Old Ms. McMartin is definitely dead. Now her crumbling Victorian mansion lies vacant. When eleven-year-old Olive and her dippy mathematician par... read full description
reviews
Mar 07, 2010
Tatiana
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Brilliant debut novel by Jacqueline West! I receive plenty of ARC's every year, but very few that leave me satisfied and excited for the follow-up.
SPOILER ALERT!!! This Victorian-esque mystery novel has a brilliant and strong heroine in Olive Dunwoody. She is an average girl with genius mathematical parents, and she feels her ordinary existence as she moves from school to school for her parents career. Olive's parents finally decide to put down some roots, and they choose the most uni More...
SPOILER ALERT!!! This Victorian-esque mystery novel has a brilliant and strong heroine in Olive Dunwoody. She is an average girl with genius mathematical parents, and she feels her ordinary existence as she moves from school to school for her parents career. Olive's parents finally decide to put down some roots, and they choose the most uni More...
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Feb 15, 2010
Adam
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Rarely do I, as a male, identify with female characters. However, in the case of Olive I was able to lose myself in the story completely. Elements of Roald Dahl, Neil Gaiman, and a touch of Madeleine L'Engle combine flawlessly to create a story that is both fascinating and engrossing. However, it is truly unfair to compare West to other authors without highlighting the fact that while her style and prose are reminiscent of the aforementioned others it is still unique and refreshing. Her worl
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Jan 07, 2011
I'll tell you what I rated this: TS for Too Scary. I read the first several chapters and then had to skim the rest because I was freaked out. This book is somewhat how I imagined CORALINE would have been had I not been too scared to read it. Though I imagine CORALINE is probably better.
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Oct 25, 2011
Lisa
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Olive and her parents just moved into an old house. She feels very creepy in the house and starts to uncover some of it's long kept secrets. In the hall by her bedroom there's a painting of a dark forest that scares Olive. Her mother tries to take it down but it holds fast to the wall and will not budge. Her mother doesn't think much of it but Olive goes around the house checking all of the paintings and they are all stuck fast to the walls. Then she begins to see things move inside the painting
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Oct 14, 2011
Liesl
rated it: 
3.5 stars.
Olive Dunwoody moves into the old mansion with her cooky mathematician parents and discovers that the house is keeping secrets. There's something in the basement, a cat speaks to her, and the paintings are moving. Soon Olive discovers that there are worlds inside those paintings, and dark danger connected to the founder of the house.
This is a fun, mysterious middle-grade, very much in the style of Neil Gaiman's "Coraline", a kind of "Alice in Wonder More...
Olive Dunwoody moves into the old mansion with her cooky mathematician parents and discovers that the house is keeping secrets. There's something in the basement, a cat speaks to her, and the paintings are moving. Soon Olive discovers that there are worlds inside those paintings, and dark danger connected to the founder of the house.
This is a fun, mysterious middle-grade, very much in the style of Neil Gaiman's "Coraline", a kind of "Alice in Wonder More...
Aug 30, 2011
Jackie
rated it:
Olive Dunwoody, 11, is a lonely child of loving, yet totally clueless mathematician parents. All three have just moved to the slightly creepy, vine-encrusted mansion on Linden Street. Left mostly to her own devices and imaginings, Olive sets out to explore every nook and cranny of this huge, stuck-in-the-past house. She finds an array of odd, yet seemingly foreboding portraits and pictures adorning the walls. Every once in a while, she imagines (or does she?) something moving in a corner of one
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Jul 09, 2011
Teresa
rated it:
This one grabbed me pretty much right away, with the description of Olive's mathematically loopy and smitten parents, and the character of a lonely girl who has moved too many times and never really fit in.The growing sense of lurking danger in their big old (new-to-them) house got me next. I found this really creative, with the magic glasses enabling Olive to enter the paintings, and the talking, snarky cats--are they good, or evil? What starts off sort of charming--lonely girl, mysterious hous
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Jun 08, 2011
Clarabel
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Olive Dunwoody a onze ans et des parents totalement absorbés par leur boulot. Ils viennent d'emménager dans une grande maison de Lindon Street où la fillette va explorer tous les coins et recoins avec une pointe d'appréhension. Les tableaux, surtout, lui font peur. Mais impossible de les déplacer - ils sont collés aux murs ! Ce n'est pas tout, Olive rencontre un chat qui se met à lui parler et se présente sous le nom d'Horatio. Il la met en garde contre la maison, il semblerait que les nouveaux
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Apr 25, 2011
Linda
rated it:
I want more! I hope this is a long series, because I just love the main character, Olive. She is your classic outcast, the kid who has no friends, until she meets a boy who happens to live in a painting. She can't figure out how to help him, but she tries, and in so doing, incurs the wrath of a vengeful spirit whose name she doesn't know. Three talking cats try to help her, but are they really her friends?
