See No Evil [Hardcover]

Everybody knows the classic surprise princess story, the one about the girl who dreams that she is a princess, with a fairy tale life, whose real parents are loving and wonderful people who will whisk her away from the terror and squalor of her present circumstances and give her everything she ever wanted -- and in the end, it turns out that reality is just as she had dreamed it.

But what if the story went the other way? What if a girl was a princess, with a fairy tale life, complete with swimming pools and movie stars, maids and chauffeurs and personal chefs and everything she could ever want, including two parents who are so sweet and loving that no child could ever be happier? And what if it turned out that the reality was something rather different, and far more horrible, than the girl ever imagined?

That would make a good story. And if that was the only story told in See No Evil, it would be a great book. Where the book focuses on that story, it is a nice one: Jamila Gavin writes it well, giving a realistic and touching portrait of the princess-who-is-not, Nettie Roberts; Nettie is sympathetic and genuine, and, I thought, a lovely character in an interesting and poignant story. But that story is somewhat hard to read, because Gavin apparently didn't feel that telling one good story was enough.

This book also tells the story of a young girl, isolated by wealth and privilege, who has no friends, until a tutor comes to educate her, and the two of them bond, quickly and completely -- and then the tutor vanishes, without a reason, without a trace, without a goodbye. Nettie is despondent, and desperately wishes for an explanation -- especially when she sees someone, while riding in the park, who looks suspiciously like her missing tutor, but who does not answer to her hail . . .

It also tells the story of a young girl who has no friends, isolated by wealth and privilege, until she meets the Boy: a young man, whom she had thought to be a ghost, who is exploring the world that he only touches upon -- but his father has taught him that in order to survive, they must follow the rule of the three monkeys: see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil. . .

It also tells the story of a young girl who loves to dance, and her aged and failing great-aunt, who was once the greatest ballet dancer in the world: beloved and sought after by wealthy suitors across the globe. When the old woman comes to live with the young girl -- who is lonely, friendless, isolated by wealth and privilege -- the girl is at first intimidated and confused by the old woman's behavior. But once the girl sees her dance, she can't help but ask for lessons; and once the old woman sees the girl dance, and recognizes her potential, she can't help but begin to mold her great-niece into her successor. And Nettie will dance Swan Lake some day. . .

The book also tells the story of a desperate and hopeless young immigrant, deceived by the man who said he would help her, dumped alone and pregnant and lost on the shores of England. She is picked up by a man who, mysteriously, knows her name and everything about her, and who offers her a ride . . .

This book tells all of those stories. And more: there is the mysterious hint that the girl's father is nicknamed Vlad the Impaler; there is Nettie's first trip on the London Underground; there is her first day at school and the development of her first real school friend -- and oh, so much more. Unfortunately, since it is a young adult book -- and therefore tends to avoid overly complex and lengthy expositions -- and since it is only 200 pages long, it cannot tell all of these stories well. They run into and over each other, and threads get dropped and lost from every one. The mystery man who picks up the pregnant immigrant, for example, is never explained: who he is, how he knows all about her, why he was driving down that empty road at night, why he picked her up, why he left her unconscious in a ditch -- I dunno. The book never says. By the time the climactic moment arrives, it seems like small potatoes, because one event simply cannot tie up all of these tales -- and it seems terribly false and manufactured, because too much of the book leading up to that moment was dedicated to exploring the other plotlines, and the main story was never completely developed.

Because the story was too full of ideas, and because the exploration of those ideas are all fairly shallow, I didn't like the book. It was hard to get into, and then once the third or fourth plot line came up, I just wanted to get through it. The author does write well, and Nettie is nicely characterized and very sympathetic -- but there were just too many stories here. Since I am not the target audience, however, the book may be very successful for those who like complicated stories, simply told, that involve wealth and privilege, and friendship, and dark hidden secrets. I hope people like that exist, so that they can enjoy this book more than I did.

In the case of See No Evil, readers are well advised to heed the old cliché: do not judge a book by its cover. While the cover all but promises a juicy haunted house thriller, this intriguing novel spins a far deeper tale of an international conspiracy involving human trafficking, vast wealth, and personal loyalty.

At the center of this complicated web the reader finds naïve and innocent Nettie Roberts, a young teen who has never questioned her family's extraordinarily privileged way of life until her favorite tutor, Miss Kovachev, strangely disappears. A series of unnerving events -- including the discovery of Miss Kovachev's diary written in a foreign language, clear signs that her own parents are hiding information from her, and sightings of a ghost-like boy in their enormous house -- propel Nettie toward a discovery that could fundamentally alter her sheltered way of life.

Young adults seeking a smart, face-paced mystery with international realism will enjoy this novel from start to finish. It certainly raises some interesting questions about innocence and guilt that is associated with wealth gained from evil activities.

› Go to Amazon U.S. to see both reviews  3.5 out of 5 stars