I can't quite describe this book. It's not a happy book,and yet, when it was over, I felt satisfied. It ended perfectly. The mystery, the characters, the plot - it was perfectly done. As with every Konigsburg book, at the end, I felt like a different person, and it took me some time to come back to the real world. I highly recommend. ( )

This book reminded me oddly of The Westing Game.

I enjoyed this book, but it felt rushed. The story would have been better served had it not been squished into a 115-page young adult novel. (On the other hand, I might not have read it had it not been squished into a 115-page young adult novel.) ( )

definitely older kids ( )

E.L. Konigsburg Week 2012, Book 2. 3/5 stars. ( )

Summary: Winston Carmichael has not had a normal childhood - his father is one of the most wealthy men in Pittsburgh, he constantly has to take care of his developmentally delayed sister Heidi, and because since his half-sister Caroline was killed in a kidnapping before Winston was born, his overprotective parents keep him isolated from other children. All of that changes, however, when a young woman claiming to be Caroline shows up at their front door. Although she seems to be telling the truth, Winston's not sure if they're even actually related. But the truth is that it doesn't really matter - even if she's not their long-lost daughter, Caroline might just be what this family needs.

Review: Meh. While I loved From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler as a kid, I never sought out any of her other books until recently. Father's Arcane Daughter marks the second of Konigsburg's novels that I've read as an adult, and while maybe I've just been picking the wrong books, I'm beginning to understand why Mixed-Up Files was the only one pushed on my by the librarians of my childhood.

Part of this book's problem was that it couldn't decide what it wanted to be. For such a short book, it's a jumble of a lot of ideas: it starts out like the brother-of-a-disabled-sibling book (a la Al Capone Does My Shirts), but then strangely morphs into family mystery conspiracy, and part of the way back again. As a result, it's not really effective at either of the genres it attempts. Kongisburg does capture Winston's voice - hyper-educated but under-socialized - really effectively, however, and there are some nice poignant moments tossed in the mix.

My biggest problem with the book, though, was its plot, especially its ending. The whole thing lacked believable motivations, and the ending was just so facile and disappointing that it lets the rest of the book down and really turned me off. I can't even recommend this to families of disabled children, since it sort of makes it seem like disabilities are just the result of not trying hard enough to believe the child is not disabled, and can be completely cured/reversed if you'd just bother to put the effort in. Ugh. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Pass. It's a short and fast read, but there are other books out there that are much better at accomplishing what this book was aiming for. ( )