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The Nebula and World Fantasy Award-nominated author of A Red Heart of Memories continues the spellbinding story of the wandering witch Matilda (Matt) Black, who possesses the ability to communicate with inanimate objects and see into people's dreams--and her companion Edmund Reynolds, a young man with magic of his own who is only beginning to come to grips with his past and his powers... The two travelers have come to the town where Edmund grew up, and found shelter in the benevolently haunted house that was a refuge for Edmund and his friends when they were children. But the house begins to speak to Matt, urgently, telling her that she and Edmund have to leave, to seek out the long-scattered friends. For a darkness is rising, a dangerous, powerful entity. And the only chance of stopping it lies in the hearts of the lost children of the house...… (more)
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It's full of magic and interesting characters and I really enjoyed the read.
'Past the Size of Dreaming,' the sequel to , 'A Red Heart of Memories' I thought was a more successful
In it the characters are more concerned with who they are now, and exploring their powers, growing as people - not being obsessed by the past . The plot - involving a search to discover what they have been gathered to accomplish, in the face of mysterious occult opposition - is more coherent.
The ensemble cast of characters is diverse and interesting, and although not all questions are answered, the magical 'feel' of the book makes it all worthwhile.
Adults explore the reasons that their teenage selves hid in what turned out to be a haunted house. In a lightweight fantasy/supernatural escapist reading kind of way.
This is very different from A Red Heart of Memories, more urban fantasy with a grand battle against dark forces than wandering witches trying to right their pasts. Edmund, Matt, Suki, Nathan, and House do find
It was bizarre, sort of like an AU of the previous canon. Julio was kidnapped as a teenager by a mysterious wizard, who changed his form into eternal fire and somehow implanted another conscious being in his body. It was weird enough then, but it's even weirder now, in the present day. That left only Deirdre as the "normal" kid in the group, without any kind of magic. It frustrated and saddened her, and made her jealous of her lifelong friends. She ran from Guthrie just as hard and fast as the rest of them, but for different reasons entirely. She is very reluctant to return, even after the House summons her.
I wasn't sure what to make of Terry and Tasha, the twins. I didn't really like them, and as they were entirely new characters in this book, it didn't quite seem to fit. The "enemies" were the same; they felt half-formed and a bit tropey for trope's sake.
The romantic strands of the story were tiny but perfect; Nathan and Suki's first kiss was very sweet.
The end, though, boy, that was hard for me.
This book is so different from A Red Heart of Memories and A Stir of Bones that I have no idea if I'd recommend it. I guess it depends on how you felt about the first two - if you liked them, you probably won't like this; if you didn't, then you probably would. Apparently there are more short stories out there starring Matt, and maybe those help fill in some of her inconsistencies. I can't say I'm rushing out to read any of them; I wasn't really interested in her in the end.
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