The Eyeball Collector

I finished this book in record time! It arrived before I even expected and in pristine condition. I could not tell that this book had ever been read! It is now a part of my classroom library at school. The students are loving it!

Murder Eyeballs Puzzling riddles Leeches ...and Butterflies? The Eyeball Collector has got it all. A villain as dastardly as Count Olaf, complete with eyepatch and multiple disguises. An orphan straight out of a Dickens novel with thieving compatriots reminiscent of the Artful Dodger and company. A cold and imperious noble, Lady Mandible, who has mysterious plans of her own. A spine-shivery atmosphere tinged with menace. "At first I saw nothing. The moon was behind the swollen clouds and the sheeting rain made everything blurry. but then pitchforked lightning split the inky sky and my heart faltered. In its white light, my disbelieving eyes saw a vast jagged silhouette stretching across a broad mountainous outcrop like a diabolical gathering of crouching devils. Their horns were the towers and the light burning in the windows their evil red eyes. "Tatri flammis!" I breathed and could say not another word. This behemoth before me was Whittypitts Hall. "This is madness!" shouted Solomon. "Come back with me. It's not too late." Hector is a plucky and likeable hero, with a special gift of riddling which helps him survive after his father dies. Another gift, one for cultivating rare butterflies, lands him in luxurious Whittypitts Hall, close enough to exact revenge on the man he blames for his father's death, Baron Bovrik de Vandolin. However, these gifts and his desire for revenge also puts him in harm's way, for there are evil doings happening in Whittypitts Hall, centered around the enigmatic Lady Mandible. Hector plots to exact revenge on the night of the Mandible Midwinter Feast, but his plans threaten to go awry when Lady Mandible and Baron Bovrik's terrible secrets are revealed... "Every time I think I have seen the worst this abominable place has to offer, I am proved wrong. As for the despicable man who plays at Baron, I can hardly wait until the feast is over and my task completed. Then I shall be gone from here, for I swear, if I have to stay a moment longer I fear for my sanity and my character." What goes on during the Mandible Midwinter Feast is memorable, not only because the plot climaxes at this point, but also for the truly awful feast that commences. I am specially attuned to food description in books and this one made me naseous. If I ever compile a list of the best of the worst food scenes, this will be the very first to come to mind. Although this is Higgins's third book set in Urbs Umida and apparently including some recurring character(s) from The Black Book of Secrets and The Bone Magician, The Eyeball Collector is a stand alone book. I haven't read the other two (but I soon will!) and I was not at all lost reading this one. The Eyeball Collector is a well-written, intelligent book with gothic suspense for middle grade to young adults. Best of all, it has riddling conundrums sprinkled throughout like little treats (with answers in the back of the book). There is some violence.

Edward Gorey once said, "I suppose I know a few tots who would like my books." In his day the man perfected the art of the macabre, helping to raise whole generations of children with a taste for the darkly humorous. Kids who continue to indulge such tastes have a strange array of books to choose from these days. They could read some Lemony Snicket, find old Charles Addams cartoons, or perhaps dip a toe in the waters of F.E. Higgins. I first read an F.E. Higgins book roundabout two years ago when she brought out the delightful "The Black Book of Secrets". Then came "The Bone Magician" which she described as a kind of "paraquel", or story that takes place in the same world and in tandem with "Black Book" but doesn't overlap much. "The Eyeball Collector" is now the third, and perhaps the best, book in this delightfully twisted series so far. Containing a couple characters from the first two books, this latest book in the series stands entirely on its own and contains a world you might not want to visit personally, but that you'll gladly reread again and again. Youthful fans of the darkest recesses of the human brain will be inordinately pleased. Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it. Hector Fitzbaudley would have done well to heed that advice. Bored by the life he leads with his well-to-do father and their collection of butterflies, Hector sometimes sneaks across the river to the bad part of town where he can watch life being lived. Yet when a mysterious one-eyed man causes the death of Mr. Fitzbaudley with a little blackmail, Hector vows to track down the villain and take revenge. His plan takes him to the beautiful but poisonous Withypitts Hall, presided over by Lady Mandible, a woman of unique and dangerous tastes. And even as Hector schemes, so too scheme the people around him, until at last he is caught in a web of lies and murder from which it will be difficult to escape. As Hector's father once said to him, "When you run with wolves, you become a wolf." After reading "The Black Book of Secrets" I found that what I had on my hands was a book ideal for booktalking. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, a booktalk is a kind of verbal trailer or preview for a work of literature. Librarians typically get classes of middle grade or high school students then talk up titles in such a way that the kids feel they absolutely must read that book immediately! "Black Book" was good, but I can tell that I'll really be breaking out the old booktalking chompers for this title. Think of all the crazy elements it contains! Death by butterfly, a cat eater, eyeballs for every day of the week, paintings created with blood, riddles, revenge, rescues, you name it! Of course, Higgins's real strength lies in her delicious writing. Nobody conjures up descriptions like this woman. First there are the names to consider. Names like Lady Mandible, Urbs Umida, Pagus Parvus, the River Foedus, Baron Bovrik de Vandolin, an