A Completely Different Place

Sheree Haughian is an elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Dufferin County Board of Education.

Johnny Nesbit wakes to find the gigantic eyeball of former classmate
Cheryl Zennor pressed against the bedroom window. It’s enough to
destroy a comfortable night’s sleep—even for one who has already
done battle in the exhausting and terrifying world of the Strangers.
This sequel to The Same Place but Different is abundant in magic spells,
distortions of place and time, and changeling children who appear green
to some, invisible to others. Here we find the typical good/evil
dichotomy of fantasy, unique in plot particulars yet perfectly
predictable in the final triumph of order over unrestrained corruption.

This novel obviously has some unsettling moments, which may appeal to
the tales-of-terror crowd. The odd romance between John and Cheryl may
spark the curiosity of those intrigued by the full gamut of human
relationships. But other readers may remain quite detached from this
story of colliding worlds. Even in a genre that celebrates the overthrow
of ordinary logic, there is usually some attempt to find the key to the
chaos. Why have so many children been spirited away to the Stranger
kingdom? What is the design behind the jumble of extraordinary events?
Layers of revelation peel away slowly like an onion; it seems to take
forever to get to the core, and when it’s reached, there doesn’t
appear to be very much of substance there. However, the book’s
interesting allusions to fairy folklore and the fantasy tradition may
make it a worthy contemporary addition to a collection of the genre.
Recommended with reservations.