School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-A centuries-old curse has claimed the lives of young children in the English village of Byers Guerdon. When 12-year-old Cora and her little sister, Mimi, forced by family circumstances on their Auntie Ida, show up at Guerdon Hall, the ancient curse revives. The text's colloquial, mid-20th century British English will be jarring to American listeners. While the horror story, set in the late 1940s in Britain, is excellent, it is so slowly paced that there is almost no action until well into the fourth CD. From that point, tedium (the reading of old accounts of the origin of the curse) alternates with gruesome detail before delightfully scary action takes over. Listeners who have the patience to slog through the first half of the tale will be rewarded. Ann Flosnik is somewhat uneven in her voicing of the children. A local boy named Roger, who befriends Cora and, with his brother Pete, helps unravel the mystery, remarks of her East-End accent-dropping her "aitches-but in the sequence, Cora repeatedly voices "home," "hall," etc. The slight differences in accent will not be apparent to most listeners. Flosnik is far better at the upper-crust voice of Auntie Ida. Musical interludes are nicely creepy.-Nina Sachs, Walker Memorial Library, Westbrook, ME (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Something's wrong with Cora and Mimi's mother, so their father sends them to live with their Aunt Ida, and she is none too happy when they arrive. Guerdon Hall, the sisters' temporary home, is immense, dark, and terrifying, both to them and to Aunt Ida. First published in the U.K., Barraclough's debut, which is based on a centuries-old British ballad, is a ghost story through and through, chock-full of mysterious apparitions, strange voices, cryptic warnings, and townsfolk who chorus beware, all of which frighten Cora and her new friend, a local boy named Roger, and compel them to uncover the mystery hovering over Guerdon Hall. Told in alternating first-person narratives belonging to Cora, Roger, and Aunt Ida, Barraclough's prose is often poetic; while beautiful, it also makes this strange story dense and initially difficult to access. Readers will likely get a sense of where the story is headed early on, but uncovering the complicated, sad history of Ida's life and the ways in which Cora and Mimi have become tangled in its legacy will compel them to its finish. Ages 12-up. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
The ballad "Long Lankin" provides the plot for this post-World War II horror fantasy set in a tidal marsh in eastern England. When Cora and her little sister Mimi are sent to stay with Aunt Ida in Guerdon Hall, the crumbling family manor, they find their aunt taciturn and overprotective. Then, through her friendship with Roger, a local village boy, Cora learns that the Guerdons have suffered a string of child deaths and abductions. She and Roger delve into Guerdon history, and increasingly, see ghosts of the abducted children and of a tormented Elizabethan priest who warns them of Long Lankin's awakening and Mimi's danger. Even with the warnings, however, they aren't prepared when Long Lankin strikes. Barraclough evokes setting and atmosphere with earthy richness, detailing smells, sounds, blossoms, family life, and decaying architecture with the same attention she gives her portrait of postwar British village culture. This level of detail enriches but also stalls the lengthy story as it moves among three voices -- Cora's, Roger's, and Aunt Ida's. But the book gives readers shivers enough as Long Lankin, pungent and fetid, emerges to test the heroism of the three protagonists. deirdre f. baker (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
It's 1958, and sisters Cora and Mimi are unceremoniously dumped by their father into the arms of Aunt Ida, a haunted, solitary woman who lives in the small town of Bryers Guerdon. All is not well in the dank, depressed village to say the least and slowly, with the help of two new friends, the girls begin to turn up ancient and ghostly clues about a vicious child-stealing creature named Long Lankin. This is a story to get lost in: the gloomy, rain-soaked atmosphere recalls Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White, and the endless stories of woe related by various adults become something of a dense forest there is enough plot here for a trilogy, and it will drag down readers looking for quick thrills. Those who appreciate old-fashioned chillers, though, will be rewarded by incident after unsettling incident: witchcraft, exorcisms, fire, plagues, and a blood-drinking murderer who walks on all fours. It's a lot to wade through, but you can't deny the freakish power of the final 50 pages: at long last, hell does break loose.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2010 Booklist