Somehow I read this and missed reviewing it. The story is atmospheric and absorbing. Not as strange or as good as the Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffman, but that would be a tall order. Carter's books live in a world of their own. ( )

Una noche, Melanie camina por el jardín con el vestido de boda de su madre y, a la mañana siguiente, todo su mundo se ha hecho añicos. Así de simple, así de inconcebible. Melanie y sus dos hermanos pequeños se verán obligados a mudarse a Londres, a casa del tío Philip, un huraño y genial artesano juguetero que vive con su esposa Margaret –una mujer «frágil como una flor prensada», muda desde el día de su boda– y los dos extravagantes hermanos de ésta. Tras una infancia idílica en la casa familiar, Melanie se ve ahora confinada en un entorno opresivo y delirante, lleno de artilugios y mecanismos creados por su tío, un ser inquietante acostumbrado a tratar a las personas como si fueran otros de sus títeres.

This story is magical; it floats along on its own and keeps you following. ( )

‘’Melanie had never seen uncle Philip. Once, when she was a little girl, he sent her a jack-in-the-box. He was a toymaker. When she opened the jack-in-the-box, a grotesque caricature of her own face leered from the head that leapt out at her.’’

Melanie’s parents die in a tragic accident while on vacation in the USA. Melanie and her siblings, Victoria and Jonathon, are sent to live with uncle Philip and aunt Margaret. They have to leave the comfort, security and luxury of their home and start a new life in London. In the shadow of uncle Philip, hiding from his tyrannical, sinister presence, Melanie finds herself thrown into the world of the adults with all its desires and dangers.

This is one of Angela Carter’s timeless, haunting masterpieces.

‘’She was still a beautiful girl. She went back to her own room and looked at herself again in her own mirror to see if that said different but, again, she was beautiful. Moonlight, white satin, roses. A bride. Whose bride? But she was, tonight, sufficient for herself and her own glory and did not need a groom.’’

Angela Carter creates an oneiric, haunting tale of a young woman whose life is broken. Her loneliness is absolute, her struggle to stay afloat in an unknown, potentially threatening, environment is constant. In the face of Melanie, Carter reflects themes that provide material for the finest of tales. Femininity, womanhood, sexuality. The fine line between enchanting seduction and emotional abuse. The search for freedom through books and fairytales and a world of make-believe and, ultimately, eternity.

‘’Meanwhile, the remaining leaves fell from the sycamore in the square and were swept into oblivion by the stiff brooms of council employees. The nights drew in earlier and earlier, clothed in sinister cloaks of mist like characters by Edgar Allan Poe. Melanie stood with her face against the cold glass of her window-pane, seeing not the bleak yard and the lights blossoming in the backs of other hoises but berries reddening on the hedges around home and field glinting with frost. Smoke from bonfires of dead leaves caught the throat.’’

With Bluebeard references throughout the story and the myth of Leda and the swan at its very heart, with toys and puppets and pre-Raphaelite paintings, Carter’s unique writing takes us to a world where one cannot tell the difference between dreams and nightmares, a world where the moonlight plays along with shadows in the thick night.

Beware.

‘’Melanie, was forever grey, a shadow. It was the fault of the wedding-dress night, when she married the shadows and the world ended. All this was taking place in an empty space at the end of the world.’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ ( )

I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. It seemed to be one part Shirley Jackson's [b:We Have Always Lived in the Castle|89724|We Have Always Lived in the Castle|Shirley Jackson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1415357189s/89724.jpg|847007], and one partA Series of Unfortunate Events, with a smidge of sexual awakening tossed in to spice it up a bit.

I think it was simply the overall story that I wasn't crazy about, as I didn't mind the characters and quite enjoyed the writing.

Bottom line, didn't hate it, didn't love it. ( )

As I mentioned recently, I am taking part on a reading challenge, and this book fits one of the tasks. So I picked it up without much knowledge or expectation. I was blown away with the first chapter, the story of Melanie, a 15 year old discovering her own body and femininity. There was a rawness and sincerity in the narration that I don't remember encountering before. However, as the story progresses, I feel it lost its reason of being.

