The Children's Home is like a fairytale for grownups – a deceptively lightweight moral tale – with a reclusive Beast in his castle becoming transformed by the children who magically materialise outside his home:
[A] square of air above the lawn seemed to ripple as though it were silk and a knife had been drawn across it, and a child appeared on the lawn and began to walk towards the house, perfectly confident, it seemed, that she would be received. And she was.Morgan Fletcher is horribly disfigured, and in the time since whatever accident it was that scarred his face and hand occurred, the only person he has permitted to look upon him is Engel: the matronly housekeeper whom Morgan assumes has been sent by his estranged sister. When children – ranging from a newborn to a five-year-old – begin to appear, Morgan takes them in without question. When the children need medical attention and Engel finds a competent and discreet practitioner in Dr. Crane, Morgan reveals himself to Crane as well and the good doctor becomes another fixture in the household. The children prove themselves to be precocious, and after asking Crane to teach them to read, they begin to search through the home's several libraries, obviously in search of something specific.
This story takes place in an unnamed time and place, not necessarily from our own reality. Morgan's home is surrounded by a high wall to keep out danger, but it has been many years since his dead parents had employed gatekeepers, and until the children started appearing, no one had dared to breech the property. We know there's a city nearby with the factory that Morgan's sister runs, but even Morgan doesn't know what is made there; he has rarely left the property and has no curiosity about where the family fortune has come from. Much is made of Morgan's late grandfather – a world traveller and collector of maps and curiosities – which makes him sound Victorian British to me, but that isn't made clear, and in the end, it doesn't really matter. What does matter is that this little book is loaded down with mystery and strange occurrences, and although there's no real sense of danger involved, I still found it to be tense and intriguing; anything could happen.
Engel picked her up and held her, the small soft body pressed to her bosom, the small wrinkled face in the warm crook of her neck, for she didn't know how long; a living daylight was how she described it to Morgan when she brought the baby up to him in his study. Looking across from his reading with amusement, Morgan explained that the living daylights were always plural and that they were supposed to be the part of the human soul most susceptible to fear. She nodded, fervently, that's exactly right, it just goes on and on.I was disappointed by the scene in which the children convince Morgan and Crane to leave the property on a mission – I couldn't quite understand what was happening here – but when David (the oldest of the children and the acknowledged leader of the group) explains where they came from, I was more satisfied, if still slightly bewildered. When, however, the book ends with Crane perusing Morgan's grandfather's maps and musing on the notion of multiverses, it all came together. And when I then looked at the official goodreads blurb – which calls this book an inversion of The Chronicles of Narnia or The Golden Compass, where we are experiencing a children's adventure tale from the perspective of “the visited” – I wish I had put that together for myself (and reading others' reviews, it seems that most people don't make that connection even after Crane drops his heavy hints).
My overall analysis: Charles Lambert's writing was consistently interesting, and with a just slightly anachronistic tone, totally suited to this fairytale/alt reality genre. I enjoyed the tension he created with the subtle hints of things being not quite right; and is there anything creepier than small children who seem to know more than they should? I found this to be an enjoyable reading experience, and as much as I was satisfied by David's explanation, I am still disappointed by the big climax mission and that will cost some stars. I would peg this as a 3.5 star read and am rounding down.
