Rufolo Reviews: The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School by Kim Newman

One of the most imaginative books of the year, it would seem that Miss Peregrine's has spawned its own Harry Potter meets X-Men subgenre, giving us some of the best action heroines of the generation.

When fourteen year-old Amelia Thomsett is caught sleeping on the ceiling, her unpleasant conformist mother sends her to a special boarding school so her daughter will be cured of her supernatural powers. However, Drearcliff Grange is a school for unusual girls where they're encouraged to use and improve their unique abilities, but students are disappearing and there are dark goings-on behind the scenes.

The book doesn't disappoint with a wide range of intriguing superpowers that make for some exciting action sequences. The whole novel has a great sense of mystery, dark in atmosphere, but fun and quirky at the same time. The story pulls you in with twists and turns along the way, but this book is particularly strong on character. Amy is probably the best female action heroine I've ever read. Whilst so many heroines in YA are loudmouthed teenage tearaways, a trope growing increasingly grating (Rebel of the Sands, I'm looking at you), Amy is just really polite. In situations where many of us would probably swear, she exclaims "buttered crumpets!" instead and even when she has to be mean to people, she's just matter-of-fact about it. She's not just a caricature though; she becomes so much more confident over the course of the book, going on a journey a lot of readers can relate to and little details like her keen interest in moths just make her that bit more human.
Her friends are great too, including a loveable, more boisterous big ginge and a boxing, smoking Indian princess. The bullies are especially cruel and some of the staff and teachers are very charismatic. Admittedly there are a LOT of characters coming and going in one book and at times it is can be hard to keep track of them all. This goes hand-in-hand with the book's other problem: pacing. It gets off to a good start, giving a brief tour of the school before there's a kidnapping, an exciting rescue and a shocking twist. Over a third of the way through, the pace changes quite suddenly, taking its time to be dark, eerie and psychological. It's done well, but it just feels a bit iffy and then there's the problem with the sheer number of minor characters. I just wanted some of them to have more time to themselves. (Mr Newman please take the hint and write a sequel!)

Despite these two problems, this book is one of the best I've read in 2016 with mystery, style and truly memorable heroines. Unusual, weird and wonderful indeed.