Half-sick of Shadows

by David Logan

On the eve of Granny Hazel's burial in the back garden, a stranger in his time machine - a machine that bears an uncanny resemblance to a Morris Minor - visits five year-old Edward with a strange request. And Edward agrees to be his friend. But Edward is not alone in the world. His twin sister Sophia is about to bring future tragedy upon herself through an all-too-literal misunderstanding of a promise she's made to their father. So while Sophia stays at home, seemingly condemned to spend the rest of her days in The Manse - a world untouched by modern trappings - Edward is sent to boarding school. There he encounters the kind and the not-so-kind, and meets the strangest child. His name is Alf, and Alf is a boy whose very existence would seem to hint at universes of unlimited possibilities ...and who might one day help Edward liberate Sophia. With its Gothic backdrop, "Half-Sick of Shadows" is a novel of many parts: at once a comical tragedy, a dark and dazzlingly told tale of childhood wonder and dismay, of familial dysfunction, of poetry, the imagination and theoretical physics.

• ISBN10: 0857521160
• ISBN13: 9780857521163
• Publish Date: 10 May 2012
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 18 February 2014
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
• Imprint: Doubleday
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Lianne]

This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2013/11/15/review-half-sick-of-shadows/

I won a paperback copy of this novel courtesy of the GoodReads First Reads programme.

Half-Sick Shadows is a novel that defies genres–more like it mashes several genres together–and contains a lot of interesting and promising themes and motifs. Unfortunately a lot of the humour escaped me–there were a few humourous dialogue here and there but otherwise the bleakness of the novel dominated my reading of the novel–but there were some lovely passages here and there that not only reflect the themes of growing up and the world that Edward lives in but also the complexity of the story. Despite having read the poem "The Lady of Shalott" beforehand, I also think some of the metaphors may have escaped me while reading this novel.

I thought the pacing was a bit of an issue; I never quite felt the sense of urgency in the plot. I can see the elements lurking the background–Alf coming in and out of Edward’s life, the danger of Sophia staying at home and never stepping out into the world–but they never fully manifested themselves into the forefront of the story until the latter third of the novel, and by then it was rather rushed and I couldn’t quite make sense of everything that was happening.

Overall Half-Sick Shadows was a curious novel with an interesting premise but with a very undertone that was a lot darker and bleaker than I had anticipated. I reckon I'll have to pick this novel up again in the future to grasp some of the story threads or details that I may have missed.