A Dark Inheritance

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To end on a more positive note, while I was reading I found myself on several occasions wishing I could watch it as a movie. The descriptions and the way everything was set out really had me imagining it as if it were already a movie. Overall, I did like this book and I enjoyed myself while reading. It was fast paced and had a really good mystery storyline, and you were waiting for the next turn. The characters and the settings were just a bit two dimensional and didn’t stand out as much as they should have. The title of this book should really be, Why You Should Never Sign Things Without Reading The Fine Print...

Though the overall concept was fun and the characters were interesting, there was still a disconnect I felt between me and the book. I couldn’t really connect to the plot and my emotions weren’t in tune with the characters. Yeah, I finished it, and it was good enough, but I just wasn’t invested enough to say I loved it. I think that others, particularly fans of D’Lacey’s others books who enjoy his writing style, would have lots of fun with this novel. But me? I didn’t get into it. Wasn’t connected to the characters or moved by the suspense, action, romance… And I found the way the plotline was structured a little weird and confusing.

The characters are interesting and three-dimensional; from Michael and his sister to Freya, Chantelle and the mysterious Mr Klimt, each has bags of personality. This makes the characters more relatable and also shifts the focus from being too action-focused. Instead, the book strikes a fine balance between action and emotion. Luke Manchett, is an ordinary 16-yr old highschool guy whose only problem is to survive school without anyone finding out that he is a son of the popular ghost-buster weirdo guy in the TV. "To survive Dunbarrow High you want to be as normal as possible, and that means no ill mum, no ghost-hunter dad, just ordinary Luke Manchett who likes football and rugby and doesn't like schoolwork." Then everything changes when he received a letter delivering the news of the unexpected death of his father.

I found the exploration of anxiety really interesting in this book. The author is mindful that it wouldn’t have been an easy thing to talk about in this period of history. But Felix’s mental health is suffering from the heavy weight of the curse, the trauma of his brother’s death, the worry for his family if he dies. There are characters in this urging him to get help (although he’s initially resistant) and talking and listening are a central theme in this novel (and certainly presented as helpful tools in their investigation).

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I’ve tried very much to avoid spoilers and there’s lots more I’d like to say about this book but I can’t without revealing information that you may enjoy discovering for yourself. I did like the gradual unveiling throughout the novel as the characters delve deeper into the mystery behind the curse. The novel moves at pace and our characters learn more continuously. And I have to say it before I explode. You did not have to have a nearly two sentence long description of a chair in a cabin on a boat that we spend barely a fraction of the book in. I don't care about the gold swirls, I'm sorry. The Unicorne Files begins when the protagonist Michael, a brave, intelligent and lonely boy, saves a 'suicidal' husky. His action attracts attention from his schoolmates, the police and a really weird organisation called UNICORNE. Yes, unicorn with an e.