The Bag (The Bucket Series)

Hey, this is Heather posting today. Many thanks to Pegasus Publishers for letting me read this in exchange for an honest review. The cover art for this book is stunning.

Information

Author: D.J. Cattrell
Published: June 2017
Publisher: Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers
Length: 347 pages

Genre: Children's/Teenage Fantasy

Brief description (from Amazon)

The day had finally come for Sarah to meet her sister Rachel after eight years. Being in a different world, Sarah was determined to be re-united with Rachel back in her original world, with The Bag'. But does that solve all the problems? The witch, The Esmeralda', makes her way into her new world aiming to take hold of The Bag' from Sarah. What is so precious about this bag? Sarah must protect it and its contents, and is willing to give up her life to save the world from the witch's evil doing. Will Sarah survive? And, if Sarah does survive, which world will she choose to live in? (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bag-Bucket-D-J-Cattrell/dp/1907552979/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500472492&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=the+bag+dj+cottrell)

Review

I’m a massive fan of the genre children’s/teenager fantasy so my expectations were pretty high. It’s crucial for children and teens alike to expand their imagination by reading fantasy novels. Through reading fantasy, we can manipulate our own minds to appreciate the bizarrely beautiful mundane elements of our own world that someone from another world would notice. It’s also wonderful to provide us with some escapism, I recall spending many dark nights in Harry Potter’s wizarding world, adventuring with Lyra and Will in Philip Pullman’s dark material and hobbling along with the hobbits and elves of Tolkien’s literature when my own life was stressful and sleep troubled.

The pacing of the novel is rapid.  I did feel it was a little too fast at the start but had I read the prequel I’d probably not have had this issue. It’s often difficult for writers to include enough description yet still captivate their readers for this audience, but this is definitely a success story for that. Imagery, plot and dialogue were all in the ideal ratio. There are some illustrations too, whilst these aren’t really needed as the imagery is more than adequate in allowing the reader to visualise what is happening, I still enjoyed looking at them. The plot is good, certainly a page turner, though the end still leaves the reader questioning what will happen next, which is excellent if the author is planning to write another book. I was also pleased that the writer had come up with their own creatures to fill this world with, like the cuddly rocks and Jasban.

The characterisation was definitely another highlight. I adored the Jasban, which are playful critters, especially the contrast between them and the grouchy but equally lovable white tiger. The Esmeralda was an excellent villain, cruel and literally feeding from the pain of others, she struts around with a confidence reminiscent of Jadis from C.S. Lewis’ Magician’s Nephew, capturing followers through the power of her eyes. My favourite character, followed closely by the endearing Robin, had to be Mrs Mole. Mrs Mole’s perspective was such fun to follow; an avid rule enthusiast distraught from her husband leaving her and left feeling pretty desolate, she consumes herself with caring for her plants, disapproving of Sarah and being a Guide leader (I’m hoping the sequel might give her some more happiness). Her journey shows the most satisfying character development and there’s some spectacular imagery as she joins Sarah on her adventure. Rachel, however, confused me, particularly her claim that ‘ruler’ (as in the item in your pencil case) is improper, and that it’s really called a ‘rule’. I checked the Oxford Dictionary and for the British, a ruler is definitely acceptable terminology for a tool used to measure lengths and draw straight lines with. That’s not to say that she’s a badly written character though – sure, she’s pompous and a know-it-all (except about rulers, it seems), but some of the best people in this world are.  

Some authors can be pretty daunted by the children-teenager bridge in literature, so I really have to commend the writer for going for this audience. The writing style is fun to read, but uses mature language, a lovely balance that should help younger teenagers to keep reading. However, throughout there was a case of overly ‘enthusiastic’ punctuation in which a lot of sentences ended with an exclamation mark. I’d really advise writers and editors to check before publishing to reduce exclamation marks – they should be used only sparingly to make full impact when necessary. Children’s literature does tend to use more exclamation marks than most, but even so, consider that authors like Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf and F. Scott Fitzgerald all used less than 500 of them per 100,000 words. It’s a minor thing to nag about, and normally I’d completely ignore it, yet the book itself is written so well that it doesn’t require them.

Only one element of the novel did I really dislike: the rabbit incident. This is a really small part of the book and not really needed to fabricate the storyline, it’s more included to demonstrate how poorly Sarah adapts to our world as she takes the Guides rabbits and makes rabbit stew with them… then uses the skins to make the Guide leader, Mrs Mole, slippers. Maybe I’m a little biased? I’ve kept rabbits since the age of three – my bunny Tilly is currently parading round my bedroom floor as I write this (she was rather startled by the lightning last night so was owed some cuddles). So, I’ll admit it, I adore rabbits and the thought of someone doing that to Tilly quite frankly is horrific. This meant that for the remainder of the book, I was ‘stewing’ about why rabbit stew is even a thing! I know I’ve ranted too much on this one point, but needless to say I was not amused by it, particularly for the age group it's aimed at. As a counterpoint to this, I know that rabbits are eaten in the wild and that Sarah did not realise how traumatising her actions would be to the other children… but I still don’t forgive her.

Aside from the rabbits, I really enjoyed this novel and will definitely try to get hold of the prequel sometime. If you’ve read or are reading this book or even just love the genre like I do, please let me know in the comments below.