The Obsidian Mirror - Catherine Fisher - Guest review

When Jake Wilde engineers his expulsion from boarding school he doesn’t expect to be sent home in the company of school teacher George Wharton. All he wants it to be able to challenge his godfather, the famous explorer Oberon Venn, who he believes was responsible for the death of his father.

            

What he finds at Wintercombe Abbey is a far stranger explanation for David Wilde’s disappearance: an obsidian mirror that provides a portal to the past and the future. Oberon wants to reclaim his lost love, Jake wants to help his father return to the present, and as the cast of characters builds up the tension mounts. Everyone wants to possess the mirror: Sarah, who clearly isn’t telling the truth; Maskelyne who claims he owns the mirror and Symmes who once stole it; a hunter and his wolf; the fey, untrustworthy Shee who live in the enchanted woodland along with Gideon, a child trapped in time. As Jake is drawn into Venn’s obsession the situation becomes more desperate, more dangerous.

            

This is fantasy story-telling at its best. A strong narrative, diverse and fascinating characters, twists and turns and surprises, and a haunting setting deep in the middle of winter – all the elements are there. If I have a quibble, it’s that this is clearly the first of a series. There is far too much material for even the basic storylines to be resolved in one book, and of course they aren’t. Having reached the last page I need to read on……

Reviewed by Angi Holden - guest reviewer

Published by Hodder Children's Books

You can visit the author's website here 

Thank you very much to Angi for writing this lovely guest review for The Little Reader Library. Angi is a full-time student, a part-time teacher, a part-time writer, a full-time Mum and an avid reader. 

Thank you very much to the publisher for kindly sending a copy of this novel to read and review.