The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep - HG Parry

Published by Redhook Books/Orbit/Hachette Book Group: New York, NY, 2020 (2019).

This is one of those books that caught my eye on a library shelf, and I got out with very little knowledge apart from judging it's cover. It is also one of those books that turned out to be very enjoyable.

Charley Sutherland is a lecturer at Prince Albert University (a riff on Victoria University) in Wellington, New Zealand, and has the unusual ability to 'summon' characters to life from books he is reading. He has been able to do this since at least the age of four, when his mother found him playing with the Cat in the Hat, and demanded that he put it back. Charley's brother Rob (the main point-of-view character in the novel) is a bit embarrassed by Charley's 'weirdness' and wants to keep it a secret, including from his long-term girlfriend Lydia. This becomes more difficult as strange events start to escalate, including a Uriah Heep becoming an intern at Rob's law firm, and a Hound of the Baskervilles attacking Rob and Charley at Charley's house.

Eventually the brothers discover that one 'summoned' character from Charley's childhood - a Nancy Drew-like girl detective called Millie Radcliffe-Dix - managed to avoid being 'returned' to her book, and has grown up in the real world. She also is protecting a number of fictional characters, with all of them residing in a street that is in a liminal space - a space between worlds. I include this much of the plot as Millie becomes the third main protagonist, and the three of them must join forces to work out who is behind the more sinister 'summonings', and what they are up to.

This book, the debut novel of a Wellington author, is a lot of fun, particularly in its use of classic fictional characters - and Charley, being an expert in Charles Dickens, means that a large number of them are Dickensian, which I enjoy. Although Charley is a legitimate 'summoner', anyone can accidentally 'summon' a character if they have a deep emotional connection with what they are reading - as a result The Street has five resident Mr Darcys. Each character reflects the reader's own interpretation of the text, and acts accordingly. This twist is one that can be played for laughs and to help advance the plot, depending on the requirements of the scene. Parry manages to provide her characters with a fairly 'authentic' feel, and this adds to the fun as well.

Although slightly over-long at the end, this a book I definitely recommend, and I will keep half an eye out for other things that Parry has written.

Completed 9 January 2024.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Various Picture Books

Image
As I said in my review of Peter Rabbit's Storytime Collection , I am wanting to find a way to acknowledge the books I read to Ezekiel without adding individual picture books to my reading list - I feel that would dilute it a bit much. So in this post, I've decided to look at a group of picture books all together. I've picked five picture books that I like (with a notable and noteworthy exception), and also asked Elise for five picture books she is  enjoying reading to Ezekiel. It's interesting (and helpful for this list) that our lists haven't overlapped at all this time around. So, here are ten picture books (plus one bonus 'book') that Ezekiel has been exposed to in the first 7ish months of his life: Karl's List Bunnies on the Bus - Philip Ardagh and (illustrator) Ben Mantle. Published by Walker Books Ltd: London, 2020 (2019). This is one of my favourites among our current picture books. A group of bunnies hijack a bus and hurtle through the town on th
Read more

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Image
Published by Allen & Unwin: Crows Nest, NSW, Australia, 2008. Book snobs, block your ears. *whispers* I think the movie was better. Okay, book snobs, you can unblock your ears now. *waves to get the attention of book snobs* To be honest, a huge reason why I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society at this moment in time was that I thought it would be funny to have two books with ridiculously long titles appear back-to-back in my list. For anyone who thought that there were super-deep reasons why I picked the books that I did, I hope this helps you see the error of your ways. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (which I am refusing to shorten for the rest of this review) still tells the same story as that in the movie adaptation (also called  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ), but does so in a less gripping (though still interesting) manner. This is for a few reasons: firstly,  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book is e
Read more

In a Free State - VS Naipaul

Image
Published by Picador: London, UK, 2001. First published 1971. An odd book, containing three different narratives (along with separate prologue and epilogue narratives) all on the theme of feeling displaced in a different culture and environment.  The first main story is told from the perspective of Santosh, an Indian servant who moves to America, only to find himself questioning his life choices. The next story follows a West Indian man who travels to England to support his brother, only to become disillusioned and eventually murder someone.  The third main narrative - which is the longest and also the titular 'In a Free State' - follows follows two English expats - Bobby and Linda - as they road trip south through a progressively more war-torn African nation. On the way we learn a lot about each character - mostly through their conversations - and witness their interactions with each other and those around them. As with many of the  Booker books I have read, there is an occasi
Read more