Bookcloseouts.com recently had a $1.49 sale on children and YA books. Naturally, I could not resist. I purchased this one and decided to read it shortly after I opened the box of marvelous delivery of books!

I'm actually not sure how I feel about this book. First, I can say the writing was crisp, clear and lyrical. I liked the author's style. But then, I'm following up with comments about the dark nature of the subject matter.

The setting is a widowed father, two children, and a secluded cottage.

After the loss of two wives, and a series of death of his children's pets, the father decides to move to a new location. Seeking solace and a brand new start, things rapidly spin out of control as increasingly the father desends into madness, leaving the children to fend for themselves.

Written from the perspective and voice of the 14 year old daughter, there are amazing insights and frank portrayals of disfunction.

The subject matter of the loss of pets and the loss of mother is portrayed in a disturbing fashion. This is not a soft, warm book, but it is worth reading. ( )

The McLuckies, dad, Sylvia, and Walter have moved to a new town for a new start. But they've moved into the locally known Gravedigger's Cottage, ironic given the number of pet deaths they have experienced in Sylvia and Walter's short lives. The McLuckies are mostly self-contained, sheltering with each other away from the rest of the world, until Walter welcomes an odd local child into their midst s his friend. The story is told by fourteen year old Sylvia and is fairly unrelentingly dark. The chapters alternate between the disintegrating psychological state of Mr. McLuckie accompanied by the distress of the kids and brief vignettes about each pet they've had and how it eventually, generally accidentally, met its death. There is a creepiness and morbidity to the book that is unrelieved by the easy and redemptive ending because it is too abrupt to banish the feel of the book up to that point.

Although this is a young adult book, I found it very difficult to immerse myself in the story and more bothered than anything else by the characterizations. It just felt off-kilter most of the time. Perhaps the middle school audience for whom I was pre-screening it will be more receptive to it han I was. ( )