The Lunatic's Curse
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The town of Opum Oppidulum is home to the freezing Lake Beluarum and its rumored monster. On an island at the center of the lake is an asylum; no one has ever escaped it. So how will Rex, whose father, Ambrose Grammaticus, has been imprisoned there under false pretenses, prove that Ambrose is not insane? And if Rex can free his father, will his evil stepmother drive them both to madness?
Higgins' fans will devour this deliciously scary tale, a "polyquel" to her previous books, all of which can be read singly or together. But not in the dark . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Higgins's fourth "polyquel," which can be read in tandem with her previous books (The Black Book of Secrets and its companions) or on its own, offers more of her trademark mix of nasty crimes (cannibalism takes center stage), children in peril, macabre humor, and serious danger. Rex Grammaticus suspects that his father's new wife, Acantha, is not what she seems. But he is horrified when she and her conspirators drive Rex's father mad and get him imprisoned in the town's island asylum. Rex knows that his stepmother's twisted plans will include getting rid of him and claiming the family fortune, but he doesn't realize the extent of her malevolence. Through alternating perspectives including that of Hildred Buttonquail, who joins Rex in uncovering the subterranean secrets of the asylum Higgins's horror-mystery is filled with Victorian streetscapes, contemptible characters with preposterous names (like Dr. Velhildegildus), and abundant suffering, David Copperfield style. Through its grisly revelations, epistolary elements, and wrenching conclusion, readers may catch equal hints of Poe and Shelley's Frankenstein. Ages 10 14.
