Changes

What this all boils down to is a rather scatty read. It took a long time for the story to gel, and that crossover of mundane with the fantastical was one I doubt I've seen done so strongly – and so bizarrely – since Dave McKean's movie ''Mirrormask''. Throughout I had the feeling I was needing to know more – even a note left with some sandwiches is compelled to allude to backstory – although a lot of the times this happens it's a ''Simpsons''-style cutaway scene without the cutaway scene, so we're supposed to imagine what had happened. ''Mr Warbler's told me about last year's unfortunate accident with a breeding pair of Snotty Speckled Gizzards, and the staff are still trying to clean the feathers and sticky goo off the enclosure walls.'' Or, ''you're your mother[…]'s already put me on probation for losing you at last week's car boot sale.''

It's also scatty as regards other things, such as its audience. Many things – a fondness for alliterative chapter titles, that cover again, and the fact it's billed as being for the ten-to-eighteen age bracket (as if such a wide thing ever existed), made me expect a youthful read, but then I found the high-falutin' language. '''Well, you're your mother's having kittens […]' he added chidingly, but his discourse petered out as his curious eyes fell on the dessicated pool''. This offers a lot of flowery, uncommon vocab.