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23rd out of 383 books
—
148 voters
The Tricksters
While gathered together for the Christmas holiday, a large New Zealand family and their various guests and hangers-on find their lives suddenly invaded by three fascinating but rather sinister brothers and by New Year nothing is the same again. (Source)
336 pages
Published
2001
by CollinsFlamingo
(first published January 1st 1986)
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Oct 25, 2010
Mariel
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
standing on the shore
Recommended to Mariel by:
staring at the sea
Margaret Mahy's The Tricksters was part of my little golden age of reading in 2009. Those fantasy stories that are exciting possibility, yet intimately personal, and bittersweet. In a word, my favorite kind of story. I won the lottery and read quite a few instant favorites that year. They made me want more and more books to savor as much. If only these hidden gems from the past fell into my lap every day! I'm so nostalgic for the summer of 2009... I'd drive to the beach whenever possible and rea...more
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When you ask me about my favourite books, The Tricksters will always feature on the list, be it about New Zealand books, or books in general. It's been, oh, more than ten years since I first read The Tricksters and in my mind one of the marks of a good book is whether or not it stays with you and stands the test of time.
The Tricksters most certainly fits that description.
Margaret Mahy is one of New Zealand's most famous authors, and The Tricksters shows why she is so amazing and worth the praise...more
The Tricksters most certainly fits that description.
Margaret Mahy is one of New Zealand's most famous authors, and The Tricksters shows why she is so amazing and worth the praise...more
The recent popularity of THE CHANGEOVER can probably be linked to Sarah Rees Brennan's wicked funny review and Justine Larbalestier's equally enthusiastic review. I'm pleased as punched that people are reading about Laura Chant and Sonny Carlisle, because they are an amazing couple. But Margaret Mahy has written tons of books. While some of them don't work for me, THE TRICKSTERS may be even better than THE CHANGEOVER.
That's right. I like THE TRICKSTERS better.
How much do I like THE TRICKSTERS?
I...more
That's right. I like THE TRICKSTERS better.
How much do I like THE TRICKSTERS?
I...more
Even this is YA, I'm not getting through it very fast. I think, in part, it's because it's a paranormal mystery kind of thing, and I'm not used to reading them - I have to stop and think hard every time something happens about whether it's real or not, significant or not, shared by the other characters or not.... Also, it's just a little different, as I find almost everything from NZ and Australia to be. For about the most blatant example, the characters don't freak out about public nudity, and...more
17-year-old Ariadne (called Harry) is the middle child in a large, boisterous Kiwi family who gather together for Christmas. Often overshadowed by her glamorous, charismatic older sister, Harry escapes to her attic room to write a romance novel. When three brothers stop by to join the family for the holidays, Harry recognizes their similarity to the characters she has invented in her book. Are these enigmatic young men real? Or have they burst forth from her imagined life into her real one? As H...more
Jan 18, 2010
Bridget
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
teenage girls, fans of teenage girls
Shelves:
total-kid-stuff
I wish I had read this book when I was 16 and completely obsessed with Margaret Mahy's The Changeover. I really liked the book but I would have obsessively loved it back then.
The only reason I can figure that she isn't immensely popular in the US is that she writes complicated novels about teenagers that don't talk down to the reader and has interesting, engaging dialogue. Maybe it's the fact that her teen characters have sex, unapologetic and usually off page but sex nonetheless that doesn't re...more
The only reason I can figure that she isn't immensely popular in the US is that she writes complicated novels about teenagers that don't talk down to the reader and has interesting, engaging dialogue. Maybe it's the fact that her teen characters have sex, unapologetic and usually off page but sex nonetheless that doesn't re...more
I do so love Margaret Mahy. She is very clever about writing about real families. You know, the sort that have troubles, not the fake perfect kind. Ariadne (better known as Harry) certainly has a troubled sort of family full of conflicting characters. Harry is the quiet one, the writer who never asks much for herself until she asks for a book that she can write in and be allowed to change the world around her. She gets her wish, but as usual in tales, not in the way she intended. Many is brillia...more
While on Christmas holiday in New Zealand, the Hamilton family is visited by a strange trio of brothers.
Very simplistic plot description there, but I really don't care enough to come up with something better. I really didn't get this book. Looking at the other reviews, people have gushed over her prose and her characterizations. I didn't particularly care for either. I didn't think there was anything special about her writing and I hated that there were so many characters. I didn't thinkthey wer...more
Very simplistic plot description there, but I really don't care enough to come up with something better. I really didn't get this book. Looking at the other reviews, people have gushed over her prose and her characterizations. I didn't particularly care for either. I didn't think there was anything special about her writing and I hated that there were so many characters. I didn't thinkthey wer...more
There's a lot to unpack here-- this is unlike anything I've ever read, and I'm a little sad I didn't discover it years ago. I didn't love it in an enjoyable way, but I do love thinking about it, and I love just how unexpected it was. Mahy's characters are so vivid and her prose is almost rushed-- as I'm wrapping my mind around one thing, four more characters troop in the door and the scene changes again. The characters nearly all-- all?-- undergo transformations, which is a lot to process, but t...more
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Margaret Mahy is a master of poetic prose; her books simply flow with imagery to the point that the plot comes second, in places, to the brilliance of her language. And I think that's a good thing. The plot of this book, which is both a family drama and one of the more unusual ghost stories I've ever read, is more than capable of holding its own. Harry, the ignored and occasionally abandoned middle child, lives a rich fantasy life without embodying any of the stereotypes of the intelligent but o...more
YA fantasy. Harry and her family are gathered together for a New Zealand Christmas. In the attic, Harry is writing a torrid romance. In the house below, there are secrets that could tear the bonds of love apart if they're confronted; while the house itself has an older secret. When three strange brothers appear, only Harry recognises their disturbing likeness to two of the characters in her romance.
