White Crow by Marcus Sedgwick

Supposing you wanted to prove something, something important. Supposing you wanted to prove, for argument’s sake, that there is life after death.

“1798, 10mo, 6d. I believe he intends to practise some unholy rite, a summoning, a conjuration. A thing of magic.”

Two lives, two centuries apart. But they walked the same paths, lived in the same house, and became obsessed by the same question.

When city girl Rebecca steps into the quiet streets of Winterfold that relentlessly hot summer, her uneasy friendship with strange, elfin Ferelith sets in motion a shocking train of events.

There was just something about this book that I didn't like. Firstly, you didn't really get to properly know any of the characters - and secondly, every mystery brought up in the book was not solved, apart from the main one, which was rather infuriating. As you read, you want to know more about Rebecca (how does she feel about everything going on? Is she in love with Ferelith?), about Ferelith (is she in love with Rebecca? Why did she do what she did?), about Rebecca and Adam's past relationship (why did he break up with her?), about John (what did he do to the girl? Why was he blamed? Was it his fault?), what happened to the vicar and the doctor (did they die? Did they get caught?), the Wizard of Oz DVD (how did it get there?) - and so much more. I finished the book and felt completely unsatisfied. However, despite my criticisms, the ending was very good - definately the best part out of the whole book. Throughout the tale, Sedgwick kind of hinted that something big was going to happen - and I really think he did the right thing in the end; I don't think he could have ended the story any other way. I really liked the plot idea, and if it had just been developed a bit more, I really think I would have enjoyed it. But unfortunately it wasn't, and I'm not too keen on reading any more of his books in the future.
Rating:2/5