“Two hours of European history, I’m going to the pool!”

23. The Empty Frame – Ann Pilling

It was in the afterword of this book that I found out Ann Pilling and Ann Cheetham are the same person, which explains why a young weirdo (Magnus) and a brother and sister (Sam and Floss) are on vacation somewhere that has an old mystery that Magnus, being a loner and super intelligent, will be most likely to figure out. All the Dark Powers mysteries (which will be covered in this summer of YA and yet more paintings from me) are also like this, so I’m not sure why it was necessary to change the characters’ names. Anyway, it wasn’t bad or anything, I just noticed the format was essentially the same with different names and hair complaints and fewer parents.

At Bisham Abbey for the summer holidays, Magnus notices that the portrait of Alice Neale is very cold, like she’s making the room cold and she’s got an iced over anger in her face. There’s also a portrait of a little boy who everyone calls William but no one can find information on next to her. And somebody’s crying in the night while wandering around the abbey. Magnus and Floss are interested in exploring the mystery and Magnus keeps seeing Alice Neale’s ghost. Sam, a thoroughly modern boy, doesn’t think ghosts are real and so he’s not that keen on mystery solving, but he’ll help with the practicalities of getting into an old tunnel under the river to find super old copy books and stuff like that.

 

For Ozma to escape her frame, first they’d have to make a frame that could contain her. Her cuteness knows no perimeter.

 

She also cannot be contained by the parameters of perspective, not when she’s witching out on her version of Coffin Rock anyway. She’s waiting to be documented, if Peregrine, Salem, and Thorfy can get their 1990s shit together.
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