Angela Carter's writing is dark and dense, full of sexual tension, but it is as if this voice didn't find a strong enough story to tell, or at least, was not able to develop this story beyond a nightmarish plot. That the story has elements of magical realism does not excuse the feeling of predictability of the ending, or the gracious incest between siblings, which comes out of nowhere It feels as a story that could had been great, but missed the mark because it tried too hard. I am still giving it 3 stars, because the voice of Melanie portraits the fear and excitement of discovering one's sexuality with much honesty. ( )

I really loved [b:The Bloody Chamber|49011|The Bloody Chamber|Angela Carter|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170357108s/49011.jpg|47950], and I do like Carter's writing. Even in this book, which had a story that I just didn't connect with, I loved her words (So, two stars instead of one). She paints wonderful pictures with them.

My problems with this book weren't with any technical aspects, but it falls in the same category as Atwood's [b:Oryx and Crake|46756|Oryx and Crake|Margaret Atwood|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511NV8YGWPL._SL75_.jpg|3143431] for me. They're great books, with fantastic world building and awesome characterization. And I just DO NOT like them.

Because inside my brain I am a cranky old lady.

Okay, not really. Mostly it's because I feel the pull of the stories too deeply, and they don't pull me in a direction I want to go. Good writers have written some of my least favorite books, precisely BECAUSE they are so good at their writing. Such is the case here. ( )

Although familiar with her short stories, I'd not read any of Angela Carter's novels. At about 200 pages, "The Magic Toyshop" is as strange and wonderful as any of Carter's shorter works. ( )

My Title: A compelling and tragic tale of three orphaned children. But still a wonderful story!

This splendid book was first published in 1967. The Magic Toyshop won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1969. From the very first page it became obvious to me - this is a creative and very well written story, in a beautiful and effective writing style.

The story begins with Melanie (15), Jonathon (12), and Victoria (5), living in the beautiful countryside, under the care of their housekeeper, Mrs Rundle. (She's looking after the children while their parents were away on a lecture tour, in America)
I loved the moment when Melanie (unable to sleep on a hot summer's night) finds herself wearing her mother's wedding-dress. It was far too big! - Nevertheless, this excited, beautiful girl felt the urge and desire to go out into the garden, in her bare feet and embrace her sublime feelings, in the enchanting moonlight.
What happened next was very humorous and most amusing to read - but an unfortunate incident for young Melanie! (I'm sorry, but I'm not going to reveal the outcome!)

Unfortunately, tragedy soon strikes for the three children, when they are informed their mummy and daddy have died in an aeroplane accident, in America. The children are taken to London to live with relatives they have never met. Uncle Philip was a toymaker. He lived with his long-suffering wife, Margaret and her two brothers, Francie and Finn.
It soon became apparent to the unfortunate children that this family were poverty stricken. Their lives and circumstances had therefore changed forever.

Uncle Philip was a stern disciplinarian, and he took little notice of the three children. He cared more about his workshop and his wooden creations, than his family. Indeed, he had a brutal and fearsome relationship with Finn. However, Aunt Margaret treated Victoria like her own child, ably assisted by the caring Melanie. Jonathon enjoyed working in the workshop. He was encouraged by Uncle Philip to indulge himself in his passion for making models. In the meantime, Melanie was coming-of-age and she took a growing interest in the volatile Finn.

What follows is an intense and interesting story. Creative, sensuality, rich in colours, with emotional feelings, and endless impressions. You will enjoy reading about the fluctuating relationship between Melanie and Finn.

The climax of this story occurs over the Christmas period. Uncle Philip discovers a dark secret about his wife, Margaret and needless to say, all hell breaks out! - Finn's deliberately broken and destroyed Philip's beloved puppet-toy-swan, and he suddenly fears for his life! - With the house already on fire, a frenzy occurs, and it all ends in an abrupt and bizarre finale!

I found this an entertaining story with interesting characters. It's beautifully written and described
in wonderful detail. There's not much humour to be found in this book - but for me - it's all about the compelling circumstances and the survival of these dear, unfortunate children.
( )

strange, erotic, depressing and messy. obsession, virginity and horror. so p good i guess. ( )

What an odd but fascinating book. At 15, Melanie is just beginning to discover her sexuality, and while her parents are on holiday she unearths her mother’s wedding dress, tries it on, and wanders through the garden at midnight. But her romantic dreams are cast aside when Melanie, her brother Jonathon and sister Victoria are suddenly sent to live with their Uncle Philip and Aunt Margaret, and Margaret’s brothers Francie and Finn. Margaret has been unable to speak since her wedding night (make of that what you will!), and communicates by writing on a chalkboard.

