This is the first of the Malory Towers continuation novels written by Pamela Cox. My expectations were not high, and I was very pleasantly surprised. This book was much better than I had expected. This one at least can be placed beside the ones written by Enid Blyton without any shame.

Pamela Cox does a very solid effort to imitate Blyton's style, without it being exactly the same. That "almost but not quite" sensation is noticeable at the beginning, but it soon vanishes as one reads. It helps that Cox is writing about a different set of characters. That way the small difference in feel is less grating, since it makes sense that for a different group of schoolgirls the voice may be slightly different.

Perhaps Cox does not have the same effortless and engaging storytelling as Blyton did, but her style is also engaging, and it feels like a Malory Towers story. She is clearly very familiar with the series, and adds to it respectfully. The tricks, the classes, the conflicts between the characters, the insights they gain, it's all there. Perhaps one could say that she relies a lot on Blyton's work, making it less original, but I think this is what one expects of continuation novels like this. One wants to recapture the originals, not to read something rather different.

There's even one important area where Cox actually improves on her predecessor: she is less heavy-handed with the moralism, and that allows her to have characters who feel less one-dimensional. There is more nuance and less typecasting. In Blyton's Malory Towers books, the "bad" girls often found redemption, but it worked like this: they were awful, and at the end, after something bad happened to them, they had a change of heart, learned from their errors and reformed. With Cox, the antagonists do not act so awful to begin with. Sure, they are flawed, sometimes seriously so, but those flaws are also balanced with some good qualities. They not so much reform as learn to handle their flaws better. It makes for more interesting, well-rounded characters. Even the heroes do wrong things and learn.

I enjoyed many things about this. While not exactly the same as Blyton, because that's impossible, it's a very close imitation, and I'm now looking forward to reading the rest of Pamela Cox additions to the series, now with confidence that they are worthy. ( )

El curso empieza con muchos cambios en Torres de Malory. Ahora que Darrell no está, le tocará a su hermana Felicity asumir nuevas re sponsabilidades ¡y resolver un montón de líos! ¡El internado de siempre, más emocionante que nunca!

Alright but gosh there was way too much time spent on trying to reform girls who weren't being 'decent'. I would have liked more activities and more action! That being said, I prefer Cox's characterization to Blyton's, it's less stereotypical so far. I'll read them all anyway like the school story addict I am. ( )