With elements of fantasy mixed with real-life concerns of the deepest fears of a young More...
With elements of fantasy mixed with real-life concerns of the deepest fears of a young More...
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Apr 02, 2011
Emz
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Let me start off by saying that I love books written with the child in mind. Though not as complex as as some of the fiction written for adults, both in content and in form--the children's book (targeted to 9-12 readers) is not without its own standards and the author, Jacqueline West meets them brilliantly.
Having just received my check, I decided to indulge myself in a little ebook spree and bought The Shadows (The Books of Elsewhere vol. 1), from Amazon on a whim. Four hours later, More...
Having just received my check, I decided to indulge myself in a little ebook spree and bought The Shadows (The Books of Elsewhere vol. 1), from Amazon on a whim. Four hours later, More...
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Mar 16, 2011
Montanamarynotmartha
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This volume by Jacqueline West, The Shadows, is first in the series of Elsewhere. Right away - loved the cover. If you see it in person, the cover actually reflects light and looks like it's glowing. The drawing is a perfect likeness to Olive, the main character. Each illustration is a mix of creepiness and adorability.
I am amazed by Jacquline West and her ability to pack in multiple story lines, adventure and several twists with a few heapfuls of angst in 241 pages. She tells the t More...
I am amazed by Jacquline West and her ability to pack in multiple story lines, adventure and several twists with a few heapfuls of angst in 241 pages. She tells the t More...
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Feb 12, 2011
Charlyn
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Olive and her mathematician parents have always lived in apartments. Now they have purchased an old home, complete with furnishings, and it has become like a museum to Olive. A solitary child left to her own devices and without friends of any age in a new location, she wanders through the house and goes through the contents of drawers and closets. She finds it strange that the paintings on the wall are immovable, stuck fast to the walls. She finds it even stranger that the old spectacles tha
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Dec 29, 2010
nicole
rated it:
This book reminded me strongly of Coraline, with Olive distanced from other children her age and the child of pre-occupied parents, but the tales quickly diverge there. The Shadows is less of a morality tale and more the story of a girl coming into her bravery. The central mystery of the house is well-plotted and wrapped neatly, although the promise of a series is evident from the book title right on through to the last sentence. As I've said before, I'm not the biggest proponent of talking anim
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Oct 31, 2010
Sandra
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I've seen this book on several blogs and finally purchased it. The idea that you could put on a pair of spectacles and go through a picture was an idea that really fascinated me. It must have fascinated the main character in this book. Olive Dunwoody and her parents have always lived in apartments. Now her parents have purchased an old victorian style house. As mathematicians they have fallen in love with all of the antiques in the house. They don't care that the previous owner died there.
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Sep 29, 2011
NewFranklin
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This mystery/fantasy book really surprised me with how great it is, and I can't wait to read the next book (it won't be out until July 2011).