Isn't she a marvellous writer? She really is. I don't love everything of hers I've read, and as a...more
Isn't she a marvellous writer? She really is. I don't love everything of hers I've read, and as a...more
I don’t even know how to describe this book. It’s part fantasy, part mystery, part family saga. I loved it, but I don’t know exactly why or anything. [June 2011]
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I bought this one recently, having read it once, and wanted to re-read it to make sure I watned to keep it. I do. Harry is a lovely character, and I entirely sympathise with her. The ending is a bit Fire and Hemlock, in that I have NO IDEA what happens, but it doesn’t seem to matter. [Oct. 2011]
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I bought this one recently, having read it once, and wanted to re-read it to make sure I watned to keep it. I do. Harry is a lovely character, and I entirely sympathise with her. The ending is a bit Fire and Hemlock, in that I have NO IDEA what happens, but it doesn’t seem to matter. [Oct. 2011]
Fascinating, sophisticated, subtle, and very, very weird. 17-year-old Harry (a girl) is writing a terrible, id-vortex novel, full of lush descriptions and barely subtextual sexuality. Three mysterious men show up at her family’s summer home, to shake up everyone’s lives and shake loose some family secrets. Are they ghosts? Characters from her novel? Something else entirely?
So good. I requested this from the library twice but the cover was so ugly and boring from the 1980's that I kept returning it without reading it. I'm glad that I finally did. Reminds me of Dianna Wynn Jones books somehow...where the main character is the only one who sees what's really going on. Read it. You'll guess some, but not all of the mystery. :)
Fantastically clever and complex, with gorgeous sentences I want to copy down and memorize. I love that Mahy stuffs the novel full of so many characters--two parents, four siblings, two friends of siblings, a toddler, a stranger, three trickster men, and a cat--and yet still manages to make each of them real, each character wanting something and struggling to achieve it. I'll be reading more of her books!
I'm surprised more readers haven't flocked to Margaret Mahy. With the interest in YA and children's fantasy books growing, you'd think she'd get more attention. I like the way every day life blends in with the mysterious.
ENGL420 set text. I read this one a long time ago, though barely remember it, and appreciated it a lot more this time, especially the complexity of the family relationships, though found the supernatural elements insufficiently resolved for my liking.
Semi-interesting, but I would not really but this in the YA category. I don't think teens would be interested. Very odd and hard to follow. Probably because it's set in New Zealand.
This may one day become my favorite book of all time. I'll get back to you in two years. Now I'm going to go weep because my sentences never have this much color and vivacity.
YA. Harry's family is spending Christmas at their New Zealand beach house again, but this year three brothers arrive uninvited and Harry can't tell if they're real or ghosts she conjured up from her journal.
This is another book I've read so many times I've lost count, and it holds up as an adult. Despite its almost lackadaisical third person omniscient pov, it's still good, still spooky, and still sexy.
The brothers are just the right balance of sexy and menacing, and in the middle of all the su...more
This is another book I've read so many times I've lost count, and it holds up as an adult. Despite its almost lackadaisical third person omniscient pov, it's still good, still spooky, and still sexy.
The brothers are just the right balance of sexy and menacing, and in the middle of all the su...more
Mar 12, 2013
Beth
marked it as to-read
source for the quotation on Kristin Cashore's blog homepage about writing being her secret
A favorite from middle school. This is one of the books that inspired me to become a writer.
One of my oldest favorites...I actually stole it from the library because it was out of print
Harry Hamilton's family like to think of their vacation house, Carnival's Hide, as "open to haunting", because of the years-past drowning death of brilliant, handsome young Teddy Carnival, son of the house's first owner. One Christmas, though, three mysterious young men appear at the house, and Harry must figure out who they are and what they want. Mahy blends the supernatural with the everyday gorgeously, as Harry navigates the troubled waters of her family's secrets and of the three tricksters...more
The book which introduced me to the concept of carnival. A fantastic read.
This was so weird. Two stars because I was intrigued and kept reading.
Another good Mahy book, I'm glad she's done a few YAs
Probably one of the best Young Adult books out there.
This was one of the strangest, most interesting and unexpected YA books I've read. The family dynamics recalled for me I Capture the Castle, though the story itself is more challenging and less charming. The writing itself felt delightfully old-fashioned, though also odd and deliberate in a way that generated its own specific kind of pleasure. There were moments in this book that astonished me, and I can tell this is one I'll want to reread every couple of years. Another reason to love Kristen C...more
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Margaret Mahy is a well-known New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. While the plots of many of her books have strong supernatural elements, her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up.
Her books The Haunting and The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance both received the Carnegie Medal of the British Library Association. She has written a little less...more
More about Margaret Mahy...
Her books The Haunting and The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance both received the Carnegie Medal of the British Library Association. She has written a little less...more
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