Review: The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle by Janet Fox

Hardcover, first, 400 pages
Expected publication: March 15th 2016 by Viking Books For Young Readers
Source: ARC from Publisher

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle is a rather curious affair; an agglomeration of different genres to create a story that, at times, reads a lot like one book and at others, reads much like another. Katherine Bateson and her siblings are uprooted from their home in London after it is bombed during the second world war and sent to a boarding school belonging to a distant relative in Scotland. The boarding school is located in a castle, Rookskill Castle to be exact. Katherine’s father is doing sensitive work for the army and he is gone from their house without a proper goodbye. So the novel is a war story if read in this perspective. A magical element is introduced into the story in the form of a chatelaine Kat’s eccentric aunt gives her before Kat and her siblings leave London. The chatelaine is bound to protect Kat and her siblings as the aunt tells Kat–not that Kat listens.

But even before we meet Kat, we become acquainted with the horrific ongoings in Rookskill Castle. The prologue paints in frankly terrifying colours the end of one of the unfortunate children of the castle, framing the entire incident with a poem that sets the mood of the book exquisitely.

By flesh and bone
By rock and stone
I’ll charm a child
To call my own.

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle is far bleaker than I had expected it would be and though there is the inevitable camaraderie between the children, it honestly does little to alleviate the sense of sadness that pervades the narrative and the events that make up the story. Setting the story in a Gothic castle in a time of war and uncertainty,  effectively establishes the tone.

Last week I discussed monstrous queens and there is an incarnation of a monstrous queen in The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle with particular emphasis on the monstrous aspect. The lady of Rookskill Castle may have had humble and well-intentioned beginnings but her desires have long perverted her goodness. Her inability to become a mother led her to a magician who uses her desires to further his own ambitions. Every time he gives her the power to ‘take a child’ (and take is most benign verb I can use to express the horrific nature of what she does), he takes from her a body part and replaces it with a mechanical object until soon she is more a mechanical monster animated by magic than a person.

When Katherine, her siblings, and other children come to Rookskill Castle, she only has to take a handful more souls before she reaches a monstrous nirvana or something similar to that. Of course Katherine isn’t going to let that happen. A lot of things happen–there are magic-users (but they’re not magicians), Nazi spies, a shadowy evil (the magician pulling the lady’s strings) and friendships that are begun and persevere even when trust seems to be optional.

I found the book interesting if a bit heavy at times. I feel like this will be a fun read during Halloween and will appeal to a number of readers for various reasons–as the story does contain different facets that will appeal to different children. I am pretty certain this is the first in a series so I suppose we will find out more about the magician in later books. I did feel that the novel could have done with a bit more lightness at times but that is a subjective desire. All in all, the book is extremely readable and perfect for a rainy days spent inside.