Most helpful customer reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Take a leap, Mar 29 2007
Losing a friend is one of the greatest traumas a person can have, especially if they somehow feel responsible for the death. Fantasy writer Jonathan Stroud tackled that sensitive topic in "The Leap," an early novel that straddled the boundaries between reality and fantasy.
Charlie nearly died trying to rescue her drowning pal Max, and now she's suffering from her grief and shock. She remembers strange green women dragging him down, yet no one believes her. But things change suddenly when she begins to have strange dreams, of a surreal land where Max is walking in the distance.
In her dreams, Charlie encounters a strange man who tells her that Max is heading toward the Great Fair -- if he joins an alluring magic dance there, he will be lost forever. But the dreams are having a lasting effect on Charlie -- she's waking up with scratches, and thinks she sees wolves from her dream outside her house. Can she save Max, or will she herself be lost in the world of the dead?
It's a credit to Stroud that while including elements of fantasy, he's able to portray grief and guilt so expertly. In fact, as good as the dream sequences are, the detached, erratic behavior that Charlie has in the real world is much, much more compelling.
Stroud alternates between lush, descriptive writing in the dream realm, and more down-to-earth styles when Charlie is awake. And it's deeply affecting when he describes how the loss of Max has hit Charlie, her family, and his grieving parents. The only flaw is that we only get brief glimpses of Max; we never really get to know him.
But Stroud hits the bulls-eye with Charlie and her family -- she's determined to save Max, and not willing to believe that he's gone. And her family is afraid that she's going insane. To keep things grounded, her brother James narrates some chapters, giving an idea of what her family thinks of her strange behavior. James thoughts are as powerful as Charlie's, out of fear that his sister is going bonkers.
Stroud never quite explains whether the "dream world" events are real, but perhaps it's better that he left it that way. In the end, "The Leap" is a powerful tale about grief and love.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Deliciously Eerie, Mysterious Novel from Jonathan Stroud, Jul 4 2004
This is the second novel written by Jonathan Stroud, the author of the Bartimaeus books (The Amulet of Samarkand and the upcoming The Golem's Eye).First of all, ignore what the Amazon listing tells you. This is not a "Baby-Preschool" book! This book contains some sophisticated themes and is written for the same demographic as the Bartimaeus books. The novel tells the story of a young girl, Charlie (short for Charlotte), who witnesses the drowning death of her best friend, Max. She tries to save him, but is stopped in her rescue attempt by other-worldly forces. When Charlie tells her story, nobody believes her but think she is suffering delusions due to her recent trauma. In the meantime, Charlie dreams of Max and is convinced that he is still alive. She vows to find him in her dreams and rescue him. This book contains a similar narrative device to the one Stroud uses in "Amulet". The first-person narrative point-of-view switches between Charlie and her older brother James. It was confusing at first, because unlike "Amulet" there are no chapter titles telling you who's currently telling the story. However, once you figure out what's going on, it's an effective method of telling what's going on inside Charlie and James' heads. The story is a supernatural one where Charlie travels in an alternate world in her dreams. Stroud is adept at creating suspense and immersing you in exciting action scenes when you can't take the suspense any more. Like "Buried Fire", the ending seems a little abrupt, but it is satisfying. Maybe I just thought it was abrupt because I didn't want the story to end! What other measure of good writing can there be when the story ends and leaves you wanting more? I highly recommend this book!
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