Albie Mirralls has meet his cousin Lizzie once in his life, a meeting which has left a lasting impression on Albie. Ten years later Albie learns about the violent death of Lizzie and his thoughts are set on one thing only: finding out what has happened to Lizzie. Leaving his wife behind, he sets out for the small Yorkshire town of Halfoak, a town riddled with superstitions.

I enjoyed reading this novel, but at the same time I feel like this could have been so much better. Which makes this a frustrating reading experience and a difficult book to give a star rating to.

What I liked: Alison Littlewood knows how to write a compelling story. Despite it being a slow and very descriptive read, I have never been bored by it and I really appreciated the research she has put into this novel. She has managed to capture the Victorian feeling perfectly.

The issues I had with this book:

• On page 300 (out of 368) I still haven´t had a clue what the story is about. Does the plot revolve around the murder of Lizzie, the domestic problems of the main character or the myths surrounding the “hidden people”, the fairies? The author manages to wrap up all the plotlines in the end, but still I´m not a fan of feeling at a loss with regards to the story for almost 300 pages.
• I didn´t like to read the Yorkshire accent: “So one of`em, an old `un, `air like a fox and twice as cunnin`, `e smiled at me. Smiled!” And since the story is taking place in a small town in Yorkshire, there is a LOT of talk such as this.
• My biggest gripe, though, is the main character Albie. The story is told from his point of view, and he is as unreliable as an unreliable narrator gets. Claiming that his wife Helena is sweet-tempered and perfect, the reader gets to know her as bad-tempered and being constantly annoyed with her husband. And here is the thing: I can´t blame her. Being married to such an idiot as Albie, I would be bad-tempered as well. Helena, I feel you.

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Another thing I don´t get about Albie is his infatuation with his cousin Lizzie. He has meet her exactly once and this meeting hasn´t struck me as a particularly memorable one. And yet he is completely infatuated with her and leaves his wife in pursuit of the memory of a woman he hasn´t known at all. Not being able to understand the motivations of the main character and he not being able to explain them himself properly, made this story a difficult one to get into and I felt detached from it the whole way through.

The Hidden People isn´t by any means a bad book, but it isn´t a novel I would recommend either. In the end I just feel meh about it, although I liked reading it.

Oh my, that main character:

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I feel so conflicted about this book. I liked reading it, but at the same time I have so many issues with it.

Since I´m sick for the rest of the week and with the upcoming Christmas days, I have a whole lot of spare time do a lot of reading (and watching the second season of The Expanse). So I decided to spin the dreidel for the Hanukkah task. To whittle down my Willoughby book club TBR, I have choosen four books that the people from Willoughby have send to me.

נ (Nun) - The Hidden People by Alison Littlewood

ג (Gimel) - One Night in Winter by Simon Sebag Montefiore

ה (He) - The Beguiled by Thomas Cullinan

ש (Shin) - Under a Pole Star by Stef Penny

And the dreidel says:

ה (He) - The Beguiled by Thomas Cullinan

At a girls boarding school in Virginia, the pupils lead sheltered lives. When an injured soldier, wounded in the civil war, is found in the woods nearby and taken in to recuperate, the girls fall immediately under the spell of this charming stranger. But soon his presence unleashes something dark and dangerous in all of them ...

I have to admit, that sounds really good.

“Be Careful what you wish for . . .”

Olivia Kiskey should have remembered that. I mean really – she should have learned that particular lesson when standing on the magic linoleum square by booth nine at Crazy Cousin Betty’s Waffle House granted her wish. But again – be careful what you wish for. Like when she wished on the magic square for “a little more space” from her college boyfriend, Charlie. Two days later? Yep. He dumped her for his roommate – Neal. Sigh.

“A Little Night Magic” starts out funny, and Amanda Ronconi does a beautiful job of narration, her slightly nasal voice is completely believable as Olivia.

When Olivia decides she is finally going to give up her crush on Tobias the cook, sell the house her mother left her, and travel to Scotland, well, people really don’t know what to think. And when Olivia finds out that she can turn objects to animals, things get really whacky . . .

There are things I liked about A Little Night Magic. Olivia is a fun character – she has been stuck in a small town, working as a waitress, for years. As she says, “Spontaneity without commitment is just wishful thinking.” So, in six weeks, she is outta-there. Well, at least that is what she is planning. For a twenty-eight year old, she is very ‘young.’ So when Davina, a supposed ‘magical person’ shows up, and things start getting interesting, Olivia starts learning new things – the hard way. Davina is sure that Olivia is magical – and is determined to teach her. Hence, the whole ‘my coffee mug is now named Gibson’ thing. There are secrets, evil, a stranger chasing her – and the people she has known all her life are even stranger.

Then there are the things that could have been done much better. The give-and-take between Olivia and Tobias is aggravating, to say the least. Tobias is passive-aggressive, the people trying to ‘help’ her are more harmful than helpful, and Olivia’s innocence, in my opinion, is laid on a bit thick. This is a ‘fluffy’ book – which I really don’t mind at all – but Olivia’s ‘friends’ are spiteful and the mystery was figured out within the first couple of chapters, which really doesn’t work for me. The other thing that really disappointed me? The “Bad Guy” is truly evil. And yet, instead of doing something about it, or helping others with the ability do something about it, Olivia is a complete gutless weenie loser. I mean, come ON! You have the ability to stop a murderous megalomaniac – and yet you are too cowardly to stop that person?

So, Olivia pretty much ends up in the “too stupid to live” category, as others have said. And that is a shame, because the concept was good – it was the execution that let me down.