The cover alone attracted me. It is dark and ominous. A dark-haired girl looks intensely out from the cover. There are two cats by her side. I'm not officially a cat person. I've been programmed to love dogs - big dogs. But really, any animal, any animal at all, will suffice. And if you pay close attention to the background, you might notice, what could be dogs, sinisterly peeking from around the the trees.
From the inside cover:
"Darkness falls so quickly in Howland, its people have no word for evening. One minute the sky is light, the next minute it is black - an impenetrable, suffocating black, unlit by moon or stars. Then good people bar their doors, for fearsome kinderstalk leave the forest to prowl among the houses, looking for children to steal. Yet when Annie Trewitt overhears her uncle making terrible plans for her, she flees to the only place she's sure he will not follow: the forest. Annie never expects to survive the night, but soon she finds neither the kinderstalk nor the people of Howland are what they first appear to be. Her journey will take her from the depths of the forest to the glittering halls of the palace - and ever closer to an evil that's darker and more vast than the night itself."
Several things struck me. Kinderstalk - Kinder is German for children and to stalk is to prey stealthily. Right away I had a feeling for what lurked in the forest and how the humans felt about it. Darkness - not just no streetlight, but no moon or stars. Whether or not you shut your eyes, you still cannot see your hand in front of your face DARK. Palace - a bit of a fairytale here ... what lurks in forests? Witches and Wolves. What lives in a castle? Kings and princesses. Finally, an evil worse than the night itself. The night is already bleakly painted.
All this to say, that I checked the book in from processing and immediately checked it out to myself. It was my special treat after all of those Caudill Nominees. And it only took a month for me to let myself read it. I'm much too hard on myself.
Now, not to say that I was disappointed by this book, but it was nothing like I expected it to be. I've become too accustomed to the Harry Potters, Lightning Thiefs, Alchemysts, 39 Clues ... all seemingly tailor-made to transfer to the big screen. I have become used to the expectation of reading at least a trilogy. There is more action and less thought in today's popular children's novels. And when I find one with an iota of "uffish" thought, it takes a little while to cozy up to it and become one with a new world so unlike ours.
There is so much more to this book than the cover suggests. For instance, the moon has been gone for centuries. The kinderstalk are not really stealing children. The adults are selling their children. And they are selling them to a man who is not a man. Not all of your questions will be answered. Not every loose end will be neatly tied. Even the ending is open. Yes, it could be open to continue the story later, but I think it best to leave well enough alone. None of us can know everyone's story in its entirety.
Within the last year, I've read one other book like this one - Chalice by Robin McKinley. Prior to that, I had devoured The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Pope. And before that, I fell in love with Shannon Hale's Newbery Honor book Princess Academy. These are the books that I look forward to. They seem too far and few.
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