For a children's book, this one was rather nice. I found the writing to be poetic at times, but at other times, it was a bit too descriptive for me. The story was not bad, but perhaps a bit flimsy. Yes, there are several themes: Laura's relationship with her mother and how she feels about the mother's new boyfriend, Laura's relationship with the witch-boy Sorry and his journey back to having feelings, and of course the freeing of Laura's brother Jacko of an evil demon. I guess the different story lines are well done, but particularly the main one is a bit simplistic. Overall, the book was ok, but I'm not going to look for anything else by this author. I suppose I've outgrown this type of book after all... ( )

This book is aimed at an older age group than previous Mahy books I've read as it explores teenage sexuality, family relationships including the fallout from parental divorce and the female protagonist's mother commencing on a relationship with a new boyfriend, and the emotional estrangement experienced by the male protagonist who was brought up by a foster family and beaten by his foster father when the latter lost his job and turned to drink.

All this almost overshadows the supernatural part of the plot whereby Laura Chant (no relation to Christopher Chant in Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci series, although it transpires that she is a latent witch) and her little brother Jacko encounter an unpleasant old man who is the proprietor of a new shop selling trinkets in the shopping area near their house. Laura has woken up with a premonition of something awful happening, which her mother Kate dismisses, but despite this she is unable to prevent the old man putting a picture stamp of his own face on the back of her brother's hand. The stamp cannot be washed off and sinks into Jacko's flesh and soon he is deathly ill, as the old man, a type of vampire, drains off his life force to sustain his own failing and centuries old existence.

No one will believe Laura about the cause of her brother's illness so she is forced to turn to Sorensen, an older prefect from school whom her latent powers have previously caused her to identify as some kind of witch, and to his witch mother and grandmother. Sorensen is cynical, sarcastic and a bit of a user, mainly because his mother had him fostered because he wasn't a girl and she believed he had not inherited her powers, erroneously as it turned out. Given that Laura is only 14 and he is 17, I found his initial overtures, especially groping her when she goes to see him for help, a bit creepy. Laura is a strong character and she does defend her position, but it still made for uncomfortable reading, probably because of the developments which have occurred in society since the book was published in 1984.

I do realise that, if read at the right age, this book would probably be very absorbing as it has a female protagonist who is a strong defender of her brother and who eventually becomes a powerful witch, so the fact that I found the middle of the story to drag when Jacko is in hospital and nothing much is happening, is probably due to my not being the intended readership. Because of that and my reservations about the boy's conduct, especially at the beginning, I can only rate this 2 stars. ( )

A teen girl takes her toddler brother to visit a new curio shop in town, and the creepy old man owner puts his curse mark on the boy, which enables him slowly to drain the life out of him. Laura enlists the help of the cute but strange neighborhood boy - also a prefect at her school - to help, which is good because he's a witch.
Weird, but not necessarily in a bad way. The love story aspect felt a little stodgy and forced, but an okay plot overall. ( )

Took me about a month and a half to read the final five pages because I didn't want it to be over :') ( )

This was a delightful read. The plain language of the book's description doesn't do justice to the evocative language describing even the humdrum details of Laura's ordinary life in the outskirts of a city in New Zealand, even before magic starts to creep in round the edges.

The style is reminiscent of Madeline L'Engle, maybe Lois Lowry or Edith Nesbitt. It has a quality that I associate with Mark Helprin's [b:Winter's Tale|12967|Winter's Tale|Mark Helprin|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328874917s/12967.jpg|1965767], except toned down and blended in enough with more ordinary prose that it enhances, rather than dominates, the story being told.

It's a good story, too, and a very fine coming-of-age tale. Fourteen year old Laura copes with school, her three-year-old brother, her mother's job that doesn't pay very well so they're chronically short of money, and life after her parents' divorce. As the story unfolds, she comes to understand more about the complexities of life and love and sex and romance and happiness and sorrow in the grownup world on whose threshold she bides.

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