E. Latimer

The most peculiar things always happen to Bryony Gray. As if it isn’t bad enough that her uncle keeps her locked in the attic, forcing her to paint for his rich clients, she’s becoming rather well known in the art world… since all her customers seem to go missing.
This book is aimed at middle graders and I’m very happy to say it does not “talk” down to its intended age group, instead the writing and characters are intelligent and competent and still manage to act in a way that show more seems age appropriate.
The book has a good balance of action, humor and creepy horror and I found it to be very well paced. At no point did the story seem to drag or feel rushed. My only real complaint was the main villain, their motivations and overall ending of the story felt a bit flat, a bit to…pedestrian for lack of a better word and kind of undid the eerie atmosphere the story had going for it up until then.
A slightly weak ending aside, this was a very strong book and I have to admit that I went into this book blind so the main “twist” was unknown to me and it took me way longer than it should have to clue into Bryony’s family, the author did a great job folding that into the story without beating you over the head with it. I really, really enjoyed this book and strongly recommend it, not just for middle grade ages but for any age. show less

Psst! The Strange and Deadly Portraits of Bryony Gray proves a book in which it would be much too easy to say too much. Orphaned Bryony lives with her weak Uncle Bernard and his domineering, social-climbing wife, Gertrude. Like her disgraced father (about which nothing is said, although Bryony knows Uncle Bernard and Aunt Gertrude whisper about him and his rakish life), Bryony has an incredible gift for painting. But she also has a stubborn independent streak and a volcanic temper.

So, for show more the past six years, Bryony has been locked in the attic, forced to paint portraits of wealthy snobs. Now 14, Bryony has been planning her escape to find her father, whom she is certain is still alive, despite what Aunt Gertrude says. But her escape comes earlier than expected when her portraits begin to — but that would be giving away too much!

Instead, she meets the children who live next door, the adventurous 13-year-old Mira Griffin and her cowardly older brother Thompson. The clever threesome embark on adventures that will keep you glued to this book until the very last satisfying page.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada and Tundra Books in exchange for an honest review. show less

Escape to Witch City by E. Latimer was one of my LibraryThing Early Reviewers wins, and I'm very glad of it. This fantasy involves an alternate London, England, on an alternate Earth where magic is real. The year is 1822 and witches are not welcome. The last known coven was rooted out in 1807.

Our 13-year-old heroine is Emmaline Dorathea Black, better known as 'Emma'. Her mother is Lady Isolde Black, younger sister of the widowed Queen Alexandria. Emma and her mother are more likely to scream show more at each other than show affection. Isolde is cold and superior. Just reading about the dresses she forced Emma to wear made me wince in sympathy. Probably the best thing that can be said about Isolde is that the queen is worse. Both sisters are fanatical about ridding their country of witches.

In this world, thistles can weaken witches. The queen and her sister drink thistle wine. Thistles are hung all over the palace. Witches are hanged with ropes made of thistles. At least the ones for the East Wing, which fell into disuse after the king died, are so dried out that they don't drain Emma's energy. (If your reader's senses are tingling with suspicion, Emma also finds that fact worrying.)

Emma is escaping her mother and a fitting for another ghastly dress in the first chapter, so she heads for the East Wing. While there, she narrowly evades a troop of Witch Hunters. She learns that their main quarry is her Aunt Lenore, who was supposed to have been killed before Emma was born. This prompts Emma to head for the huge, disused king's library in the East Tower. There she searches a number of volumes from the history section, only to make a disquieting discovery about all of them.

Emma does not get along with her cousin, Prince Edgar, thanks to a game they played years ago that got Emma into trouble. There's an incident that involves both children in the throne room before Testing Day, (see chapter 4). Testing Day is something all children must endure when they are 13 years old, even Emma and Edgar. The children's blood is tested for the percentage of witch blood in it. We're not told the maximum witch blood allowed, but the percentages of three of the children who are our main characters are 20, 25, and 40 percent. They all failed.

An aristocrat's daughter, Maddie, is the other child who failed besides Emma and Edgar. Their parents' social standing doesn't matter. The children are hustled aboard the Witch Express, a train that is said to take witches to Scotland for rehabilitation. Another girl is shoved in the same car they're in. That's Eliza, who has dark skin and curly hair. Eliza was the only member of a coven of witches that didn't escape Captain Tobias McCraw and his fellow witch hunters.

Eliza tells the others that they aren't going to Scotland. They have a worse fate in store. This leads the four to attempt to escape the train. They wind up in the palace and are busy being chased when an unexpected ally sends them to the In-Between, a place they must cross to get to Witch City.

Each of the children has a special power, although Emma, Edgar, and Maddie have not been trained in how to use theirs. Emma has been spending years suppressing her ability, which seems the least useful among them. Edgar is terrified of his power. Maddie is able to make hers work only part of the time, and the effect doesn't last long. Eliza has a very dangerous power that she's still being trained to use.

The children find themselves in another London, but one that has been going back to nature for a long time, considering the size of its trees. Some of the buildings they enter look as if they were deserted in a hurry, with no time to pack. It's bad enough that they haven't found anything to eat. It gets worse because the city keeps shifting around. They have to hang on to each other during those shifts if they don't want to be separated. The most frightening thing about this New London is a humanoid creature that chases them. Its intentions appear to be most unfriendly.

