Ever since the Queen mysteriously disappeared and the King went mad five years ago,
eleven-year-old Princess Charlie has lived a wild and mostly unsupervised life in the
country of Quale—until now. With the discovery of an unfinished letter in the Queen’s
handwriting, Charlie embarks on a quest to find her mother and save the kingdom
from a revolution. With Tobias, the gardener’s boy, by her side, every step closer to the
Queen pulls Charlie deeper into an entangling web of lies and secrets—as twisted as
the dark castle—where nothing is as it seems.
Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Readable, Yes, but with Problems
By J. Wiles Parker
Princess Charlie (Charlotte Augusta Joanna Hortense) happens upon a clue that could lead her to her missing mother. Her father, quite mad by the look of things, is of no use. Through the unexpected help of the gardener's boy, Tobias, Charlie begins to uncover a plot that is much deeper and complex than even she could have imagined. No one is who they say they are and more is at stake than Charlie finding her mother in Ellen Renner's Castle of Shadows.This is one of those books I'd love to have a (target-audience) child read and respond to so that I could better understand his/her comprehension of the book. Castle of Shadows is aptly titled, but a bit challenging in certain respects. There are areas in which the book at least meets expectations but then there are more where it falls short in my estimation. First some of the good things:The sentences are very readable and flow together really well. Ellen Renner understands how to put words together in a way that phrases sound good together. This includes dialogue which flows pretty naturally in the text. I never had an issue of figuring out who was speaking to whom in the course of the book even when sections were not tagged. Each character seemed to speak in a particular enough way and had his/her own particular way of being that it was easy enough to track who was speaking and when.Middling issues include setting problems, and a few weird vocabulary choices. The latter isn't so much an issue as a potential hang-up if one is inclined to noticing vexing words in text and trying to reason as to their presence. The setting, however, is a potential problem. The book is somewhere in the mid to late 1800s for the book's particular setting, but the problem is that there are occasional references to, well, things like Edwardian times or something we would be able to potentially relate to but within the book made little to no sense since it's set in someplace called Quale, which could be just about any European country. The only other real references are to Durchland which could easily be Germany given the politics of the piece and the time period, and Esceania (Spain?), but even attaching real-life names seems a stretch since there is no clear explanation of the setting. It gets mentioned here or there but there's not a solid sense of where the book takes place.Now to the real troubles: characterization and plotting. Castle of Shadows sets up to be a fantasy adventure, but what comes out is a potential political thriller at times, all mixed with a coming of age story. The two major issues seem to be related, mainly because the characterization is so black and white. No character is really gray at all. Charlie's obviously good, being the main character and a princess. Tobias has potential to be somewhere in the middle, but that's quickly taken care of. Alistair Windlass (who is incredibly talkative with an annoying rhetorical manner in which he often says little of substance or that has not already been established), is one of the obvious villains along with the horrid housekeeper Mrs. O'Dair. As a result of the stark contrasts, and the lack of remorse by anyone when bad things happen, I could not relate directly to any character, which made wading through the intricacies of the plot frustrating. At times I found I was forced to make a huge jump in logic or plotting and other times I was given way too much information by whoever was speaking. The expectation on the reader to follow the occasional illogical motivation of the characters is extreme when combined with keeping track of the politics of the piece. I often felt like the author was holding something back either because she did not know the story well enough herself, was not comfortable in the story to make a really bold decision, or that she did not want to expand on it should another book be forthcoming (which is what appears to be happening based on two minutes of research into the author).
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.Parents Be Forewarned About Dark Themes and Some Vulgar Language
By CrimsonGirl
The review copy I have says that "Castle of Shadows" is intended for ages 9 to 12, but parents should be forewarned that it has some fairly dark themes and some instances of vulgar language (d**n and b*****d). The tone is reminiscent of the unsanitized original Grimm Brothers' fairy tales rather than the typical princess novel aimed at a late elementary audience. Those with more sensitive kids will probably want to skip this book.Charlie is a plucky enough heroine but I felt like she never quite became her own agent rather than someone else's pawn. For all that the author keeps commenting on Charlie's intelligence, she doesn't really demonstrate using her wits to solve her problems. At the book's climax, she is rescued by another character rather than defeating the villain herself. That struck me as very retro (and not in a good way).My 9 y.o. daughter liked the book okay, but didn't love it either. She thought that the book should have explained more about Charlie's mother, Queen Caroline.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
FABULOUS STORY
By Amazon Customer
LOOKING FORWARD TO THE COMPLETION OF THE SERIES. Castle of Shadows and City of Thieves were both moving adventure packed tales. I hope the concluding book comes out in the near future...
