that make her unbearable can, when used properly, also make her a gutsy, determined heroine. I really enjoyed her relationship with Sergeant Major Morris and, for the most part, her bickering relationship with Azuli works – although I would have liked for him to have had a little more development just to round him out more. I wasn’t completely convinced by the Lashkars of Arabesque Alley, mainly because they came very close to being stock Arabian mystics, but Mayhew does give a lot of emotional subtlety to the relationship between Azuli and his adoptive father. Fans of MORTLOCK and THE DEMON COLLECTOR will enjoy the sly cross-references to those books and the return of some characters and themes from those books, but this does work very much as a standalone book for those who haven’t read the preceding novels. Ultimately, I enjoyed reading this and while I’m sorry that the trilogy has come to an end, I’m very much looking forward to reading what Mayhew writes next.
Thanks to Bloomsbury Books for the free copy of this book.
Necessity Bonehill has unleashed an evil djinn from his bottle. Now she has just seven days to put him back. But the djinn has a different plan, and returning to his prison isn’t part of it.
With her friend Azuli and a fierce flying carpet, Ness must race against time to stop the djinn from carrying out his deadly last wish – whatever it takes.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
The last book in Jon Mayhew’s loose middle grade historical fantasy is another well-written tale filled with pots of adventure and deliciously dark villainy. What’s particularly good about this book is that Ness is initially a pretty unpleasant character – a wilful, stubborn bully who terrorises the other girls at her boarding school and enjoy fighting the local boys. Mayhew skilfully gives her a convincing emotional backstory to explain this behaviour while also making clear that those qualities that make her unbearable can, when used properly, also make her a gutsy, determined heroine. I really enjoyed her relationship with Sergeant Major Morris and, for the most part, her bickering relationship with Azuli works – although I would have liked for him to have had a little more development just to round him out more. I wasn’t completely convinced by the Lashkars of Arabesque Alley, mainly because they came very close to being stock Arabian mystics, but Mayhew does give a lot of emotional subtlety to the relationship between Azuli and his adoptive father. Fans of MORTLOCK and THE DEMON COLLECTOR will enjoy the sly cross-references to those books and the return of some characters and themes from those books, but this does work very much as a standalone book for those who haven’t read the preceding novels. Ultimately, I enjoyed reading this and while I’m sorry that the trilogy has come to an end, I’m very much looking forward to reading what Mayhew writes next.
Thanks to Bloomsbury Books for the free copy of this book.
