The Game of Sunken Places

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, and full of quirky, creepy surprises
Review: "The woods were silent, other than the screaming." Right from this first sentence of THE GAME OF SUNKEN PLACES, readers get a good idea of the creepy fun they're in for in M. T. Anderson's masterful new fantasy novel. In addition to being genuinely scary, Anderson's novel also manages to be wickedly clever and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

If you just look at the book's jacket, you'd think THE GAME OF SUNKEN PLACES was one of those old-time adventure novels. And, in many ways, you'd be right. The story does feel very old-fashioned, even though it's set in the present day. Part of the book's nostalgic feel comes from the plot. There's the eccentric (borderline insane) uncle living in a ramshackle mansion in the woods of Vermont, for one thing. Gregory and his best friend Brian travel by train to stay with Gregory's uncle during their autumn school vacation.

Uncle Max meets them with a horse and carriage, brings them to the isolated mansion, and takes away all their modern-day possessions, leaving them with nothing to wear but old-fashioned nightgowns and knickerbockers. The two friends find themselves in an attic nursery, filled with toys from the past, including the mysterious "Game of Sunken Places" board game.

As soon as Brian and Gregory turn over the hourglass timer that starts the game, they get the feeling that this is no simple game of Parcheesi. Instead, the game board, which represents the dark woods outside the mansion, is filled with sinister characters like the ogre Snarth, the mysterious opponent Jack Stimple, and the bitter elf Wee Sniggleping, who spends all his time convincing Brian and Gregory that he's not like one of those cheerful Keebler Elves. The boys meet these real-life characters as they navigate the game board, answering riddles and solving puzzles along the way, and the plot has as many twists and turns as the game board itself does.

The action-packed plot is reason enough to pick up THE GAME OF SUNKEN PLACES; what sets this novel apart, though, is the details. From Gregory's wisecracks --- many of which make no sense but are nonetheless hilarious --- to bizarre descriptions of Hummel figurines ("Little German children, wearing lederhosen, kissed while carpets of fungus crawled and devoured them"), the book is filled with quirky, sometimes creepy surprises that may have readers falling off the edge of their seats with laughter.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

Rating:
Summary: Dark, humorous, innovative, absolutely no cliches - flawless
Review: Don't trust anything or anyone! As much as I hate to use cliché's, in this book absolutely nothing is as it seems, and clues hide themselves in the strangest of places. Oftentimes, the solution that seems most obvious is not the solution. What a wonderful book of twists and turns!

I was won over immediately by the writing style. At once dark and flippantly humorous, the author has a fine eye for detail, and more than once I found myself laughing out loud, only to be silenced moments later due to a suspenseful turn of events. You'll find, in the beginning, that a dictionary will come in hand, and I urge you to look up any words you don't understand. More often than not, you'll find that the knowledge of the word enriches the reading experience, and the quirkiness of the "big word" is appropriate for the setting. For example, phthisis means pulmonary tuberculosis. And as it's used in the book, it's hysterical. Really.

The actual game described in the title is astonishingly innovative; I've never seen anything like it. To say anything about it gives too much away, so I'll hope only that you trust me.

The Booklist review, as well as the inside jacket flap, do a wonderful job of setting the scene, so I'll end by saying: this book NEEDS to have a broader reading audience. At the writing of this review, the book ranked 73,034 on Amazon's listing. That must change. I have a very difficult time imagining someone reading this book and not being highly entertained, for there is ample entertainment value, of myriad kinds, on every page. If you take my recommendation, you won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Dark, humorous, innovative, absolutely no cliches - flawless
Review: Don't trust anything or anyone! As much as I hate to use cliché's, in this book absolutely nothing is as it seems, and clues hide themselves in the strangest of places. Oftentimes, the solution that seems most obvious is not the solution. What a wonderful book of twists and turns!

I was won over immediately by the writing style. At once dark and flippantly humorous, the author has a fine eye for detail, and more than once I found myself laughing out loud, only to be silenced moments later due to a suspenseful turn of events. You'll find, in the beginning, that a dictionary will come in hand, and I urge you to look up any words you don't understand. More often than not, you'll find that the knowledge of the word enriches the reading experience, and the quirkiness of the "big word" is appropriate for the setting. For example, phthisis means pulmonary tuberculosis. And as it's used in the book, it's hysterical. Really.

