Florence and Giles

By: John Harding

Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard

A gripping gothic page-turner told in a startlingly different and wonderfully captivating voice. In a remote and crumbling New England mansion, 12-year-old orphan Florence is neglected by her guardian uncle and banned from reading. Left to her own devices she devours books in secret and talks to herself in a unique language of her own invention. By night, she sleepwalks the corridors and is troubled by a recurrent dream in which a mysterious woman appears to threaten her younger brother Giles. Florence becomes convinced that her new governess is a vengeful and malevolent spirit who means to do Giles harm. Against this powerful supernatural enemy Florence must use all her intelligence and ingenuity to both protect her little brother and preserve her private world.

©2010 John Harding (P)2011 WF Howes Ltd

"Turn of the Screw" meets "The Bad Seed"

Does the trend of creating one's own verbs truly annoy you ("We'll have to conference about that later.")? If so, you are guaranteed to hate this book, since Florence does this as her own "private" language every paragraph or so; I (sort of) got used to it, but an editor should held firm on excising a great deal of it before publication.
That aside, y'all should know up front that the ending's left open enough to drive a truck through - either Florence's version of events is accurate, or her grasp on reality is mighty tenuous. I was firmly with her until about 3/4 of the way through, where an event occurs that left me shocked. That last part of the story forced me to completely suspend disbelief; even in 1891 I don't think it would've been that easy to manage things so "under the radar" without a smart policeman strongly suspecting something.
Audio narration was well done, although the housekeeper in Maine sounded more Southern to me, and I caught no reference that was the case. I'd be willing to read a sequel (in fact, I'd welcome one!) to address, if not outright resolve, some of the issues.

Mind blown just a little bit

This story is excellent. It leads one way and then... POOF! It takes off in a totally different direction. Loved it!!!

Excellent! A pleasure to listen to.

This was really a great book. It kept me intrigued and glued to the book. I listened intently and it was a page turner. The narrator had a good voice and was acting rather than reading (something many narrators forget) and each character had a different voice, which is extremely important when listening so as to keep characters organized. It is a Victorian cozy with a hint of Harry Potter. Delicious.

Okay

The story itself is very good the right amount of gothic mystery. The only thing that I find wrong is Florence makes up her own language it makes the story sound very juvenile it really takes away from the the horror of the story.