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Post by Claire on Oct 22, 2015 13:19:18 GMT 1
The Red Horse Haunting by Ann Wigley Decided on this one for our spooky read. It's easy to find in both UK and USA and normally cheap. If funds are tight and you would like to borrow a copy I can send one out next week, just let me know.
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Post by Claire on Oct 25, 2015 19:47:11 GMT 1
Hi all, added poll.
Feel free to add your comments as soon as you like, but we can continue a ways past Halloween itself so no hurry!
I've made a start on my copy but should be finished in a day or two if anyone would like to borrow it after me.
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Post by Claire on Oct 27, 2015 22:23:12 GMT 1
Well the first thing I have to say about the author is that she does not have a dirty mind (unlike moi). Anybody who could write a line like The huge knobbed end winked threateningly in the dim light must have a mind as pure as the driven snow. Apologies for lowering the tone. Am enjoying it so far.
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Post by brumby on Oct 31, 2015 22:57:58 GMT 1
Hilarious Claire, my mind must be as pure as driven snow cause I didn't even notice that line! I finished it last night and really enjoyed it, easy to get into and at the beginning her writing reminded me of Ruby Ferguson. Thought the ghost stuff was really well done (although I'm no expert have read very few ghosty books) Really liked the ending, although I won't go into details yet incase other people are still reading. Am tossing up between good and very good? I really wanted to keep reading so thats always a good sign, which maybe makes it better than just good, anyway will stop waffling and keep pondering that question! Can't see that we will have any arguments oops lively discussions over this one but i could be wrong
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Post by Claire on Nov 2, 2015 13:29:19 GMT 1
WARNING - SPOILERS - PLEASE DON'T READ POST BEFORE YOU HAVE READ THE BOOK
This is a really good ghost story - as opposed to a pony story with a ghost in it. The plot centres around the ghostly mystery and the more down to earth horsy bits, such as training and sgymkhana, acts as a backdrop to the ghost element. Both of the author's books have a aupernatural theme. Its obvious she is interested in the subject, unlike those authors who simply shoe-horn a ghost or supernatural incident into their story to keep up with the modern trend for the unexplained.
The spooky atmosphere is built up well, and we can really feel the fear of the heroine. In fact there are some quite horrifying scenes in places such as the graphic image of Georgie being trapped under the horse and allowed to drown in a few inches of water by the evil squire, and that of Ben being beaten so badly he was brain-damaged.
The author also creates a page turning mystery. I really wanted to find out what had happened to the stallion and Ben and his brother. As Brumby says, it was a good ending, which wrapped things up well. It was very well plotted with small incidents building up the big picture. Such as Amanda's jealousy leading to Rachel having to take Flame to the haunted stables and the fact that Rachel grew up in a racing yard and understood Georgie's yearning to ride a racehorse.
A couple of small gripes. The book was very well written but some of it was a bit advanced for a younger reader. Phrases such as 'horses are great levellers' and 'Flame is a very prosaic horse' would be meaningless to the average 10 or 11 year old. I read on the blurb that Ann Wigley wrote the book for her own enjoyment and it was only published through the urgings of her daughter. This would explain the adult feel of the writing, but a good editor should have corrected this. Because of this I feel the book is more suitable to older teenagers or adults than younger children even tho it says it's aimed at 10 to 16 year olds.
I also feel that the fate of The Burning was ignored somewhat. The whole focus was on Georgie being murdered by the nasty squire trying to save his investment horse, and not being able to rest as he was not buried in consecrated ground. However the fact of the matter is that the accident was actually his and his brother Ben's fault. The poor horse ended up dead through no fault of his own but no-one seemed to care about that. The horse was the true innocent victim and I would have liked something about him at the end or maybe even his ghost to appear also. I wonder if anyone else felt this way?
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Post by darkhorse on Nov 2, 2015 16:05:03 GMT 1
Lol I missed the rude bit too I enjoyed the book. I also found it easy to get into and keep reading. It had a good scary and menacing atmosphere. I liked the main character and Flame. The ending was very good and satisfying. However I found it a bit cliched in places, especially the Amanda episode which I didn't think added anything to the story. I agree with Claire that I would have liked to hear/see more of the Burning at the end of the book. At first I thought there would be a ghost horse and I was a little disappointed not to see one! The only thing I didn't really get was why the evil atmosphere around the stables and brook as Georgie was not an evil ghost but seemed to be crying for help.
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Post by kunuma1 on Nov 7, 2015 20:22:06 GMT 1
I enjoyed the book - more at the beginning than the end as I also felt that since the boy/ghost was responsible for the death of the horse he didn't deserve a happy ending, there wasn't one for the horse!
Also I'm veeeery fussy about who rides my horses and certainly a ghost would have to have at least a BHSAI if they wanted to jump one of mine!! Poor horse was scared to even go in the stable, so she hands him over to the ghost??
I liked that she could spell, punctuate and used words longer than three letters, I'm fed up with the current dumbing down of children's books - if they don't understand a word, they can look it up, it's how I learned! I still do that now, there were quite a few "Americanisms" in Anne of Green Gables that stumped me.
For a change I even enjoyed the competition part of the book which normally bores me - and liked the other characters.
All in all I'd like to read another if she would like to write it! lol
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Post by Claire on Nov 8, 2015 20:52:59 GMT 1
Lol Kunuma somehow I thought you would agree that the horse was more of a victim than Georgie! Glad you enjoyed it on the whole tho. If anyone else would like to read it I'm sure Kunuma would be happy to pass it on to you if you ask her nicely
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