Philip owns the eponymous toyshop, and quickly apprentices Jonathon who has an affinity for building model ships. Fortunately Philip isn’t around much, which affords Melanie space to develop relationships with the others, especially her aunt. But Philip also expects the family to attend elaborate and disturbing performances by his handmade puppets, and stroke his ego by responding with great enthusiasm. Anything less risks his wrath. Philip rules the house with an iron hand, but is unable to break the strong bonds between Margaret and her brothers. Melanie gradually comes to understand the reality of life in this family, and shifts from passive victim to active resistance. Anything more and I’ll be in spoiler territory; suffice to say the dramatic final chapter is simultaneously shocking and satisfying, while still leaving several loose ends.

This book was my introduction to Angela Carter. I understand she’s not an easy author to read, but this is one of her more accessible books. I may have to try another one someday. ( )

“I think I want to be in love with you but I don't know how.”

Melanie is fifteen, living in rural England with her younger siblings, Jonathan and Victoria, and discovering her ripening sexuality. One night whilst her parents are away in America she find her wedding dress in a trunk and decides to try it on. Wearing the dress she ventures outside into the garden. Initially she is awed by its vastness but suddenly becomes overwhelmed by thoughts of eternity, she turns back to the house for sanctuary only to realise she’s forgotten to bring her house key. Panic stricken she realises that her only way back in is an apple near to her bedroom window. Removing the dress she begins to climb naked, dragging the dress behind her "like Christian's burden". The night's terrors crush in around her and naked feels exposed, apples fall all to the ground around her and she is cut and bruised by the tree. She finally reaches her bedroom but seeing that the dress has been cut to ribbons and stained by her own blood she buries in in her mother's trunk hoping that no one will discover what she has done.

Still feeling traumatised by the previous night's excursion her world is rocked the next afternoon when telegram arrives bringing news of her parents' death in an plane crash. She blames their death on her destruction of the wedding dress and soon afterwards along with her two younger siblings she is forced to leave the countryside and move to South London to live with their estranged maternal Uncle Philip. Melanie's only knowledge of her uncle is from her parents’ wedding photo.

Philip owns a toyshop and lives with his wife, Margaret, and her younger brothers, Francie and Finn, and he rules the house by tyranny. Philip likes to make life sized puppets which he uses to put on private performances and sees Melanie's ripening beauty as the perfect foil in his demented theatre. Philip's influence throughout this extended family is like breakers crashing onto a beach hitting the household in waves as the other family members' relationships fluctuate between compliance or resistance to his overbearing control.

Family relationships are central to this novel. As Melanie’s sexuality grows she grows closer and closer to Finn until they begin to form the basis of a new family independent of the world that they’re trapped in with Uncle Philip. However, it is Margaret's relationship with her brother Francie that leads to the climax of this novel. However, this is not the only relationship that is sorely tested. Finn takes Melanie to visit an overgrown park once used to house an Expo to took at a fallen statue of Queen Victoria which seems to symbolize the death of traditional patriarchy.

Overall I found this an enjoyable read but it failed to really hit the mark with the intrigues not quite strong enough to rescue the book. Uncle Philip is largely absent from the book as he toils in his workshop and personally I would have liked to see him have an greater presence. Also the ending has rather strong echoes of Jane Eyre. All in all the book does not quite live up to it's fascinating opening but is still a worthwhile read. ( )

Angela Carter's writing is luminous. THE BLOODY CHAMBER is still my favorite of her works (that I've read), but this gothic tale is richly woven and captivating. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/review-of-magic-toyshop-by-angela-car... ( )

The Magic Toyshop was chosen by my very small book group as our November read, and I was quite simply delighted by it. This, was something of a surprise, because I am never very sure about novels which I think vaguely of as being ‘a bit odd.’ I put Angela Carter in the same category as Barbara Comyns – (rightly or wrongly), two writers I have only read once before, and have skirted around ever since. Some years ago, I read The Bloody Chamber stories – for another book group, and I did like it (though it is a bit odd).

The Magic Toyshop is fantastically imagined, brilliantly written, with intensity and a wonderful dream like quality. Characters and situations are instantly memorable, and it is a book I can imagine reading again. The writing is so beautiful, descriptions are simply glorious, I look forward to reading it again one day so I can fully appreciate them.

“Melanie let herself into the night and it snuffed out her daytime self at once, between two of its dark fingers.
The flowers cupped in the garden with a midnight, un-guessable sweetness, and the grass rippled and murmured in a small voice that was an intensification of silence. The stillness was like the end of the world. She was alone. In her carapace of white satin, she was the last, the only woman. She trembled with exaltation under the deep, blue, high arc of sky.”

