I’ve mentioned this book to some people, but let me talk about how much I enjoyed it. I’m not just saying that because I happen to know Latimer and I’m very happy to have her book finally in my hands.
The story follows Bryony Gray, a young girl taken in by a family that doesn’t much like her but does appreciate what she can do for them. She’s been made to paint portraits by an abusive aunt and uncle who have taken her in and secluded in the attic where she can only look out at the next house and imagine she could be friends with the children who live there.
Well, until the portraits she has been painting are linked to a series of disappearances. Then she finds that not only have some of the things she’s been seeing are a real danger, but she gets to break out and actually meet the neighbours who help her deal with her paintings and find out more about who her parents really were.
Middle grade horror does not get enough love as a genre and Latimer does it wonderfully. There’s a good focus on the adventure with the horror elements being more of an addition. It’s also not that sort of horror that you find in the books for older folks. Not descriptions of blood splatter or gruesome murders but the more unsettling things that are different from the way they should be told through the lens of a character where these things are not entirely unusual.
Plus it’s got some nice queer representation! There’s nothing official, mind you. It’s middle grade, after all. And traditionally published. A fully realized couple was not going to happen, but there’s enough in there that I read it as very obvious, even if others are reading it as subtle.
I’d very much recommend it. It’s a lot of fun and, as middle grade, a pretty easy read. There’s a lot of interesting ideas in it, and it’s told fantastically.
Also I want a sequel.1
Get The Strange and Deadly Portraits of Bryony Gray here!
- It doesn’t need a sequel, but I want one anyway [↩]