Florence and Giles - John  Harding
I was excited when I read the blurb of this book, it sounded exactly like the kind of book I would love to read. Sadly.. I didn't really like the book.

It wasn't the setting, I really loved that, it felt like you where there in the house with her, or on the grounds.
The old words used were something I really liked too. Though I had to search for some of them on the internet because I never heard about them.
I didn't like the characters, especially Florence. At first I thought she was just a lovely little girl, trapped in a big house with a bunch of servants and in the first part with her brother Giles.
Sadly while reading the book I began to doubt the girl. The first governess dies while she is there, then a new governess comes and the girl starts to doubt that one. Eventually killing her. In the end she does nothing for Theo and lets him die and even thinking oh hey this wasn't part of the plan.
I am not sure what part of the book is real and what is just the fantasy of a girl who really hates her perfect little world being invaded.

Maybe the second governess was really a witch, an evil being, maybe even Whitaker.. But again, Florence is the only one who ever sees everything that is wrong. And after the suspicious death of the first governess, I am not sure what to believe.
There are signs that point to the evilness of the woman, but again, who says mrs Grouse didn't just fall down because she was on the first step.

I would have loved a bit more story with the first governess, she only gets like what 2 pages and she is killed off. After that a time skip.

Also what bothered me was the language used by Florence. Her nouns to verbs/verbs to nouns. It distracted me from the story, I had to double or even triple read the sentence before I finally thought ah that is what she meant. And I can tell you that is highly annoying, especially with the rare good parts in the book.

I had expected a lovely ghost/horror story. Instead I got a little girl desperate to keep her perfect little world consisting of her, her brother and her library in perfect shape without any disturbance.
I feel sorry for the next governess (if she ever comes), after all we have seen what Florence will do for the perfect world.

And lastly, poor Theo. Sure I didn't always like him, but I found his adoration for Florence cute, and I had actually hoped they would become real friends. I didn't expect him to be killed of like that.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. It is a nice story at times, but most of the times it was boring and in the end I was glad it was done. It will go in the box with books I won't read again.