NOTES:

Chapter 2: The King's Library is described, along with the titles of some of the books Emma searched through.

Chapter 4: The throne room is described. So is the incident that caused Emma to dislike Edgar.

Chapter 7: Eliza and Maddie are introduced. The Coventry Twins are mentioned. Maddie claims a third cousin of hers has been to Witch City.

Chapter 8: Maddie and Emma are tested. for witch blood and their percentages are given.

Chapter 9: The Witch Express is described. We're told Edgar's five titles.

Chapter 10: Eliza says her gran has the gift of visions.

Chapter 14:

a. Some other parts of the palace are described.

b. Elizabeth Barrett Browning must have married Robert Browning much earlier on this Earth. She was born in 1806, started writing poetry when she was 11, and It is 1822. Girls could get married at 16 back then. On our Earth, Elizabeth Moulton-Barrett marries in 1846. (Then again, perhaps this world's version was named Elizabeth Barrett Browning at birth.)

Chapter 15: We meet the ambassador to Irvingland, a country south of England. I am not sure if this lady is the same as the Ambassador Jaqueline mentioned in chapter 36. We meet Edgar's ex-nursemaid, Georgie. Emma remembers one of her former nursemaids, Judith. and why she was fired. The ambassador mentions the In-Between for the first time.

Chapter 16: Emma and Edgar experience their first shift in the In-Between.

Chapter 19: We meet the terrifying inhabitant of the In-Between.

Chapter 23: Emma figures out Edgar's power. We learn the percentage of witch blood Edgar has.

Chapter 24: The black cat introduced at the end of chapter 23 is described. It has green eyes. We learn that there is a photo of Alexandria and Isolde when they were younger in Edgar's backpack.

Chapter 28: A statue of a witch queen is described. Emma prefers it to the statue of the Thistle Queen back home. The cat's eyes are now black.

Chapter 29: The black cat's eyes are green again. We meet Gerty. Then we meet Lenore Black.

Chapter 30:

a. Londinium was the Roman name for what later became London. New Londinium is described. It shifts, but much more smoothly than the ruined New London of the In-Between.

b. It's the Ostara Festival, the celebration of Spring. (It was winter back home)

c. Only persons with witch blood can navigate New Londinium's streets, because it takes magic to do so.

d. A night in New Londinium is the same as an hour in the In-Between.

e. A water closet is a small room with a toilet in it. It can be within a bathroom.

Chapter 31: We meet Tobias McCraw's mother and Eliza's grandmother.

Chapter 32:

a. We learn about the ruined London and its inhabitant.

b. Maddie addresses Lenore as 'Ms. Black,' which means that abbreviation started being used on this book's earth more than 100 years before it was invented on ours.

c. The most common percentages of witch blood in the inhabitants of New Londinium are 15 and 20%. Tobias McCraw is the first zero percenter to find his way there.

d. Abigail Hopper was one of the founders of this version of New Londinium.

Chapter 32: The heart of the city is described.

Chapter 34: Candlewick's School for Magic is where the children will be attending later.

Chapter 35: The children go to the library.

Chapter 27: Emma learns her family's original last name, which is the same as a bookstore chain in our England.

I really enjoyed Escape to Witch City. The children are believable, neither too good nor bad. There was plenty of suspense in their adventures. Given the unsavory episodes in the U.S.A.'s past that I didn't learn until I was an adult, some of them not until I was an official Senior Citizen, I sympathize with Emma, Edgar, and Maddie as they learn how much they've been lied to about their country's history.

I was not surprised at all by a big revelation about Queen Alexandria. My smug satisfaction in being proved right about that helps soften my chagrin at not recognizing the joke between Edgar and his power until I was writing this review.

I heartily recommend this book to fantasy lovers tween-age and above.

Dog lovers are out of luck, but cat lovers have a few to enjoy. Raven fans are also in luck. show less

A rich world reminiscent of kingdoms and magic embraces family secrets, a powerful queen, and friendship.

Emma is royalty, but that doesn't mean she wants anything to do with frilly dresses or the royal court. While hiding from all of it as long as she can in an abandoned wing of the castle, she hears the witch hunters discussing their latest target...and it happens to be her aunt, who disappeared years ago. But Emma has little time to dig into the mystery as Testing Day arrives. She's not a show more witch. She refuses to be. But the thumping in the back of her mind, when she gets upset, tells her otherwise. As her blood is tested, she has no idea of the secrets and adventures the results are about to expose.

This is a well written tale with tons of wonderful world-building. From the castle, where Emma's aunt rules as Queen...to the train....to Witch City and all the other places beyond, everything takes on a amazing vividness, which made it feel as if the scenes were coming alive. It was enjoyable to experience and visit.

The plot is well woven with unexpected twists and turns, tension, secrets, and heart. The characters' actions were understandable, and each one had their own personalities and hopes. The whole story flows smoothly and is well done. And yet, I really didn't get pulled in. While the first scene is grabbing, and Emma, the political situation, and her family situation are laid out with care. There weren't description or information dumps, and yet, some areas moved slow. I found myself skipping paragraphs here and there. The entire thing does pick up by the end to bring a tense and exciting finish. show less