THE WATCHTOWER

TITLE: THE WATCHTOWER

AUTHOR: LEE CARROLL

Date: 25/09/2011

Grade: 3

Details: no. 2 Black Swan Rising

            Received from Transworld Books

Own

At the end of the first book, Will Hughes, the vampire Garet James is in love with, ran away to France with the silver box in the hope of finding his way to the Summer Country of the Fey and a way of ending his vampire curse.

This book starts with Garet in Paris, looking for signs from Will and her own passage into the Summer Country. After meetings with various strange and mythical beings Garet does indeed find her way to Will and the Summer Country only for the pair to find that they still have to face the evil John Dee and his allies and for Garet to discover that you don’t always get what you wish for.

While Garet’s adventures in Paris are being narrated, the reader is also told the story of Will’s past and how exactly he ended up being a vampire.

I’m afraid this book didn’t really work for me on several levels.

My main problem lay in the fact that we had already been told the main outline of Will’s transformation in the first book and that therefore, the parts of this book describing his early life were a longer repeat of what we already knew. Couple that with the fact that I didn’t really like the character or the younger Will, and you’ll understand why I had difficulties staying with the story.

At the same time Garet’s adventures on her journey from modern day Paris to the Summer Country and beyond were not very exciting. Because Garet takes everything that happens to her at face-value and doesn’t really get excited or scared about anything, the reading experience is a bit flat too.

I think I might have given up on this book without finishing it if it hadn’t been for the fact that this is the second book in a trilogy the first instalment of which really enjoyed. I also hope that the third and final book will return to the standards of the first, and do find myself curious about how this story will end.

I should add that although I have these issues with the story, I have no problems with the language in which the story was told. The writing flows and the descriptions of creatures and landscapes evoke vivid pictures for me.

My conclusion has to be that the reading experience this book gave me was rather a mixed bag with enough positives in the mix to make me want to finish the story at some point.