Melanie is fifteen years old, the eldest of three siblings, she has a good life in her family home with its lovely garden, bedrooms to spare a Shetland pony and her happy parents. Her father, a writer, is at last enjoying some real success, and Melanie has grown up in a house that smells of money. While her parents are away the children are cared for by Mrs Rundle, who makes lots of bread pudding and has an obese cat.

At fifteen, Melanie is beginning to discover something of her sexuality, she’s curious, growing up fast, a child awakening, with her beloved Edward Bear never far away. One day she tries her mother’s wedding dress on and goes outside into the garden late at night, finding herself locked out of the house. She is forced to scramble awkwardly up a tree to her bedroom, ripping the dress in the process.

“She parcelled up the dress and stuck it in the fork of the tree. she could carry it up with her and put it away again in the trunk and no one would know it had been worn if they did not see the blood on the hem, and there was only a little blood. The cat put its head on one side and turned it sequin regard on the parcel; it stretched out its paddy paw and stroked the dress. Its paw was tipped with curved, cunning meat hooks. It had a cruel stroke. There was a ripping sound.”

Melanie is dismayed at the damage to her mother’s dress, feels like a foolish child, who will one day soon need to confess to what she’s done. However, the very next day a telegram arrives, and Melanie knows instantly what it contains, her parents have been killed. Melanie and her siblings are sent to live with relatives of her mother’s, Uncle Philip – who Melanie has only seen in an old wedding photograph – and his family in London.

To Melanie, this is not the London she has imagined London to be, and Uncle Philip is not the Uncle Philip of the photograph. Uncle Philip has a toyshop, there’s a puppet theatre in the basement, and Uncle Philip creates life size puppets which he cares for obsessively while seeming to hate everyone in the house. The household consist of red haired Aunt Margaret – struck dumb on her wedding day, cowed by her bullying husband and her two younger brothers Finn, who dances while the almost silent Francie, plays his music – at night, while Philip is out. Loving, gentle Aunt Margaret, loves Melanie and her siblings, particularly little Victoria, while Jonathon seems strangely self-sufficient.

At first Melanie is horribly alone and slightly disgusted by this strange new world, a dilapidated, dirty house and the two red haired Irish brothers, themselves none too clean, and her strangely silent aunt who communicates by scribbling on a pad. In time, Melanie find she loves her aunt, Finn and Francie, gradually becoming part of their world, she allies herself with them against the villainous Philip. She longs to give Aunt Margaret a present for Christmas, though none of them have any money, and Philip has no interest in celebrating Christmas.

Melanie finds herself drawn to Finn, though she is sometimes afraid of him too – not quite ready for the feelings he awakens in her.

“Everything went black in the shocking folds of his embrace. She was very startled and near to sobbing.
‘Caw, caw,’ echoed his raincoat.
‘Don’t be frightened,’ he said. ‘It is only poor Finn, who will do you no harm.’
She recovered herself a little, though she was still trembling. She could see her own face reflected in little in the black pupils of his subaqueous eyes. She still looked the same. She saluted herself. He was only a little taller than she and their eyes were almost level. Remotely, she wished him three inches taller. Or four. She felt the warm breath from his wild beast’s mouth softly, against her cheek. She did not move. Stiff, wooden, and unresponsive, she stood in his arms and watched herself in his eyes. It was a comfort to see herself as she thought she looked.”

Uncle Philip is a terrifying presence, his rages and his rules, oppress the strange little household, where his puppets take precedence. Uncle Philip draws his family into the stories he creates with his puppets, later after weeks of ignoring her presence in the household, he insists that Melanie take a starring role in a particularly disturbing story. Something has to give, and Finn takes drastic action.

The Magic Toyshop has elements of a Gothic fairy-tale, a coming of age tale and quirky romance, it’s compelling, disturbing and charming all at once.

