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The Black Book of Secrets: Tales From the Sinister City 1

F.E. Higgins

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Jan 11, 2009 Grace rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. ~~I wish I could give this two and a half stars, but I suppose I'll have to settle for three.~~ On seconds thought I'm giving it two. To be honest I was a bit surprised that this book got such big ratings from people on goodreads.

I picked this up in a used book store and read the first couple pages. It's a good, very creep, beginning and very intriguing. But I admit that I probably wouldn't have bought it had been at full price.

I really like the initial idea for the book. A pawnbroker buys peoples ~~I wish I could give this two and a half stars, but I suppose I'll have to settle for three.~~ On seconds thought I'm giving it two. To be honest I was a bit surprised that this book got such big ratings from people on goodreads.

I picked this up in a used book store and read the first couple pages. It's a good, very creep, beginning and very intriguing. But I admit that I probably wouldn't have bought it had been at full price.

I really like the initial idea for the book. A pawnbroker buys peoples deepest, darkest secrets. But I don't think it was executed that well. I think it's a bad sign when you're reading a book and you can't help but keep thinking what a better job a really good author could have done with the idea. I think it could have been better with a fantasy aspect to it. I think the idea might have worked better with magic: For example the book could have been magic, so that once the secrets were written down they couldn't be spoken of again (honestly, I suspected this for a little while, but it isn't) I don't see why anyone would feel more secure with their secrets written down in a book in the possession of a stranger. I, for one, would feel much more ill at ease knowing that they were so accessible to anyone who might get their hands on that book, after all it says on the cover of that very same book that "What is spoken flies, what is written never dies."

I didn't feel like the characters were that well developed. Looking back I can't really describe what the characters were like. I felt, especially, that the relationship between Ludlow and Joe should have been built on much, much more. Joe wasn't very well rounded either and I know he was probably meant to be mysterious and interesting I think it could have been done better.

Also, I was a bit perplexed by the ending. It was not was I expected at all and I think it could have ended about ten pages earlier and I would have been fine with it. I just thought the underground cave and the shelves and shelves upon "secret books" was a bit bizarre. I wish more would have been explained about the point of secret pawnbrokers as well. ...more

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Jan 24, 2008 Dracolibris rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, ya-lit

Ludlow Fitch has the worst parents in the world. They trained him to be a pickpocket and thief before he could even walk to support their drinking habit, but now that he is older and their drinking habit continues they have decided to sell his teeth for more money. His teeth! The ones in his head! Luckily, he escapes from this dire situation and in desperation hitches a ride on a carriage, not caring where it takes him as long as it is far, far away from his parents and the horrible City.

This i ...more

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Jul 03, 2008 Marsha rated it liked it · review of another edition

This book is geared towards 10-14 year olds and had an interesting premise. The book starts out in the nameless "city" with Ludlow's terrible parents forcing him into the so-called dentist's office to sell his teeth. The time period is probably the mid 1800's and the city sounds a lot like London. Ludlow barely escapes from the dentist, his parents, and the city, and soon finds Joe, a secret pawnbroker. Joe does not do pawnbroking in secret, he buys people's secrets. Ludlow begins to work for hi ...more

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