Removed from the library collection. Looks scary!

I've now read The Valley of Deer. The story takes place in Scotland, and deals with witchcraft and witch hunts - both aspects of the novel certainly caught my interest! All in all the book wasn't a bad read. The story starts in the classic manner: a British family lives (for the time being) in an old dilapidated house, it's the first day of the holidays, and the youngest of the family finds a secret door. It's all very clichéd, sure, but both the contents of the secret door and the whole novel turned out to be different from what I expected.

The pacing of the story is good, and I liked Anne's character. I also enjoyed descriptions of country life in rural Scotland, in the 1950s. However, there were some things about The Valley of Deer that really bugged me as well. Take the character of Polly: as a disabled character she is very stereotypical, a tragic but brave cripple, all but shut off from normal life and normal interaction with people. She's complete with a husband that continually fusses over her, infantilising an adult woman. And of course Polly needs an outsider, a saviour, to draw her back into to "normal" life, or at least into some sort of activity. True, Anne must learn that she can't "cure" Polly, but that only serves to make Polly's character more long-suffering and tragic, not less.

I also found the very ending of the book somewhat strange. One thing I liked about Polly's character is that although a teenager (and well aware of the facts of life), she isn't really interested in boys or sex yet. When she starts to think about boys very suddenly in the very end of the book, it just sends a weird message. It's like the narrator wants to reassure the reader: from now on Anne will turn more feminine, she'll start emulating Polly in her dress and manner, and yes, there'll be nice young men around as well. There's nothing wrong with Anne, although she goes to all-female school and has a passionate friendship with an adult woman. She's just been a bot of a slow developer, but now she'll leave her childish preoccupations with witches and magic stones, and grow up to be quite the little lady!

Oh well, now I'm done with this book and I'll release it to look for new readers!

I'm bringing this book to the local meet-up tonight.

The book is in Vuosaari now, waiting for my daughter to have time to read it. She has to read two books for school at this moment, so can take a bit, but she seemed interested in it!

My daugther and my wife read it, I'll be reading it this Easter-weekend and then make it ready to be released the last weekend op April

The book will be available during the meetup of BookCrossing members.

I took Dunlop's book from today's meet-up at JohtoCafe. Thank you for the book!

Dunlopin kirja on tarjolla huomisissa BC-pikkujouluissa Kaapelitehtaalla. Osallistun kirjalla lunatumin Sanatarkkaan 4 -peliin.

Kirja ei löytänyt miitistä lukijaa ja sen voi nyt napata luettavakseen Kaapelitehtaan Hima & Sali -ravintolan ovensuussa olevasta hyllystä! Hyviä lukuhetkiä! Enjoy reading!

Picked the book up from Hima & Sali and decided to give it a lift. Nice to see an oldie still on the road.

Left the book in the LFL in Ruoholahti. Perhaps it will interest the kids of the International School more than it did the hipsters in Hima & Sali 😉.