Sunday, June 6, 2010

Book Review: The Undrowned Child by Michelle Lovric

Where's our Studious Son? Who's our Lost Daughter?
Our Undrowned Child plucked from the water,
Who shall save us from a Traitor's tortures?
That secret's hidden in the old Bone Orchard.

The Undrowned Child by Michelle Lovric is unlike any other book I have previously read. It is a book full of historically interesting facts about Venice with a fantastical twists but also includes a wide variety of colourful characters, human and not human.

The story is set in 1899 & is told from the viewpoint of the two main characters; Teodora (aka Teo) a girl from Naples & Lorenzo (aka Renzo) a boy from Venice. My first impression is that the story is very heavy for a child. The book covers everything from death to betrayal to racial discrimination to violent/bloody battle scenes to evil revenge centuries old. It's definitely not a lighthearted child's fairy tale.

The book begins with tragedy as generations of a single family drown in the Venice lagoon one fog filled night under mysterious-magical circumstances and of the baby whose body was never found...

Fast forward to "present day" and Venice is under threat of destruction. The best scientists from around the world are being sent to Venice in the hope they can figure out way to save the drowning city scientifically. Teo is the bookish daughter of two such scientists and a visit to Venice seems like a dream come true but it all turns into  nightmare from the moment a book called The Key to the Secret City falls on her head.

As the lines of an old prophecy begin to come true, Teo, with the help of a local Venice boy called Renzo, must find a way to save the city from an ancient enemy and travel throughout Venice encountering many strange/wonderful creatures. One of which are mermaids who talk like sailors & have a love of spices. The mermaids were one of my favourites and often gave comedic relief in this dark story.

If you want to read something new and unlike any other story you have read before, give this dark tale a go.

P.S. At the end of the story the author has included facts about the history Venice and where you can find places you read of in the book. It might surprise you to learn what was actually true...

Pages: 396 pages

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