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The Glass Casket McCormick Templeman Books

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The Glass Casket McCormick Templeman Books

What an exciting, thrilling read! It kept me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened next. The beginning was a flurry of confusion as I was introduced to not only the world and its rules, but also nearly every village resident. I finally decided to plow through, and I'm glad that I did because the town elders and their titles weren't really important. The writing was vivid and brought to mind images of a beautiful frozen landscape.

The village folks were written so well they could have stepped into the pages from any small community. There are always those in the bunch who are revered, those who are afraid of change, those that follow blindly, etc. Templeman writes with a clarity on how villages and their members work.

I didn't really buy the insta-love for one couple. They meet and bam they want to spend eternity together. It was never explained why they felt like they had known each other before. I wanted an explanation for why this connection ran so deep and was instantaneous and some other connections as well, not just the boy-girl kind.

I felt like the answer to the mystery was well thought out, and that all of the pieces fit together in the end. There was such a delicious build to the finale, that I felt the finale needed to be drawn out a little bit. It was over within a chapter or two. I really enjoyed not knowing what was coming. I sort of had my suspicions, but I just wasn't certain. I would recommend this to anyone who loves a little bit of horror mixed with a little bit of fantasy mixed with a whole lot of mystery. There are some gory details when describing victims.

I would love to see more of this world in other books. I will also be checking out more works by this author.


Tags : Amazon.com: The Glass Casket (9780385743457): McCormick Templeman: Books,McCormick Templeman,The Glass Casket,Delacorte Press,0385743459,Fairy Tales & Folklore - Adaptations,Fantasy - General,Romance - General,Community life,Fairy tales,Fairy tales.,Love,Love stories,Murder,Murder;Fiction.,Paranormal fiction,Supernatural,Supernatural;Fiction.,Witches,Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9),Fiction,Fiction-Fantasy,JUVENILE,Juvenile Fiction,Juvenile Fiction Love & Romance,Juvenile FictionFantasy & Magic,Juvenile FictionMysteries, Espionage, & Detective Stories,Juvenile FictionSocial Themes - Friendship,Juvenile Grades 7-9 Ages 12-14,Love & Romance,Mysteries, Espionage, & Detective Stories,Romance & relationships stories (Children's Teenage),Romance - General,Social Themes - Friendship,Supernatural,Supernatural;Fiction.,TEEN'S FICTION FANTASY,United States,Witches,YOUNG ADULT FICTION,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Fairy Tales & Folklore Adaptations,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Fantasy General,Young Adult Fiction Mysteries & Detective Stories,Young Adult Fiction Romance General,Young Adult Fiction Social Themes Friendship,Juvenile Fiction Love & Romance,Juvenile FictionFantasy & Magic,Juvenile FictionMysteries, Espionage, & Detective Stories,Juvenile FictionSocial Themes - Friendship,Love & Romance,Mysteries, Espionage, & Detective Stories,Social Themes - Friendship,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Fairy Tales & Folklore Adaptations,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Fantasy General,Young Adult Fiction Mysteries & Detective Stories,Young Adult Fiction Romance General,Young Adult Fiction Social Themes Friendship,Fiction,YOUNG ADULT FICTION,Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9),Romance & relationships stories (Children's Teenage)

The Glass Casket McCormick Templeman Books Reviews

Summary
Rowan Rose lives in a small village where girls aren't taught to read, candlelight is used as the only lights, and superstitions run wild. It's a predictable world until five of the King's men are found brutally murdered. Then, Fiona Eira, a long lost cousin of Rowan's shows up in town. She's beautiful and mysterious and Roman's best friend Tom falls in love with her instantly. The only problem is that death has shown up in the village and Fiona is another victim. Her heart is torn out and she is placed inside a glass casket. Tragedy strikes and the town searches for what might have brought down these horrors to their village.

My thoughts
Honestly, the plot and mystery within this novel is very well down. I did not guess what the ending would be until more than halfway through the novel. Even then, I was still a little unsure. The horror and blood along with each murder is written about with exquisite detail. Templeman has done a very good job of pulling you into the story itself. Unfortunately, the characters are not done very well. I never felt like I really got to know any of them. They are definitely surface characters. You get to know most of the village, but never really like anyone. Plus, the point of view changes rather quickly, so you don't even stick with someone to really follow them. To me it felt like characters in a mediocre play where you anticipate the actor is going to bring them to life for you.I desperately wanted a character to connect with because the mystery was done so well.
I picked this novel up thinking it would be a dark retelling of a fairy tale, perhaps Snow White. Well... that's not wrong, exactly. It's not a retelling of a fairy tale as much as a sampler of themes from a wide variety of tales Snow White, the similarly named but dissimilarly themed Snow White and Rose Red, Sleeping Beauty, and the currently popular storyline of teens in love with (sexy) monsters. It's definitely dark, dark as can be. In fact, I'd classify this as a horror story. Templeman's writing occasionally becomes a bit overblown and clunky, but she is very effective at being creepy. I'm a full grown adult and I had a bit of trouble getting to sleep after reading one of the more gruesome chapters.

