Charmed Life

I didn't get this book at all. Winner of awards, recommended profusely online and described as “subtle, funny and smart” by no less than Neil Gaiman... I found it tiresome, bland and rather vacuous. There are nice touches - Gwendolyn making the stained glass windows come to life, for one - but everything feels rather sketchy and unplanned. Things happen for no reason to partly drawn characters without any sense of narrative drive. It's wishy washy.

I should add I bought this for my nephew and thought I'd dip into some non-Rowling children's fiction before I gave it to him. Maybe I'm too old and it's something that grabs you when you're young, but to be honest I'm not sure I want to give it to him now, I'm not sure he'll thank me for it!