Scareground - Angela Kecojevic - ★★★
RATING: 3 stars.
In a Nutshell: A spooky middle-grade fantasy set in a fair. Has myriad kinds of magical elements, some of which are captivating. Good for the target age group.
Story Synopsis:
Twelve-year-old Nancy Crumpet has lived in Greenwich all her life, with Pa and Ma Crumpet. (What adorable names for bakers!) Though a foster child, Nancy is treated with kindness and love. She knows that she is expected to help the Crumpets out in their bakery, though her heart isn’t in this work. She longs to know more about her birth parents, about why the sky and the wind seem to respond to her, about why she has a strange birthmark on her arm…
When Nancy and her best friend Arthur hear about the ‘Scareground’ returning to Greenwich after more than a decade, the duo know that they will visit the fair no matter what. Unknown to Arthur, Nancy has a secret agenda: she wishes to meet the fair’s eerie owner, Skelter Tombola. Why? Read and find out.
The story is written in Nancy’s third person limited perspective.
Bookish Yays:
💐 Nancy as the lead character. I’m all for girls who break the gender barrier in fiction, and Nancy is a great addition to this list. Within the restrictions of her skirts and petticoats, she loves to jump over rooftops and clamber down drainpipes. I loved her gutsiness (and her “sneeze bombs”!)
💐 Arthur and Nancy are opposites in many ways, and yet the best of friends. Their connection doesn’t feel forced at any point, regardless of the disparity of financial and familial circumstances. I appreciated how their fondness for adventure circumvented all other potential hurdles in their friendship.
💐 The main antagonist, Skelter Tombola (That name is so creepy!), is really good at being bad. Right from his appearance to this spooky smile to his bizarre affinity towards spreading fear, he is an apt villain for a middle-grade novel. (He would also make a great character in a Tim Burton movie.)
💐 Some of the secondary characters are suitably quirky.
💐 The story highlights the thin line that exists between fear and excitement. I enjoyed how it depicted the way one person’s adventure could be another one’s nightmare. Positive and negative emotions are often two sides of the same coin, and this comes out well through various scenes.
💐 Quite a few aspects connected to the Scareground elevate the spook factor of the story. The mysterious black balloons, the raven feathers, the ghostly rides, the sinister music, the strange shadows – all create the perfect atmosphere for a dark fantasy.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
🌹 Nancy has a special ability of talking to the sky and the wind, and they actually respond to her. This is quite unique a propensity, and I love how it is utilised in the story. However, the whats and whys of this skill aren’t explored in detail. The ending gives vibes of a sequel explaining this talent of Nancy’s, but I wish some light had been shed on it within this story itself.
🌹 The start of the book is somewhat slow, though we get enough of tantalising clues to keep us invested in the upcoming scareground fair. But the real action pops up only towards the final quarter. The wait is long, but worthwhile.
🌹 The horror and mystery elements are supposed to be the highlight of the story. While the horror angle had some bite to it courtesy Tombola and his ‘macabre’ friends, the mystery didn’t offer much to dig into and was quite guessable. (Though younger MG readers hopefully wont figure things out so easily.)
Bookish Nays:
🌵 The book explores quite varied elements of fantasy, ranging from the occult, illusions, natural magical talent, cheap tricks, and so on. However, this gives the fantastical world a somewhat disjointed feel, as the focus is more on diversity than depth. I enjoyed the magical parts in bits and pieces, but found them a tad cluttered on the whole.
All in all, the book does have much to offer to its little readers. While I found the magical world a little unstructured, I still liked brave Nancy and Arthur, and their strong friendship. If this is indeed meant to be a series, I hope the upcoming sequels explore Nancy’s magical talents more, as those were the USP of the story.
Recommended to middle-grade readers of dark fantasy.
My thanks to TheWriteReads, Neem Tree Press, and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of “Scareground” and for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
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Author Angela Kecojevic:
Angela Kecojevic is a senior librarian, author and creative writing tutor. She has written for the Oxford Reading Tree programme and the multi-award-winning adventure park 'Hobbledown', where her characters can be seen walking around, something she still finds incredibly charming! She is a member of the Climate Writers Fiction League, a group of international authors who use climate issues in their work.
Scareground, her debut spine-tingling middle-grade novel, is to be published in September 2023.
Angela lives in the city of Oxford with her family.
Connect with her on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/angela_kecojevic/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ajkecojevic
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This has been a stop on the #Scareground blog tour conducted by TheWriteReads (@The_WriteReads). Thanks for stopping by!
I like your review
ReplyDeleteThank you very much. :)
DeleteGood review though the book is not of my taste.
ReplyDeleteThank you. This is mainly for middle-graders, so I understand. :)
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