WINNER OF A 2013 NEWBERY HONOR!
Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz brings her sorcery to a Victorian gothic thriller — an enthralling, darkly comic tale that would do Dickens proud.
The master puppeteer, Gaspare Grisini, is so expert at manipulating his stringed puppets that they appear alive. Clara Wintermute, the only child of a wealthy doctor, is spellbound by Grisini’s act and invites him to entertain at her birthday party. Seeing his chance to make a fortune, Grisini accepts and makes a splendidly gaudy entrance with caravan, puppets, and his two orphaned assistants.
Lizzie Rose and Parsefall are dazzled by the Wintermute home. Clara seems to have everything they lack — adoring parents, warmth, and plenty to eat. In fact, Clara’s life is shadowed by grief, guilt, and secrets. When Clara vanishes that night, suspicion of kidnapping falls upon the puppeteer and, by association, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall.
As they seek to puzzle out Clara’s whereabouts, Lizzie and Parse uncover Grisini’s criminal past and wake up to his evil intentions. Fleeing London, they find themselves caught in a trap set by Grisini’s ancient rival, a witch with a deadly inheritance to shed before it’s too late.
Newbery Medal winner Laura Amy Schlitz’s Victorian gothic is a rich banquet of dark comedy, scorching magic, and the brilliant and bewitching storytelling that is her trademark.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
Created much buzz during our Newbery discussion...
By tgroat1954
While I enjoyed certain aspects of 'Splendors and Glooms,' there was much about the storyline that just didn't resonate with me and I guess I wasn't alone in this; our library held Newbery discussions last week and of the five books reviewed, 'S&G' didn't place in the top three.Here's what I like: The author is a proven talent as evidenced in 'Good Masters, Sweet Ladies,' which DID take the Newbery a few years back. Laura Amy Schlitz can recreate the mood and imagery of a time period like few authors can. I found her descriptions of the harsh living conditions in Victorian England fascinating. Her main characters, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall are assistants to sinister puppeteer Gaspare Grisini. When the trio is invited to perform at the wealthy Clara Wintermere's birthday party, Grisini embarks on a plan to kidnap the young girl, turn her into a puppet, and extract a hefty ransom from her parents. What ensues is a journey into magic and mysticism that keeps the reader guessing.My complaints: A cluttered storyline that includes the longest death scene (by Grisini's witchy rival) I've ever read. I would have been quite content with exploring more the relationships between Clara, who is consumed by grief and guilt over the deaths of her siblings from cholera and stifling in her wealthy house of mourning, and the plucky orphans who come to her aid. Without the magic, witchcraft, mysterious stone, etc. it would have been a much more cohesive story. At about 300 pages the book relies too much on developing characters (the witch, for instance) that were extraneous. Waaay too much thrown into the mix and the really interesting characters (Clara's mourning parents and the hilarious landlady) were given too little to do. I would have appreciated more information on Victorian England and the lifestyles of that era. This would have been a great tool for young readers who may be interested in that era.We were very divided at our table discussion over 'Splendors and Glooms.' There were people who absolutely loved the book and enjoyed the storyline; just as many found blind alleys and character clutter distracting and unnecessary. I didn't absolutely hate the book but I enjoyed the other four nominees for the Newbery much more.
51 of 61 people found the following review helpful.
Elegant, Exciting, and Fully Realized Characters
By Pop Bop
First off, if you aren't sure about this book, search again for "Splendors and Glooms" in the Kindle Store. Notice that there is a separately listed free download of the book's first three chapters, which is a much longer sample than that offered on this page. (Update: At least as of February 17, 2013 I don't see that three chapter freebie anymore. That's O.K.; the "Click to Look Inside" option will still give you a generous sample.) Now, look at the blurbs. I'm never very impressed by blurbs, but I have to admit that if Rebecca Stead, Gregory Maguire and Adam Gidwitz are all on board, then I'm intrigued. Now further, try to forget all of the descriptions of this book as "Dickensian". Most of the time that means the author is leaning heavily on worn out orphan cliches, excessively quirky characters with cutesy names, ridiculous coincidences, fog, and horse drawn carriages. This book doesn't need that kind of crutch. It is written with elegance and yet restraint. It is atmospheric, but not hobbled by obscure or over-researched historical footnotes. It has magical elements, but is not a fantasy or a wand-waver. And it has really wonderfully realized characters, each an individual and engaging personality. The villains are villainous to just the right degree. Our heroes are worthy. Secondary characters add depth and support. Actually, it seems that Laura Schlitz does something that her blurbers, especially Rebecca Stead, do; she adds the telling detail, or the sharp little observation, or the simple descriptive touch, just where it does the most good. Nothing here is overheated or purple. Nothing drifts into tedium. Everything here serves a narrative purpose, and then withdraws, (like one of those lightly sketched Victorian servants). That may or may not be your cup of tea, but it seems that in a book aimed at a sophisticated middle or YA reader, that clarity and restraint is an attractive quality that helps to keep the reader engaged and rewarded. And while there is a lot of fun and excitement and just plain entertainment out there on the bookshelves, it's very nice to have another work available that, for want of a better term, might be considered "literary" middle grade and YA.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful.And glimmering incarnations
By E. R. Bird
