How to Catch a Bogle, Catherine Jinks

I haven't read any middle-grade fiction recently, so I snagged this one off of a recommended reads list, and I'm glad I did.


How to Catch a Bogle
Catherine Jinks (author of Saving Thanehaven, which I also enjoyed)
ISBN: 9780544087088
Read May 9, 2014
Juvenile/Middle-Grade alternate Victorian London; urchins and magical creatures

This one goes right along that same alley as Kieran Larwood's Freaks, Y.S. Lee's Agency series, or for a more gritty "literary" take, Berlie Doherty's Street Child.  Birdie is an orphan, but she's better off than most.  Unlike the mudlarks digging in the filthy and dangerous Thames for shillings'worth of scraps, or the professional beggars getting rousted by the police, or the ragged street-thieves risking prison-time, or even the poor unfortunate souls getting used and abused at the workhouse, Birdie is a Bogler's Apprentice, and that gets her a good day's work, extra spending money (sometimes) and what's most important - a degree of respect in this hard-knock world.

And what's a Bogler's Apprentice?  She works with the Bogler, to lure out and kill bogles.  These nasty slimy dark nightmares like nothing more than a tasty child to eat, and only Alfred and Birdie can find them, lure them in, and destroy them.

Birdie loves her life, loves her job, and loves being important and needed.  She very resolutely does not think about how dangerous her job is, but Alfred does.  (Making this obvious is a very nice grace-note in the story.)  It doesn't matter how dangerous it is, there's no real alternative for Birdie in the slums she calls home.  Until the duo meets an eccentric armchair naturalist, who follows them out on a bogle hunt, and is promptly scandalized and terrified.  Miss Eames is determined to save Birdie from her most likely fate as bogle food, but Birdie is equally stubborn.

The book jacket and the press indicate that this is the first of a trilogy, and I'm deeply satisfied with how they did it, because this is a totally complete story - none of this cliffhanger nonsense.

Parts of this are pretty creepy in the "things sneaking up behind you" sort of way.  Otherwise, it's a delightful romp through the poor muckridden slums of London, with a totally accurate (and colorful) vocabulary.

An excellent read, and I'm looking forward to A Plague of Bogles, out in January.

Short Reviews: March 2013: Ashton Place Series, Pretty-Girl 13, Orleans, Freaks

Freaks, Kieran Larwood.  ISBN: 978-0545474245March 2013
Sheba is a wolf-girl raised as a side-show freak, and bought to join a troupe in London, joining a Strongman, a women with a strange connection to her rats, a monkey boy, and a mysterious ninja girl with cat eyes.  When a mudlark sneaks into the show, Sheba realizes life could always be worse.  Then the mudlark vanishes, and the poor desparate parents turn to the Freaks for help, or vengeance.  Set around the Great Exhibition.  Creepy villainess. 

Orleans, Sherri L. Smith.  ISBN: 978-0399252945
March 2013
YA virus/illness dystopia.  Fen lives in the quarantined former American states of Louisiana, Texas, and Florida.  She, like most other residents, suffers from an unspecified Fever that impacts different blood types differently.  Mainly an extended chase-escape narrative as Fen tries desperately to rescue an infant (an amazingly durable infant) from the hell she calls home.

Pretty Girl-13, Liz Coley.  ISBN: 978-0062127372
March 2013
YA psychological thriller.  Angie is kidnapped at age 13, and blocks the whole multi-year experience.  Relies heavily on psychobabble about DID/multiple personality syndrome.  Overly simplistic and lighthearted for a very complicated and traumatic real-life subject matter.

The Incorrigible Childern of Ashton Place, Maryrose Wood (series in progress)
The Mysterious Howling (ISBN: 978-0061791055) read 2010
The Hidden Gallery (ISBN: 978-0061791123) read 2011
The Unseen Guest (ISBN: 978-0061791185) read Spring 2013
Juv "manners" fiction, leaning fantastical.  Brilliant.  For everyone who likes the wordplay of Snicket but needs something a little less depressing.  Werewolves and feral children and governesses with copper hair and mysterious pasts.  Did I mention it was brilliant?