Are you a fan of prose and poetry?  This might be the book for you so long as you’re an adult and like dark and dangerous dreams.  The author, Andrew Zurcher, has a passion for words.  At times they are like a sweet poem and at other times like a broken water fountain.  Throughout the story, there are moments that feel like a golden fairy tale and others that feel like memories of trying to get through Beowulf.

Based on a society with a vast and deeply storied history, this is imagination come to life.  It’s like a peek behind the curtain to see who, or maybe what, is really running the world.  Who is weaving the story of each person’s life? Why are they sometimes forgotten? Who does the work of making it all happen? Will and Flip are in Removals and they have a job to do, plain and simple.  Although, as usual, it doesn’t usually end up being simple.  This time they encounter Kay and her little sister Ell.  They aren’t your average little girls. Somewhere around the ages of 10 and 8, they have been raised by a father who has taught them to think outside the box and be creative.  

The story takes off when their father has been abducted and Kay and Ell take it upon themselves to save him.  Flip and Will become dependable friends who try their best to keep them safe… until they can’t.  Unfortunately, Kay and Ell really don’t act as children.  Their thoughts and actions represent deep-thinking adults.  When their father is in captivity, there are mild descriptions of him being shackled by the neck, led around with a rope like a dog, beaten, bleeding, and his face caked with blood.  This book felt like an adult story, not a story for middle graders.

According to the website Fantastic Fiction, the author, Andrew Zurcher, is Director of Studies in English at Queens’ College, Cambridge, and a leading international expert on the works of Spenser, Sidney, and Shakespeare.  Twelve Nights is his debut novel.  Unfortunately, this book ends rather abruptly in death and leaves the reader hanging in suspense.  According to the description of Andrew’s next book, it’s hard to tell if the second book carries on the story or goes in a different direction.

Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy

This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Philomel Books

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  None

Violence/Gore:  A man is tied up and left under a tree; a man is abducted; a man is described as cut and bleeding, not descriptive; mention of a man who lost his legs a long time ago; 2 young girls go away with 2 men leaving their mother a note to find; 2 men and 2 young girls are flying and crash, scary, suspenseful; an evil man has dreamed of holding a neck shackle and using it on people; a man is described as crumpled, beaten, hair torn out, filthy, lifeless, and wasted but able to stand with help, he is led away by a rope attached to his neck shackle; an evil man plans to let 2 young girls see a man who is bloody and dying so he will get what he wants; a man has decided to end the life of a young girl; a young girl is dragged away and imprisoned; a young girl sees a man dragged out of the room by the rope attached to his shackle collar, he stumbles repeatedly; a man tells a young girl that there is a prison nearby for the worst of the criminals; an evil man tells 2 other men to get rid of a young girl, suggests throwing her off a cliff; a young girl sees the bloody, ravaged face of her father in her mind; a man wants another man dead; mythical story of Isis’ husband’s body feeding a tree as it’s roots grow down into his body; mythical story of Tantalus killing his 14 yr old son as a sacrifice to the gods of Olympus and his son’s blood poured into the drinking cups in the temple; in the mythical story, a snake charmer calls for the “hewn limbs” of a boy who was killed, also mention of the boy’s shoulder having been eaten by a dog; a man longs the exploitation of other people killing for him rather than doing it himself; a young girl has been stabbed in the shoulder, much pain; mention of another man who was killed; 2 men fight, 1 man is killed, descriptive of fight and death; danger of drowning; mythical story including the story of drinking the blood of a 14 yr old boy, a snake charmer, a traitor. 

Sex/Nudity:  A young girl kisses the head of a man who just died in her arms; mention of a woman who everybody was in love with.

Mature Subject Matter:

Evil; ancient Egyptian gods: Osiris, Set, Isis, and her dead husband; gods of Olympus; death.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

A man is drugged with Belladonna; a young girl is given henbane and poppy for the pain of a wound; people chew leaves from a special tree that makes them “extra creative.”