Journal Entry 1 by azuki from Miami, Florida USA on Saturday, October 25, 2008

For generations, privileged young men have attended St. Oswald's Grammar School for Boys, groomed for success by the likes of Roy Straitley, the eccentric Classics teacher who has been a fixture there for more than thirty years. This year, however, the wind of unwelcome change is blowing, and Straitley is finally, reluctantly, contemplating retirement.

As the new term gets under way, a number of incidents befall students and faculty alike, beginning as small annoyances but soon escalating in both number and consequence. St. Oswald's becomes the scene of a deadly contest between Straitley and a mysterious newcomer to the faculty. Each opponent tells the story in alternating chapters, and it soon becomes clear that the evil interloper has a beef with the place dating back to childhood. This new teacher is secretly waging an insidious campaign of terror against St. Oswald's, the clear intent being to bring the famous school down and close its doors forever. And only our hero--a fussy, eccentric, out-of-shape old-timer--can stop the tragedy, if he can find his anonymous adversary in time....

This is the second Joanne Harris book I read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's solidly among this year's best read.

I can't help comparing it to Five Quarters of an Orange, the other book I've read of Joanne Harris. Both are about a person returning to a place with haunted childhood memories. A diabolical child who did something unspeakable. Both are excellent stories. I like this book better as the story keeps getting more and more interesting and surprises keeps popping up at every turn till my breath is totally taken away.
 

Journal Entry 2 by azuki from Miami, Florida USA on Monday, February 16, 2009

Sending it to Cherie who won it in the Best of 2008 Swap on BookObsessed.com.
Dear Cherie, hope you enjoy it. We seldom play swaps together so I am glad to be sending you this. Take care! 

Journal Entry 3 by CheriePie from Campbell, California USA on Tuesday, March 03, 2009

This came in last week from Azuki. *hugs* Sorry I'm just getting the chance to journal it now. In any case, I'm looking forward to it. Though outside my usual genre, I really liked her Chocolat anyway, and her writing style, and this particular book by Ms. Harris actually seems a bit darker--which is more my usual genre LOL. 

Journal Entry 4 by CheriePie at Woburn, Massachusetts USA on Sunday, March 22, 2009

Released 3 yrs ago (3/22/2009 UTC) at Woburn, Massachusetts USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Handed this one off to Dad and Patty tonight. Actually, I was wanting to read this one sooner rather than later, but wasn't sure when I could get to it, and they expressed an interest. And since I've been trying to get as many books cleared out as possible, the urge to purge won out.

Though Dad and Patty aren't BookCrossers, we may still see a BC entry on this title later on down the road as they recycle all the books they read back to the used book store down the street. :)

PS - I think I'll purchase an e-book of this for my Kindle anyway, and assuming this wasn't journaled elsehwere by the time I've read that, I'll come back and add my review here. :)