I absolutely loved this book, I hope you can tell (this review is being written much faster than usual – it might be one of those weeks!) and I would love to explore more Angela Carter. ( )

exquisite prose
By sally tarbox on 27 Sept. 2012
Format: Paperback
Utterly readable, magical tale in a surreal world (puts me somewhat in mind of Barbara Comyns' writing).
The novel opens with Melanie becoming aware of her approaching adulthood, dancing in the night time garden in her mother's wedding dress:
'Melanie let herself into the night and it snuffed out her daytime self at once, between two of its dark fingers...Trees laden to the plimsoll-line with a dreaming cargo of birds.'
But a sudden change of circumstances sees her and her siblings forced to live with the horrible Uncle Philip and his mute Irish wife and her two brothers. Uncle Philip's profession and passion is toymaking, specifically his lifesize puppets.
Amid the cold and gloom, Melanie forms a tentative friendship with Finn...
I found the ending rather abrupt with a lot of unanswered questions, but this is far outweighed by Ms Carter's brilliant writing style. ( )

I was lucky to discover Angela Carter’s writing at a very young age, not long after I had started to read grown-up books.

I spotted a book named ‘The Magic Toyshop’ on a paperback carousel in the library. What was such a thing doing on the shelves for grown-ups? And why did it have a dark green cover, that looked like a classic, but not the sort of classic I had ever seen before?

I picked the book up, I began to read, and what I read was extraordinary. It was like nothing I had read before and it did things that I didn’t know books could do. After that I read every book by Angela Carter that I could lay my hands on, and I picked up more of those books with dark green covers – Virago Modern Classics – hoping to find more intriguing books and more oh so special authors.

And so it was Angela Carter who set me on a path of picking up books bearing unknown titles and unfamiliar author names, hoping to find more magic ….

I had nothing new to read for Angela Carter Week, but I had lots of books that I might revisit, to see what I might find in them with more experience of books and of life behind me. It seemed natural to start again with that first book, to revisit ‘The Magic Toyshop’.

At its heart is a simple story. Melanie is fifteen years-old and she has a lovely life; her parents are happy and successful, she and her siblings are much loved, and they have a beautiful home in the country. But Melanie’s parents are killed in an accident and the three children are sent to live with unknown relations …

But it is clear from the start that this will be a coming of age story like no other.

Melanie’s sexuality is awakening. She is drawn to her mother’s wedding dress, to put it on, to go outside. But she finds herself locked out and she has to shed the dress, bundle it up, climb the apple tree to get back inside.

“She parcelled up the dress and stuck it in the fork of the tree. she could carry it up with her and put it away again in the trunk and no one would know it had been worn if they did not see the blood on the hem, and there was only a little blood. The cat put its head on one side and turned it sequin regard on the parcel; it stretched out its paddy paw and stroked the dress. Its paw was tipped with curved, cunning meat hooks. It had a cruel stroke. There was a ripping sound.”

And when she wakes the next morning she learns that her parents are dead.

Angela Carter painted that scene gloriously, in such rich colours, and there was so much that you could read into it. The whole story was like that; a coming of age story twisted into the most profound, dark, gothic drama.

Melanie found herself in a dilapidated house where her tyrannical uncle ruled over his mute, cowed wife, and her two young brothers. It was a magic toyshop, but it was also a house ruled by fear. Melanie had to learn to live with that, with dirt and poverty, with her feelings for her aunt’s brother, Finn.

Sometimes she was drawn to him – as he was to her – and sometimes she was repulsed by him.

Conflicts and contradictions like that were threaded through the story.

Angela Carter painted vivid pictures in rich colours, picking out the strangest details. Those pictures are utterly compelling, but they are also disturbing, and sometimes repellent.

The most dramatic pictures of all were of her uncle, his life-sized puppets, and the puppet shows he drew first his family and then Melanie into:

“Red plush curtains swung to the floor from a large, box-like construction at the far end of the room. Finn, masked, advanced and tugged a cord. The curtains swished open, gathering in swags at each side of a small stage, arranged as a grotto in a hushed, expectant woodland, with cardboard rocks. Lying face-downwards in a tangle of strings was a puppet five feet high, a sulphide in a fountain of white tulle, fallen flat down as if someone had got tired of her in the middle of playing with her, dropped her and wandered off. She had long, black hair down to the waist of her tight satin bodice.”

In the end something broke. It had to.

Melanie had tried to change things. But there were some things that she didn’t know, that she didn’t understand.

‘The Magic Toyshop’ touches on some difficult subjects, but the images, the ideas, the symbolism, the eccentricity are just so wonderful. It’s untidy though, not a book for those with delicate sensibilities, who like things neat and tidy.

But I can’t pick this book apart. I loved it the first time I read it and I still love it now.

The best way I have to explain its appeal is to confess that I typed ‘Alice’ instead of ‘Melanie’ more than once, because Melanie’s situation seemed so much like Alice’s when she tumbled down the rabbit hole.

