Rating: 
Summary: what a heartwarming, wonderful classic
Review: I had been aware of Peter Beagle before actually getting around to reading him. This summer, I came across two of his books, a fine and private place and Tamsin. Tamsin was filled with such warmth, such an understanding of what it is to be young and at times overwhelmed. I love Jenny, her cat Mister Cat and her friend Meena, not to mention the inhabitants of their farm. Few books in recent memory have touched me the way this one did, and I would reccommend it to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I loved 'Tamsin'. I was quite surprised to read that it's a "Young Adult" novel. I'm far from being a young adult and I loved it. I almost gave up on this book early into it. The first 50 pages sounded exactly like one of those awful books you had to read in grade school, you know..the ones about children growing up without parents and how tough life is. But then this grew into a magical exploration of the ghosts and goblins of England. Highly Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Two thumbs up
Review: I loved this book. I like ghost storys ,and what I liked best about this one is the true friendship that came to be between girl and ghost. This book is well written and entertaining. Its just a good book.
Rating:
Summary: Beagle works his magic once again
Review: I once read that Peter S. Beagle wanted to write books that were as different from one another as possible. He succeeds in this respect with TAMSIN, creating a work that feels different from his other books and yet contains the same special "Beagle-touch." The voice of a young girl is written with such smooth hand--in fact, if I didn't know better, I'd think he had a thirteen-year-old girl co-writing with him. Beagle also weaves a spell of words as he describes the ghosts and other supernatural creatures, causing fingers to dance up the reader's spine. He captures the feel of rural England with shocking ease. I would recommend this books for almost anyone--from teenagers to adults. It touches cords buried deep in all of us.
Rating:
Summary: Beagle Weaves magic
Review: I read this book at the dinner table to my wife and 14 year old daughter. We all loved it. I'd give the book 10 stars if I could! We didn't want the book to end. The mood and atmosphere were all there. We felt we were in the ancient English Manor with Jenny. Beagle brilliantly captured the voice and personality of this thirteen-year-old character. She really came alive for us, as did all the other personalities in the story, those of flesh and blood, and those, well, the others. Thank you, Peter Beagle. Can't wait till your next book.
Rating:
Summary: A hauntingly good read
Review: I remember giving up "The Last Unicorn" after 3 chapters because of the somewhat ponderous prose. But I still picked up Beagle's "Tamsin" at a book sale because I was intrigued by the synopsis (I love all things English, and I love Dorset). Still, it took me almost 4 months to open the pages of "Tamsin". And I couldn't put it down. (Neither could my wife, who swiped it off me soon after I'd started - we had quite a tussle over it!) The amazing thing is what an immediate different experience "Tamsin" is to "Unicorn". Beagle writes thru a 19-year-old girl's eyes recounting her experiences at 13, and my wife swears "that's exactly how a teen girl thinks". He really gets the teen perspective spot-on. Amazing for a man whose teen years must be quite some decades behind him (sorry, Mr Beagle!). It was a bit frustrating (just a bit) that the novel takes some time to get to the titular character - Tamsin - but in retrospect, it makes sense. Because the book is really just as much about the teen girl Jenny Gluckstein, who's uprooted from bustling New York to "dull" Dorset (so she had disgruntledly expected) by her mother's second marriage to an Englishman. This 'preamble' of quite a few chapters fleshes out Jenny's character really well - before the real fun starts! That's when Tamsin is finally introduced, and the story's pace & drama move up a few notches. And so does the scare factor. Not any cheap, gimmicky kind, but one that really can send a chill down your spine, involving the unfolding a 300-year-old secret against a Dorset background rich in ghosts and myths. I won't say anymore to spoil your enjoyment. This book is worth its full price - I'm just thrilled I got it at such a steal! P.S. I'm now giving "The Last Unicorn" another chance - and hunting down more books by Peter S. Beagle!
Rating:
Summary: Believe!
Review: I think this could be a true story. Really, I wouldn't be shocked at all is Beagle told me that he'd simply written down a story he overheard one day. Even with the ghosts, bogarts, and that loveable Pooka, you'll feel as if you are reading the true account of a displaced city teen who discovers a home in rural England among the "old weird." Although not as good as some of Beagle's earlier works, such as A Fine and Private Place and The Last Unicorn, Tamsin still has that feel about it that is uniquely Beagle! The dialogue comes to life, especially when it is spoken by one of the old Dorset ghosts. You can hear the accent when you read it! One of the working titles for Tamsin was "Friends in the Night," so I recommend reading it after sundown for an especially effective experience.
