Review: Withering-By-Sea

Withering-By-Sea by Judith Rossell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a middle-grade book, so personally I found it a little tame but as I'm clearly not the target audience I'll be reviewing it with that in mind.

It's a delightful little story: Stella lives at the Hotel Majestic with her three tyrannical aunts and dreams of the far-off places she learns about in her Atlas. Then one night she witnesses something she shouldn't and it puts her in the path of danger, running from an insidious enemy known as The Professor.

The setting is really beautifully detailed, and you feel instant sympathy for Stella who is treated pretty terribly. At the same time, there's not a huge emphasis on the bullying - her aunts aren't blatantly cruel, they're just cold and believe in being 'proper'. So while we don't particularly like them, they're not a ridiculous stereotype. At the same time, we can understand perfectly well why Stella wants to escape them.

As soon as Stella unwraps the package, magic begins to leak into the story, and suddenly there's more to this story than meets the eye. Suddenly impossible things become possible, and Stella's adventure leads her in a more mystical direction.

I loved the characters she met along the way, and wished they'd come into the story earlier. I loved the friends she made and I think her friendships are a really important element to enjoying this story. There's also no grand gestures to cement things, which I thought was really good. There's no reason she makes friends, other than that's what happens with people of a like mind. It felt very genuine and warm.

There are also some important moral lessons about helping, and pity, and understanding. For a children's novel, the characters are fairly grey and I think that's what will make this book stand out.

The illustrations are fantastic, too. They really spur the imagination and add an extra element of enjoyment to the story. My favourite was the illustration on page 143 of Stella, Mr Capelli, and all those cats.

There's such a warmth to the story, and kids will be entertained by the situations Stella finds herself in. It's magical but also easy to follow, and The Professor presents an intelligent, malicious sort of figure to be properly terrified of.

It's a great story with fantastic illustrations, so I can see this being a bit hit, particularly with spirited young girls. Highly recommend for younger ones.

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