The actual game described in the title is astonishingly innovative; I've never seen anything like it. To say anything about it gives too much away, so I'll hope only that you trust me.

The Booklist review, as well as the inside jacket flap, do a wonderful job of setting the scene, so I'll end by saying: this book NEEDS to have a broader reading audience. At the writing of this review, the book ranked 73,034 on Amazon's listing. That must change. I have a very difficult time imagining someone reading this book and not being highly entertained, for there is ample entertainment value, of myriad kinds, on every page. If you take my recommendation, you won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Imaginative Good Read
Review: I have often told adult friends of mine of late who enjoy fantasy that some of the finest today is to be found in books written for young adults. Anderson's THE GAME OF SUNKEN PLACES is a good example. When Gregory is asked to visit his Uncle Max he is also asked to bring a friend, Brian. Arriving at Max's country home they find that Max is not just eccentric but living about a century behind. As they explore the house they come across a game board that is only partially filled in. As they explore the woods by the house they make another discovery. As they explore the board fills in because it is a map of the woods which is an elaborate game that takes on very sinister proportians. What is the point of the game and who are they really playing against are the crux of the story. Anderson deftly develops his story peopled with a variety of characters who are or might not be as they seem. The bridge troll takes perhaps the biggest turn of all that in the end is quite geuinely touching. Plot twists as to be expected abound but they are of a type that make the tale even more interesting. A great Saturday afternoon read or for the proverbial dark and stormy night. The best compliment I can give is to say that I wish the book was longer.

Rating:
Summary: Anderson drops the ball...
Review: I must say that I had expected more from M.T. Anderson. I adored his previous titles and eagerly dug into "The Game of Sunken Places." I found "The Game of Sunken Places" to be clever but unfortunately rather self-indulgent (Fanta, indeed....).

Rating:
Summary: Why you should give an author another chance...or two...
Review: I've read other books by M.T Anderson and I always hated them or never even bothered to finish them. That's why I was so surprised by my interest into this story right from the beginning. We follow Gregory and Brian, best friends, to Gregory's "Uncle's" house in rural Vermont during a school vacation. Little do the boys know how strange old Uncle Max has become, and what is waiting for them in the upstairs nursery. It's an old board game, and they're playing if they like it or not. The characters are great (Gregory is a bit of a blonde) and the writing really helps convey the strange spots the boys find themselves in.

Rating:
Summary: Sink into "The Game of Sunken Places" By: Larke
Review: It's not a bad book. The idea behind the game is intriguing. It moves at a relatively quick pace and it certainly was enough to keep me interested. The author takes the oft used cliche of an old mansion and weird relatives and takes the story in ways I've never seen before.

But as good as all the ideas are, the writing is, unfortunately, below average. The writer takes what could be a fast moving page-turner of a story and slows it down so much that he makes it almost uninteresting. It's almost unnoticed, and perhaps is completely unintentional, but one of the major characters, Brian, goes through a kind of transformation during the course of the story. But the author downplays it so much that it comes out as unnoticed within the book, and, as I said, was perhaps even unnoticed by the author himself.

As I said, it's not a bad book, but there are so many others out there that are better I hesitate to recommend this one. Try "The House With a Clock in Its Walls" by John Bellairs and Edward Gorey for a taste of the genre done right (albeit a bit dated). Or even the recent "Chasing Vermeer", by Blue Balliett for a very well written mystery.

Rating:
Summary: Fun Books, A Little Silly, A Little Suspenseful
Review: M.T. Anderson's The Game of Sunken Places is way beyond far-fectched, even for the genre of fantasy, as two boys embark on a board game that leads them to hidden cities, trolls, and ghosts, among many other fantasical things. The author keeps the story moving quickly and has some nicely timed twists and turns along the way to keep the reader's attention. This is a good thing as the holes within the plot could be jarring if one is not swept quickly past them. The sense of whimsy demonstrated at the beginning sags slightly as the book gathers steam but it is replaced with a greater touch of danger at just the right moments. Overall, this is a enjoyable children's fantasy if not a classic.