Weird and lovely tale of a wallflower. Scary middle grade novel, but I was fascinated by the relationship between Elizabeth and Zenobia. I do question the mother's disappearance and the easy wrap-up. ( )

The thing that bothered me the most about this book is Zenobia. She was just terribly unpleasant, and self-centers, and mean. Not at all a character I enjoy reading.

This book was highly imaginative, though there were some things I wish had been more explicit. For example, I guess Zenobia was an imaginary friend. So maybe Tourmaline could see her as a child because they were both children. I wish I’d had some sort of handle on how old Elizabeth was, too. I also wonder how Tourmaline ended up in the plant kingdom—I can’t remember what the story-within-the-story said, and I couldn’t remember where things took place chapter-wise, so I didn’t look for it again.

I was expecting Mrs Purswell to be someone supernatural I’m some way... apparently not. Just efficient and nearly silent and invisible at times.

All in all, it was an ok book and especially good for the age group that it’s written for (so some of my above review is silly given it’s not written for my age). I think preteens and teens would enjoy it a lot because of the slight spookiness, the mystery, the unusual plot. I hope if you or the child(ren) in your life read it you enjoy it. ( )

It was the cover of Elizabeth and Zenobia that attracted me as I browsed the display of spooky juveniles our library had arranged. There was a frightened-looking blonde in pink next to a snarky-looking raven-haired girl wearing black. They're surrounded by flowering plants with eyes peeping through them. The cover captures the book.

Elizabeth Murmur is the daughter of botanist and author Dr. Henry Murmur, and an unnamed mother who ran away with an opera singer some time ago. Elizabeth is a timid girl with a constant companion: Zenobia. No one else can see or hear Zenobia. Dr. Murmur is annoyed because he thinks Elizabeth is too old for an imaginary friend. I would suspect that Zenobia is a ghost -- or 'spirit presence' as she insists they're called -- except that she can touch things. Certainly she's cold to the touch and strange things happen when she's deeply displeased or just plain upset, but I doubt a ghost could practically read Elizabeth's mind.

Dr. Murmur decides to move back to his boyhood home, Witheringe House. He's been depressed since Mrs. Murmur left him. Elizabeth has definitely been ignored. The old house with its dead garden and overgrown hedge maze depresses Elizabeth. Zenobia, a goth girl to the core, likes its gloom.

Mrs. Purswell, who was housekeeper at Witheringe House when Henry was a boy, has returned to work for the family again.
She's like an Igor from Terry Pratchett's Discworld: always appearing when needed, and even when she's not. An example of that would be when Zenobia convinced Elizabeth to explore the forbidden East Wing (shades of 'Dark Shadows') of the house.

The girls learn about someone else who used to live at Witheringe House. Dr. Murmur has never talked about her before and isn't planning on talking about her now.

The old nursery in the East Wing has some very unusual wallpaper that's a vivid green. That's not a color that Zenobia likes, so it's Elizabeth who examines the plant life pattern. There's something else in the pattern that surprises her very much. Could it be connected to the mystery? Well, it's not Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' but it's just as unnerving.

Elizabeth and Zenobia enter the old gardener's shed on the grounds. It, too, is called a nursery. The gardener there seems obsessed with grafting plants. Elizabeth finds it cruel. Zenobia doesn't. There are also mysterious happenings with a book...

NOTES:

Chapter 5: Miss Clemency attended the Mrs. Aurelia Smythe School for Superior Governesses.

Chapter 6: Here the collection of graves in the yard of Witheringe Green's stone church is correctly called a graveyard. In chapter 9, it will be incorrectly called a 'cemetery'. (A graveyard is connected with a church and a cemetery isn't.)

I expected Zenobia's nature to be the mystery to be solved. It wasn't, but that's fine. Zenobia is obsessed with using a sadly fictional book called The World Beyond. One Famed and Celebrated Clairvoyant's Guide to the World of Spirits by Madame Lucent. Several of the earlier chapters have quotations from the book that made me smile. I really enjoyed their attempts to meet a ghost.

In one respect, the relationship between Elizabeth and Zenobia reminds me of that between Mulder and Scully on 'The X-Files': Zenobia expects Elizabeth to go along with her obsessions, but dismisses Elizabeth's equally-valid concerns. In fact, at one point Zenobia's prejudices make a perilous situation even more perilous.

The climax was good. It would have made suitable nightmare fodder for a horror show or movie. I was wondering how the author was going to deal with the solution to the mystery. I liked it.

Elizabeth and Zenobia isn't just a good book for children. It's also good for adults. ( )