Merrit- In this book a girl named Olive moves to a house with three talking cats and a bunch very strange paintings. One day while she is rummaging through some drawers in the lavender room she finds a pair of old wire rimmed glasses she finds out that when she has the glasses on she can do amazing things to find out what you have to read t
Merrit- In this book a girl named Olive moves to a house with three talking cats and a bunch very strange paintings. One day while she is rummaging through some drawers in the lavender room she finds a pair of old wire rimmed glasses she finds out that when she has the glasses on she can do amazing things to find out what you have to read t
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Oct 15, 2010
Meet Olive, an 11 year old girl new to the neighborhood whose family has just moved into a mansion with quite a past. As Olive explores the house’s many rooms and their contents, she rushes headlong, literally, into unearthing the dark history of the mansion’s previous inhabitants, when she finds a pair of glasses tucked away in the drawer. When Olive dons them, she learns there is far more to the strange, dark paintings that seem permanently affixed to the walls than she thought – she can actua
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Sep 23, 2010
Amanda
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Olive is a character many kids will relate to even if they have never had to move away to a new home and don't know anyone around. She loves her new home but she's also a little bit scared of parts of it. She's never lived outside of an apartment before and this house is huge and old. It's obviously holding many memories and secrets. Olive loves exploring but she refuses to go to the basement because it's dark and a little creepy. In exploring the house she finds a pair of spectacles that let he
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Aug 14, 2010
Eva
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There are some similarities to Neil Gaiman's Coraline in this story. Because Olive's parents are mathematicians whose minds are on numbers and not always on their daughter, Olive is left on her own to explore her new house. As in Coraline, there are strange and unnerving parallels to the real world in the paintings Olive enters - in one, she finds a grim and shadowy simulacrum of her own street. Coraline was aided by a slinky and mysterious cat, and Olive has not one but three feline protectors
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Dec 18, 2011
Traci
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Aug 25, 2011
Leslie
rated it:
First, I would like to say that I am going to go on what seems like a bit of a tangent about the jacket copy on books before telling you that I really did like the first two volumes of The Books of Elsewhere and that I am looking forward to the next volume. Thank you.
I had seen Jacqueline West’s The Books of Elsewhere : The Shadows everywhere when it was first released, but lost it in the ToBeRead pile until seeing the second book’s appearance. The wonderful blog “Shelf Elf” was the on More...
I had seen Jacqueline West’s The Books of Elsewhere : The Shadows everywhere when it was first released, but lost it in the ToBeRead pile until seeing the second book’s appearance. The wonderful blog “Shelf Elf” was the on More...
Mar 19, 2011
Laura
rated it:
THE SHADOWS, a middle-grade paranormal novel, opens with a great line: “Ms. McMartin was definitely dead.” The decedent leaves behind a huge old pile of a mansion, and as her nearest relative has just died in Shanghai of “a severe allergic reaction to a bowl of turtle and arsenic soup,” the house is put on the market. Mr. and Mrs. Dunwoody, a pair of university mathematicians, buy the house and move in with their eleven-year-old daughter, Olive. Olive’s parents are loving, but tend to consider h
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Aug 22, 2011
Pricky
rated it:
A magical mystery that will appeal to elementary-age children. West's debut novel involves a little girl Olive who moves into a mysterious mansion and discovers paintings she can enter and some talking cats. I really enjoyed West's writing; her word usage and the way she crafted the story kept me wanting to read more.
This story is definitely geared toward children; I didn't find the story to be scary for me; and I think West does a good job of bringing fear/mystery to the reader with More...
This story is definitely geared toward children; I didn't find the story to be scary for me; and I think West does a good job of bringing fear/mystery to the reader with More...
May 10, 2011
Beverly
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Eleven year-old Olive and her somewhat distracted, mathematically inclined parents move into old Mrs. McMartin's house after she dies. All of Ms. McMartin's things - including walls and walls of strange paintings are included in the purchase of the house. Left to her own to explore, Olive finds a pair of old spectacles which she tries on - these are not just any old reading glasses. They allow her to travel inside the odd paintings that fill the walls. This Elsewhere has a strange resemblance
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Sep 17, 2011
Doris
rated it:
Olive is a lonely child, with mediocre intelligence, thus disappointing her genius mathematician parents. One of her memories is of her parents taping an "A" math test to the refrigerator and staring it misty eyed. They are very into their careers, and flit from place to place, taking Olive along for the ride.