Rating:
Summary: Mister Cat!
Review: I wanted a fun read and I had loved The Last Unicorn, so I was happy to find this book (in the Young Adult section, although it really should have been in Fantasy). I couldn't put it down. I finished it in less than 24 hours, which was both good and bad - good because I really really wanted to see how it was going to end, but bad because the book is so slow and I got frustrated with it. I would have adored this book when I was in jr high or high school. This would have been my favorite book then. I enjoyed it a lot now, but I did have some problems with it. For one thing, I see lots of reviewers here saying that it's not cliche. Well maybe you didn't read the same books I did, but I read a lot of young adult ghost stories back in the day, and this book follows the formula. It does it very well, yes, but it still follows the formula. Teenager forced against their will to move into a haunted house because a parent remarries, difficult time adjusting to new family, discovers a ghost with a tragic past, get information about the ghost from older, local people, etc. Wait Till Helen Comes for example (which is also a great young adult ghost story) has all of these cliches. So does The Headless Cupid (also excellent). Tamsin is excellent and worth reading, but the formula is there and is obvious if you've seen it before. I don't want to be too negative, because this really is a good book, and I enjoyed it a lot. I adored Mister Cat! The house itself was creepy and I would have enjoyed more time spent to exploring it (and perhaps less time devoted to Tamsin almost - but then not - telling Jenny things). I got little flashes of The Last Unicorn here and there, such as Tamsin forgetting herself the way Amalthea did, and the Wild Hunt reminded me of the Red Bull (only scarier), especially in the way the Jenny would hear it now and then the way the characters heard the Red Bull moving under the castle. I wanted to know more about the Oakmen too, and that was never really explained. Where was Tamsin's character? Why was Mister Cat so much more interesting and developed than the title character of the book? I thought it was wonderful that Jenny had a little crush on Tamsin - thank you Mr Beagle for including something which is common for girls but never discussed! However, I just never got that interested in Tamsin because she was boring and not very different from other ghost girls with a tragic past. Julian was much more interesting than Tamsin too. He was really a fun character (even though he acted younger than 10). Final word: I'm being a little harsh on this book because it's so close to being perfect and because I expected more from the author. This is a great book - if you like the author, or ghost stories, or fantasy, then get this book and enjoy a good (and scary) read! Tamsin is a great book for young adult readers too, and it's so much better than most of the books in that genre. Just make sure you have a day or two free before you start reading it though.
Rating:
Summary: Great Ghost Story
Review: I'm a big fan of Peter Beagle's work and this is one of my favorites. The charaters are well written and the story really moves along. I wish I could've had a "friend" like Tamsin at that point in my life.
Rating:
Summary: Peter Beagle does it again
Review: I'm not exaggerating when I say that Peter Beagle is one of the best writers in the world. If you read fantasy, you've certainly read his novel "The Last Unicorn," voted one of the five best fantasy novels of all time. It's always a treat when he gifts us with a new story, which isn't often. In "Tamsin," he tries out a new style, very unlike anything he's written before. It's a twist on the classic ghost story, written from the viewpoint of a headstrong, 14-year old Bronx-raised girl who's trying to come to terms with her mother's remarriage, and with their new home: a run-down, 300-year old manor in the English countryside. If that wasn't bad enough, it turns out that the huge old house and farm that her family's trying to renovate are positively bustling with supernatural activity. Cold drafts, distant voices, boggarts in the kitchen, and things that go bump in the night. This supernatural world takes on an entirely new aspect for Jenny, however, when she discovers Tamsin, the ghost of a 19-year old girl who lived and "stopped," as she puts it, 300 years ago in the manor when it was first built. Tamsin is beautiful, mysterious and compelling, but as their friendship grows, Jenny is drawn deeper and deeper into the strange world of the "old country," and into deadly peril. This is a great book for young and old alike. It's very compelling; you won't be able to put it down until the very end. Like most of Peter's books, the story runs the whole emotional range, from funny to sad to terrifying to joyous. And throughout, there's always the mystery and secret of Tamsin, unfolding piece by piece in Peter's Beagle's truly exhilarating, masterful, fairy-tale like style.
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