It sounds mad, and yet it works …. ( )

Having just finished Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber,' her retellings of traditional fairy tales, I thought I'd read something else by her in order to have a basis for comparison.
The Magic Toyshop is, firstly, much more horrific and disturbing than the cute cover of this edition would lead one to expect. It's full of over-the-top elements of gothic grotesquerie - I can almost imagine the author, while writing, gleefully exclaiming, "oh yes! I know what will make this Even Worse!!!" - but it's very well written, and therefore emotionally very effective, even while one is saying, "well, that's a Bit Much!" Upon finishing it, I was left with a creeping, disturbed feeling - which is the sign of a good horror novel.
However, I did have the same issue with it as I did with the stories in 'The Bloody Chamber,' which is that the characters are both emotionally opaque and oddly passive. Even when dramatic events occur, the reader doesn't get the sense that decisions have been made that set those events in motion. Instead, there is a sense that it was inevitable that events would unfold the way they did; that the characters do not have free will. Carter is too good a writer for this to be unintentional; perhaps it reflects her world view. Personally, however, I find it bothersome.
( )

This is a very good Gothic novel, with wonderful prose, although it didn’t have much of the subversion of tropes that is sometimes found in Carter’s work. There aren’t really any magic realist elements either. However, there are plenty of dark and bizarre set pieces and twists, and the depiction of Melanie’s isolation and unhappiness at finding herself a Dickensian orphan in a repressed and uncomfortable household is excellent. I wasn’t completely on board with the resolution to a number of plot threads and the ending is rather abrupt, but overall this is another captivating Carter.

Melanie is on the cusp of adulthood and constantly thinking about love, marriage, and growing up. Her father, a successful author, and her mother are on a lecture tour of America while she and her brother and sister are at home. Her curiosity about sex and whether she is beautiful and Lady Chatterley’s Lover reaches a climax when she tries on her mother’s wedding gown and decides to wander around in it outside in the moonlight. This turns out to be not as romantic as she thinks. Almost immediately after, the children receive word that their parents have died in a plane crash and they are bundled off from their comfortable life to live with Uncle Philip, their mother’s brother, an eccentric toymaker. His wife, Aunt Margaret, is a sadly beaten down woman who doesn’t talk but frequently communicates with her eraseboard. Her two brothers also live with them – neat and quiet Francie, a fiddle player, and disheveled, sarcastic Finn who is learning the trade from Uncle Philip. Uncle Philip himself is largely absent from their day to day life, but he is an oppressive, menacing presence in the old house and his real passion – a puppet theater – becomes increasingly threatening to Melanie.

The writing is wonderfully evocative. A number of the setpieces – Melanie creeping around in the wedding dress, her hearing some night music, a walk with Finn to the ruined exposition grounds, a charged rehearsal and performance for the puppet theater - are memorably described and modern twists on Gothic tropes. However, I think my favorite passage was just a description of Aunt Margaret’s Sunday attire. Many of Carter’s other works are takes on fairy tales, and in this one, Uncle Philip is repeatedly compared to Bluebeard. But even with a few scenes that strain at the more realistic feel of the novel, besides the writing, the best part is the depiction of Melanie’s loneliness on losing her parents and leaving her home. Despite the fact that she has a brother and sister, she is still lonely. Jonathon has always been lost in the world of model shipbuilding and he continues that at their uncle’s house. Victoria is the baby and acts like one – she is immediately taken up by Aunt Margaret, who has no children. The little changes – the unpleasant bathroom – and significant ones – Uncle Philip’s violence and controlling attitude – both affect Melanie, and although they moved from the country to London, the family is even more isolated - the house and shop are dark, old, creaky and almost out of the 19th century. I didn’t especially care for Finn, who could be creepy but was also the object of Melanie's romantic thoughts, and thought some of his storyline was predictable. The ending is somewhat rushed and bizarre. Overall though an engrossing and well-written read. ( )

This, she told herself, was the harsh, unloving truth, the black, bitter bread of life; the tenderness of the lavish past was tenuous, insubstantial. Page 94

Melanie is the eldest of three children from a well to-do upper middle class family. The only life she and her siblings has ever known is changed overnight with the death of their mother and father overseas, leaving them penniless and orphans. They are sent to live with their strange uncle whom they have never met and life is not only vastly different from what the've known, it is filled with strange and mysterious happenings that defy explanations and understanding.