They arrive at the house of the story as the place to set down roots, not seeing the scary aspects of the house. Scary? Pictures with litle objects that flit about, th More...
They arrive at the house of the story as the place to set down roots, not seeing the scary aspects of the house. Scary? Pictures with litle objects that flit about, th More...
Feb 13, 2012
Trina
rated it:
I absolutely LOVED this book, and so did my students. It was recommended by one of my 6th graders as a read-a-loud for my creative writing class. It just so happened that we started a mysteries unit about 4 chapters into the story. Everyone in the class was completely wrapped up in the story and every time I tried to find a stopping point, they would beg for more. Olive is an endearing character with lot and lots of guts. You feel totally sorry for Morton, and you want Olive to do what ever
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Apr 25, 2010
Jennifer
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jan 31, 2012
Victoria
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I like this book becaouse it is intresting and it is about that Olive moves to this house that an old woman died therand that house is Olives and the house is a mestery.The general is mestery.So how I was seing about the house and in the house there 3 cats one cat is in the basement, the second wone is with Olive,and the 3rd wone is in the attic. The cat that is in the basement is protecting a trap door but later on MR.MACMORTIN is a probom becousehe is evel and so how evel he was he kild his ow
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Oct 07, 2011
Tessa
rated it:
THIS IS A SPOILER!
Olive Dunwoody is an average child, even though she is the daughter of two genius mathmaticians, and an only child. Her and her parents are moving to an old, large, and creepy house that holds lots of secrets, which is a big change after a ton of rented apartments which are all the same. This new house has lots of paintings which seem to be hiding something, and Olive discovers a pair of enchanted spectacles and with them she can climb into paintings. In one of th More...
Olive Dunwoody is an average child, even though she is the daughter of two genius mathmaticians, and an only child. Her and her parents are moving to an old, large, and creepy house that holds lots of secrets, which is a big change after a ton of rented apartments which are all the same. This new house has lots of paintings which seem to be hiding something, and Olive discovers a pair of enchanted spectacles and with them she can climb into paintings. In one of th More...
Feb 16, 2012
Felita
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dari pertama baca ulasannya di balik buku, langsung ambil bwt dibaca
keluarga tokoh utama, olive, pindah ke rumah kuno gaya victoria. tak disangka, olive menemukan petulangan di rumah besar ini. rumah besar, dengan banyak kamar dan banyak lukisan yg mejeng di dinding2 rumah tsb. setelah nemuin kacamata jadul, olive bisa masuk ke dunia yang ada di balik lukisan. tapi para penghuninya ga nerima olive. karena mereka diawasi oleh seseorang. seseorang yg ga pengen keluarga olive tinggal di r More...
keluarga tokoh utama, olive, pindah ke rumah kuno gaya victoria. tak disangka, olive menemukan petulangan di rumah besar ini. rumah besar, dengan banyak kamar dan banyak lukisan yg mejeng di dinding2 rumah tsb. setelah nemuin kacamata jadul, olive bisa masuk ke dunia yang ada di balik lukisan. tapi para penghuninya ga nerima olive. karena mereka diawasi oleh seseorang. seseorang yg ga pengen keluarga olive tinggal di r More...
Feb 02, 2012
Brandy
rated it:
Originally posted here.
I have been meaning to read The Shadows by Jacqueline West since it won the Cybil in MG Fantasy and Science Fiction last year. I finally got around to it now that the new winners are about to be announced. I can see why this one was chosen as a winner. This is a story sure to appeal to children who like their fantasy on the slightly creepy side. For adult fans of the genre there is also quite a bit of nostalgia on offer in the book.
The story in thi More...
I have been meaning to read The Shadows by Jacqueline West since it won the Cybil in MG Fantasy and Science Fiction last year. I finally got around to it now that the new winners are about to be announced. I can see why this one was chosen as a winner. This is a story sure to appeal to children who like their fantasy on the slightly creepy side. For adult fans of the genre there is also quite a bit of nostalgia on offer in the book.
The story in thi More...
