Verdigris Deep

I was slow in starting this - having heard from many friends that this was great, the blurb didn't entirely grab me somehow, and I never got round to reading it until Damian thrust it into my very hands when we were round his place for a cuppa. Thank you Damian!

This is a great, spooky, fantastical-yet-grounded, well-constructed novel that I am sure I will re-read. The language and images are innovative without being overpowering - none of yer Lit Fic that I find pretty hard to wade through, but genuinely weird scenes described in phrases that strike you where you live. On this first read I was to an extent reading for plot and resolution - one that came with no disappointments - and so I look forward to a future re-read that will leave me looking at the language in a bit more deeply, but even on a shallower read it struck me.

Characters such as Ryan (the young lead), Chelle, and Josh are really well done - far from perfect, no question of quickly coming to terms with their situation and sorting it but also not actually stupidly helpless. The various sets of parents and the other grown-ups involved, too, are distinct from each other and neither used as nemeses nor as the levers for the resolution - that comes pretty much from the kids working things out for themselves in a way and, yes, growing up somewhat.

After having enjoyed this so much despite the unnecessary delays, I now see I need to get a copy of Frances' [b:Gullstruck Island|6293900|The Lost Conspiracy|Frances Hardinge|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1249097852s/6293900.jpg|6478271], her third book... ( )

A bunch of kids, stuck without bus money, steal some coins from a wishing well and discover that they're now obliged to grant the attached wishes. As a premise, this is straight out of Nesbit, a cross between Five Children and It and The Would-Be-Goods, but everything is tarnished with verdigris and the book is deeply creepy from first page to last - about half-way through I identified the feeling I had as similar to when I started reading Ella Enchanted, realised the scope of the blessing curse, and said "That's horrid!" so emphatically that I then had to spend a minute reassuring Irina (who'd lent me the book) that I meant the situation, not the book; the book was fantastic.

The children here are in a complex unhealthy 'friendship'; among their parents and other caregivers are breaking relationships, unethical jobs, and disturbing mental problems; the powers the kids receive are more frightening than cool; and good wishes go wrong and bad wishes go wronger until they (and the people around them) are in very very real danger.

It's absolutely horrid, and absolutely fantastic. ( )

Ryan, Chelle and Josh steal coins from a wishing well and are forced to grant all the wishes of those who threw the coins into the well in the first place. Wonderful, edgy, exciting, scary, strange. Characters you care about. First published in Great Britian as "Verdigris Deep" by Macmillan Children's Books. ( )

Frances Hardinge has some claim to Diana Wynne Jones’s YA crown, although it’s early days yet, she’s only written four books. This is possibly my least favourite of the three I’ve so far read: there’s a slightly uncomfortable, unpleasant edge to it. But, then again, so there is to 'Wilkins’ Tooth', which is the DWJ this most reminds me of. ( )

Ariel Lopez
This book is a fiction book and has 11 A.R points. I think this book is preety good because it has a little mystery and i like to solve and be challenged by things.Well Witched is based on three kids who are best friends,and they get are about 13. They all need bus money to get home and it turns out that they don't have any. One of the kids who does not really care for what actions he has decides to go down a well to get some change,and that is how the promblem starts. The well has a spirt that grants the wishes,and she gets mad. After they go down the well bad and weird things start to happen to all three of them. They all decide to have a conversation about it and they start to think it is because of the well,so they start to grant the people's coins that they took out of the well. They all do that because they get powers, and that is how it starts. Read it to found out the rest! ( )