Templeton deserves praise for avoiding a couple of the typical fairy-tale retelling traps. She doesn't get overly involved in the teen romance, or excessively wrapped up in describing tumultuous passions etc. The love triangle is there, but it stays a subplot. Secondly, she doesn't have any particular problem with killing off characters, even characters we like. This gives the book a very unpredictable feeling, and we the readers feel equally as out of control as Rowen does, with no idea who will be dispatched next or why. Thirdly, the twists are not terribly predictable. You definitely get a feel for where the book is going by the last few chapters, but there's never a time when it's blindingly obvious enough to be irritating. The ending feels appropriate and satisfactory.

On the other hand, there are some major flaws. Templeton has Rowen totally avoid the witches, who are portrayed as being completely and utterly kind and prosaic. She's afraid of them - but there's never an explanation for it. They have no real frightening qualities and *everyone* without exception sees them as a positive force in the village, even if not everyone believes in their magic. When she finally does talk to them, it's information that would have been tremendously helpful earlier (of course) and I couldn't help but feel that their meeting was just delayed by the author until a convenient turning point.

One of my least favorite weird authorial choices is here as well random hatred for a family member. I'm definitely aware that some families have a scapegoat, or a family member who isn't accepted. However, there is always a reason for this, even if it's a bad one. Did their birth mean that the mother died from complications? Do they have some kind of gift that makes people uncomfortable, or a disability that reminds the family of its imperfections? Sure. But random, unexplained hatred is just unbelievable to me. And we get a huge dose of that between Jude and his Mother. Mom hates son number one. Why? We never know. Not even at the end of the book do we get any light shed on this strange animosity. Jude never actually does anything wrong, and the rest of the village seems perfectly fine with him. His personality quirks are basically "being quiet" and "going hunting." Oh, and being attractive. Uh... ok.

Lastly, Rowan herself has some very strange and not terribly believable quirks herself. She's in a village that is supposedly pretty backward, but she has no trouble going off by herself at any time, studying and being literate, and even addressing an entire village gathering of men (and being taken seriously)! But for some reason when her father agrees to betroth her, she can't imagine disobeying - despite having disobeyed her father several times with very little hesitation. This doesn't add up. We're told that the village is very patriarchal and traditional, but it's never shown, so when Rowan reacts as though she's constrained by tradition, it doesn't read as consistent.

Some of the other reviews of this book complain about the characters being unlikeable, and I can see that to an extent. None of them are easy to completely identify with; they all have pretty strong personalities and flaws, except perhaps Jude, who seems a bit two dimensional. This was actually a positive for me. One definitely can't have the experience of Twilight with this book, where the protagonist is so completely blank that you can imagine her however you like. Rowan is very instinctual, she makes some bad decisions, she doesn't always think carefully about her choices, and she behaves irrationally. Fair enough - she's only about 16.

Over all I'd rate this book fairly high. It could have used a bit more editing, tightened up some of the prose and perhaps toned it down a bit. The couple of weird artificial plot points detract from the story somewhat, but at the base it's a satisfyingly creepy fairy tale.
An easy, suspenseful and entertaining read! Not earth-shattering but I wasn't expecting it to be. It keeps you turning the pages and I finished it within 48 hours.
What an exciting, thrilling read! It kept me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened next. The beginning was a flurry of confusion as I was introduced to not only the world and its rules, but also nearly every village resident. I finally decided to plow through, and I'm glad that I did because the town elders and their titles weren't really important. The writing was vivid and brought to mind images of a beautiful frozen landscape.

The village folks were written so well they could have stepped into the pages from any small community. There are always those in the bunch who are revered, those who are afraid of change, those that follow blindly, etc. Templeman writes with a clarity on how villages and their members work.

I didn't really buy the insta-love for one couple. They meet and bam they want to spend eternity together. It was never explained why they felt like they had known each other before. I wanted an explanation for why this connection ran so deep and was instantaneous and some other connections as well, not just the boy-girl kind.

I felt like the answer to the mystery was well thought out, and that all of the pieces fit together in the end. There was such a delicious build to the finale, that I felt the finale needed to be drawn out a little bit. It was over within a chapter or two. I really enjoyed not knowing what was coming. I sort of had my suspicions, but I just wasn't certain. I would recommend this to anyone who loves a little bit of horror mixed with a little bit of fantasy mixed with a whole lot of mystery. There are some gory details when describing victims.

I would love to see more of this world in other books. I will also be checking out more works by this author.