I'm not sure what to make of The Magic Toyshop in that I didn't find anything remotely close to magical in the story itself. Melanie is coming of age, discovering the world around her is perhaps more twisted than what she once thought, while at the same time, discovering that the stirrings and longings of a girl, soon to be a woman, is vastly more complicated that she could have imagined. I wasn't able to connect fully with the story or the characters despite some atmospheric charms, so rather than feeling satisfied, I'm left with a gnawing sense of confusion. ( )

I just didn't like it. I acknowledge that it's well written, so I can't give it a terrible rating. But it's Sooooo utterly dark and angry and depressing. It's "good".... but really wasn't enjoyable for me. Maybe if I had read more uplifting books lately, I wouldn't have felt so dragged down by it, but I came off of a couple of dark, angry books and ... honestly, when I finally finished the (200 page!) book, I could hardly bring myself to pick up another book.... (so glad I chose [The Martian]!!)

It's about ... well, it's weird because it's NOT about a magic toyshop. So, yeah, there's that. There's a toyshop, but ... there's no magic there. There's a hint of maybe supernatural or gothic or something ... like 3 times. Just a hint. But that's it. And ... it's easy to chalk it up to exhaustion, imagination, stress... rather than ANYthing supernatural at all. So you think you're reading a book about magic, but it's just not.

Melanie loses her folks and has to go live with her uncle in a dirty, poor part of London. Her formerly rich and lavish life takes a severe nosedive as she attempts to navigate a world in which the patriarch is an abusive, angry, oppressive force. And poor 15-year-old Melanie struggles with not being the loved, pretty, spoiled girl she once was, as her 12-year-old brother withdraws further into himself and her 5-year-old sister essentially forgets her former life. Along with her uncle are his mute wife (who is only ever referred to as "dumb") and her two brothers, one of whom Melanie finds herself simultaneously repulsed by and drawn to. And the uncle is a toy maker who hates many of his customers, and he is obsessed with life-sized puppets, which is creepy and weird.

So yeah. It's like a creepy, weird, dark, depressing story about terrible things happening to people. Terrible things. But yes, it is well written. Carter has a talent.

So overall, three of 5 stars. Not enjoyable, but well done, if the story sounds like your kind of thing (and it apparently is for a LOT of people who really love this book). ( )

As ever, Carter delivers magic in the ordinary and extraordinary. Melanie, oldest of three siblings, is passing into middle class adolescence and maturity. With her parents away, she dresses in her mother's wedding dress and loses herself in the wild night and the apple tree. Too young for the adult world, but on the cusp, bereavement takes her to the Magic Toyshop and the care of its fantastical inhabitants. What happens there as she grows up and catalyses drama and disaster, is fantastical, disturbing and exhilarating.

There's only one thing better than a good book, and that's a good book that introduces you to a brand new author. Angela Carter may well just be my new obsession.

Carter's writing is at times, exquisite and at times, harrowing. This has all the elements of a fairy tale but goes much deeper than that. Sex, feminism and incest all get a look in. This book is both claustrophobic and liberating.

The ending is abrupt and a little jarring because of that. With hindsight though, what else was there left to say?

( )

I'm not completely sure I was old enough for this book, but it was an illuminating experience all the same. ( )

I almost gave this book four stars as it was an enjoyable read but it wasn't quite at the four star mark for me. Still, I really like the wistful way that Carter seems to write. This was my first novel of hers that I had read and it follows the journey of our teenage protagonist Melanie and her relocation to different family members and socioeconomic status in London. Melanie has a brother who appears to have some kind of Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Autism the way he is described but it isn't made completely clear in the book. She has to battle through an uncle who is a creative genius toymaker but also a tyrant. There is a family secret as well.

If there is a flaw to this book, it is that the main character from the beginning longs to be loved by a man and married. She sees her older spinster nanny and her cat and she is scared this will happen to her. She arranges her body in various positions to echo the females in famous paintings and just longs for a man. You can tell when she finally reaches the point where she is kissed, admired, and loved that she doesn't want to settle in her mind into a life with a smelly older cousin from Ireland with gross teeth but at the same time she is thrilled to be loved and admired by a man that you get the sense she will overlook this.

I don't know...I think that sort of brought the book down a great deal for me. Otherwise, it's relatively light reading about a darker topic and I was looking for something quite like this in terms of writing style when I picked it up considering the heavy handed bleak days I must bike through in winter. ( )