2018 CARNEGIE LONGLIST BOOK 15/20 * Looking back, I'm changing my rating to two stars, because this book realy was not exceptional, and there were a load of things that annoyed me about it. I do think that this was an interesting idea. But I could kind of tell it was a debut novel? It felt like there was more to give, more to come, and that's okay, because first novels aren't always perfect. I feel like this was maybe not as powerful as it could have been. And I found it hard to separate the

Interesting story, that I enjoyed. Makes some really important points about society today by weaving historical elements throughout the book. Well worth a read ...

Quite a combination of elements. They work though. A very different book, The Cure for Dreaming, combined female emancipation and hypnotism in a story of women's rights in the early 20th century.Here we are placed in the 1960s, in a time and place where Jim Crow rules, where the KKK work discreetly with violence to instil fear. An orphaned black boy, Pip (named after his schoolteacher mother's favourite Dickens novel) is taken from the orphanage to a Southern white-owned farm to work as farmhand...

I am not able to give this book a rating, as I didn't finish it. However, from the parts I did read I can tell you:- It is well written. Fx. I sometimes struggle when writers decide to write out drawls and accents, but in this book it was just alright. - The Main Characters are all really interesting. Every one from the Caucasian Irish Neurology Professor, to the Black Orphan teenager, and the Mute Native American girl. Together, they all have interesting back stories, and I really liked all thr...

Set in the Deep South of the American 1960’s, a black orphan boy, a mute Native American servant girl and an Irish Neurology professor are an unlikely squad. In a society overwhelmed by prejudice, they must employ all of their courage, cunning and wit to free themselves from their oppressors.This book is amazing! Here at Book Box Club we loved it so much we featured it in our Freedom Squad themed October box and we were thrilled to get the chance to chat to Laurence in our members only online bo...

I quite wrongly put this book off for ages, convinced it wasn’t really for me. And in parts, it isn’t - I struggled with the way it was written for example, especially translating the spoken bits. But the setting and the time were fine (and I typically don’t love more historical reads). And the story is lovely. I loved Pip and Hannah and Lilybelle. It’s a little short and in places simplistic (I think you can tell he came from writing for a younger audience), but I think that actually works for

I didn't really like the cover of this book and it put me off reading it at first, but if you read the first two pages, you will want to find out what happens. Anholt is a good writer and draws you in and keeps the story moving along. You hear from three viewpoints, a young black boy, a young N. American Indian girl, and the hypnotist himself. The story is set in the USA around the time of Martin Luther King's great speech and the Ku Klux Klan. I really enjoyed it and couldn't stop reading.

I’m quite disappointed with this book. The blurb sets it up to be a thoughtful story about race, but really it’s quite poorly written . Anholt has managed to write a white saviour narrative about the KKK, with a rather odd addition of mind control and hypnotism. The intertextual elements of Great Expectations felt incredibly forced and unnecessary. Maybe if Anholt had alluded to the novel more subtly, it would have felt a bit clever? But still it just came off as clumsy and a ill-suited book to

This book is very different from most of the others, and I cant believe it myself but I am almost pitying Erwin, for his mental instability. However that does not mean in any way I pity him, I pity his family, I pity his victims. And I feel like this book is pitiful. Jack, or Doctor Jack Morrow to use his full moniker, starts off being very funny, and very enjoyable to listen to. I didn't like the second person narration at the start, because it's different, his personality was very innocent, br...

My favourite book out of everyone that I have read.

I only knew Laurence Anholt as a picture book writer/illustrator, so I wasn't sure what to expect from his first young adult novel. I loved it - read it mostly in one sitting in the hammock. Many stories explore racism and the KKK in the American south, but this one has a twist in the form of an slightly odd but charming Irish hypnotist who lives next door to the young black and Native American protagonists. The alternating first person and third person perspectives worked well. Recommended.

When Pip is bought and paid for at an orphanage, he is worried for his future. But the worn, skinny old man called Mr Zachary who 'adopts' him seems kind enough on the long drive back to his farm, as he explains what he wants Pip to do. Since Pip was the only boy who could read at the orphanage, he was the perfect candidate to read to Zachary’s bed-ridden wife Lillybelle.Pip is shocked when he meets her but they soon build a positive relationship as he covers her every need and reads from his co...

There is so much to write about this book! It was gripping, sad, happy, terrifying and interesting, all at once. Part of the story is told around a young, black boy, in a time in America when the Klu Klux Klan dominated parts of the country. It tells us how he is plucked from his orphanage and taken to a farm in the middle of nowhere, where he meets Jack, a young professor with extraordinary gifts; Hannah, a brave young farm girl that Pip grows to love as he watches her around the farm; Lilybell...

A powerful book. If I'd had time to read it in one session I would have done so. It was interesting to read that the author's family, Jews from Persia who fled the country as refugees from racist policies in the 17th century, came from the town of Shushan(Susa) where the story of Esther, the heroine who saved her people from the racist vizier Haman, is set. Anyway, this and his father's experiences as a member of British Intelligence during and just after WWII, inspired this novel. The author wa...

I have not read another book quite like this one. A pacey historical fiction set in 1960’s America with racial tensions and the KKK. Erwin, the son, is an ex-soldier who fought in Vietnam. He has serious mental health issues and his family tread on eggshells when he is home. Hannah the kitchen maid lives in fear of Erwin, she is traumatised and selectively mute. Pip, named after Great Expectations and is a Black orphan. Mr Zachery bought Pip as a slave to look after and read to his wife Lillybel...

This book was amazing! It is beautifully written. The Southern accent made it even more authentic. I loved how Laurence described every character so it felt like you knew them as well. As for the story, well, it is so wonderful and sad at the same time. If you're a fan of To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Help or anything similar to these great stories, then I would recommend The Hypnotist as well. You learn so much when reading this book. I couldn't put it down and if I had to, I couldn't stop thinki...

I was given an ARC of The Hypnotist to review and I thought this was one of the best books I've read in a long time. Can't recommend it highly enough.

While Anholt's writing is often enthralling, I would be much more interested to read the fictionalisation of antisemitism he had originally intended to write about. Unlike his authorial note that ‘colour prejudice can work both ways’, it is imperative that children are taught to understand racism (and, particularly, anti-Black racism) as historically rooted and systemically sustained. All prejudice is wrong and anyone can be prejudiced towards anyone - of any colour. But the institutions and sys...

Set in the early 1960s - a fascinating period for racial equality, especially in this book set in the southern states of the US. A hard hitting read.

"The ancient rule of conflict is that it is easier to kill if the enemy can be reduced to crude group; a lower level of humanity."Although set in 1963, this book could not be more relevant to the ever conflicted America. Race is a serious issue and I feel like it is addressed very well for a young adult book. This book has very sad moments but the end is uplifting and hopeful.