"Fionn could almost hear the whispering in his ears: a voice he had never heard before, a voice thrumming deep in his blood and in his bones. A voice he was trying very hard to ignore.
'Come here,' it was saying. 'Come home.'
Fionn is scared of the sea, always has been but doesn't know why, yet here he is on a ferry with his sister, Tara, heading for the first time to the island of Arranmore for the summer to stay with their grandfather whilst their mother is unwell. Fionn wasn't told about this island by his mother or his sister so he is wondering about the island and why he is forced to live there. Their grandfather is the island's storm keeper (whose job is to protect the island from the evil sorceress Morrigan) and lives an eccentric life in a dingy cottage full of candles. However, he is getting old and his memory is fading so a new storm keeper needs to be chosen and it's the island that does this. By burning candles created by previous storm keepers, Fionn and his grandfather are able to be transported back to different layers of the past in order to understand the history of the island and the need for a storm keeper ... who will be chosen?
O's opinion:
From the start, I was enticed by how Fionn didn't know about the island until his mother put him on a ship heading to it. My favourite part of the story is the candles; I thought they were the most amazing things once I knew more about them.
This book is written like Fionn was reading it because he didn't know what was happening or why he was here until his Grandfather reveals it to him. This is why I found it one of the best books I have ever read.
K's opinion:
This is a wonderful book, full of magic with just the right amount of darkness woven into it. It's about family and discovering the past as well as tackling the future. Doyle manages to sensitively tackle Fionn and Tara's grandfather's Alzheimer's as well as their mother's difficulty in coming to terms with the death of his father and the skilful use of candles to link the different parts of the story together (as well as to manage Grandfather's Alzheimer's) was brilliant.
This is a truly wonderful book and one that everyone should read. Come September, I guarantee that this will be a major hit in my classroom.
"That is your greatest responsibility. To live a life of breathless wonder, so that when it begins to fade from you, you will feel the shadow of its happiness still inside you and will feel the shadow of its happiness still inside you and the blissful sense that you laughed the loudest, loved the deepest, and lived fearlessly, even as the specifics of it all melt away."
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