![]() ![]() Even the main character, Caroline, isn't someone who really lingers in your mind. Intended for a younger audience than most of Gee's children's books, this is a fairly lightweight piece, with little room for character-drawing except in the most basic, broad brush style. This book and Maurice Gee probably did more for ten-year-old me's imagination than any other story out there. ![]() I can't tell you how often I pretended to be Caroline, but it was lots. At one point I even lived across the road from Botanical Hill, which is the focal setting of the story. Moreover, because Maurice Gee lived in the same small town as I did, books like The World Around the Corner were set in places I saw every single day. ![]() You know that those cookie-cutter European-inspired fantasy settings? There were lots of those, and I enjoyed them, I did, but there was something about reading stories set here that was just amazing. The thing is, you see, growing up in NZ a few decades back, and being a total SFF fan even as a child, pretty much all the SFF available - with a few notable exceptions - was from overseas. A recent Twitter conversation about New Zealand authors encouraged me to dig it out of the bookcase and read it again, and I loved it just as much as I ever have. But screw objectivity, nostalgia is affecting me in a big way and there's nothing wrong with that! I have been reading this book ever since I was a little kid. ![]() Honestly, if I didn't have the history I have with this book, it would probably be a four star read. ![]()
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