Do you remember that moment in the film version of "The Princess Bride" where the grandfather is trying to convince his stubborn grandson that the book he's about to read is fantastic? He lures the kid in by saying the book contains, "Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles." If I had a kid standing in front me right now looking at "Splendors and Glooms" with equal suspicion I would probably tell them that the book has a witch, an evil puppet master, transformations, a magical amulet, small dogs, orphans, lots of blood, and Yorkshire pudding. And just as the grandfather's description fails to do "The Princess Bride" justice, so too does this description just wan and pale in the presence of Laura Amy Schlitz's latest. This is a book infused with such a heady atmosphere that from page one on you are so thoroughly sucked into the story that the only way to get out is through.The witch is dying. The girl is lonely. The children are hungry. Four people unconnected until the puppet master Grisini brings them, in a sense, together. Lizzie Rose and Parsefall are orphans who have lived with the man for years, doing his puppet work with him, received almost nothing in return. When they perform for Clara Wintermute, a rich little girl who requests a performance for her birthday, they are unprepared when the next day policeman come around asking questions. Clara has disappeared and Grisini is under suspicion. When Grisini himself disappears, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall find something that makes Clara's fate seem out of the ordinary. All the more so when they are summoned by a witch to a beautiful distant estate and everyone, even Grisini, is reunited once more for a final showdown.As odd as it is to say, what this book reminded me of more than anything else was A.S. Byatt's "Angels & Insects". To be fair, I felt that way about Ms. Schlitz's previous novel "A Drowned Maiden's Hair" too. Though written for adults, Byatt's novel consists of two short stories, one of which concerns séances and a woman with multiple dead children in her past. Thoughts of that woman came to me as I read more about Clara's story. At first glance a spoiled little rich girl, Clara is cursed in a sense to be the one child that survived a cholera epidemic that wiped out her siblings when she was quite young. Forced to honor them at her birthday (not to mention other times of the year) she is understandably less than in love with their figurative ghosts. Like Byatt, Schlitz taps so successfully into a time period's mores that even as you wonder at their strangeness you understand their meaning. You may not agree with them, but you understand.Where "A Drowned Maiden's Hair" was a self-described melodrama, "Splendors and Glooms" is Victorian Gothic. It brings to mind the dirty streets of London and books by authors like Joan Aiken. In Lizzie Rose and Parsefall's world you can get dirty just by walking through the yellow fog. Never mind what you encounter on the street. The first three chapters of the book are split between three different characters and you go down the class ladder, from upper-upperclass to kids who feed only when they can get away with it. It's a distinctive period and Schlitz is a master and plunging you directly into that world. I am also happy to report that her ear for language is as pitch perfect as ever. She's the only author for kids that I know of that can get away with sentences like, "Lizzie Rose corrected him, aspirating the h."At the same time no one acts the way you would expect them to. You walk into the novel thinking that orphans Lizzie Rose and Parsefall will be perfect little pseudo-siblings to one another and you're repeatedly surprised when Parsefall rejects any and all affection from his devoted (if not doting) friend. In fact he's a fascinating character in and of himself (and at times I almost had the sense that he knew himself to BE a character). He has only one love, one devotion, one obsession in this world and it's difficult for anything else to make a dent in it. Likewise, when Lizzie Rose interacts with the witch you expect the standard tale where she melts the old woman's heart against her will. Schlitz doesn't go in for the expected, though. You will find no schmaltz within these pages. Though the characters' expectations may line up with the readers', beware of falling too in love with what somebody on the page wants. You might find your own heart breaking.Even as a child I had a strange habit of falling in love with storytime's villains. Captain Hook most notably, but others followed suit. That was part of what was so interesting about the villain Grisini in this book. By all logic I should have developed a crush on him of some sort. Yet Schlitz manages to make him wholly reprehensible and just kind of nasty to boot. He actually doesn't appear in all that many pages of the book. When he does you are baffled by him. He's not like a usual villain. He's almost impotent, though his shadow is long. He also suffers more physically than any other bad guy I've encountered in a book for kids. If you've ever worried that a no goodnik wasn't paying sufficiently for their crimes you shall have no such similar objections to "Splendors and Glooms". The wages of sin are death and perhaps a bit of bloodletting as well.I admit (and I'm ashamed to say so now) that when I first read this book I thought to myself, "Well that was delightful but I'm sure I'll have a hard time persuading other folks to like it as much as I do." Chalk that one up to my own snotty little assumptions. I'm sure the underlying thought was that I was clearly the right kind of reader and therefore my superior intellect was the whole reason I liked what I had read. Fortunately I was to find that I was nothing more than a snobby snob when it became clear that not only did other librarians love it (librarians who would normally eschew most forms of fantasy if they could possibly help it), kids were enjoying it too! As of this review there are twelve holds on my library's print copies of "Splendors and Glooms" and six holds on our two ebook editions! So much for lowered expectations. It is exceedingly rare to find an author who hits it out of the park, so to speak, every single time she writes. Ms. Schlitz has written six published works for children and not one has been anything but remarkable. As adept at fairy stories as fairytales, at straight biographies or melodramatic ghost stories, at long last we see what she can do with a Dickensian setting. Result: She does wonders. Wonders and splendors with just a hint of gloom. The sole downside is sitting and waiting for her next book. If it's half as good as this one, it'll be worth the wait.For ages 10 and up.
