Book Review: The Boggart Fights Back
Jun. 27th, 2024 08:42 amI posted about The Boggart Fights Back when I first read the book a few years ago, and now that I’ve reread it with ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
littlerhymes I can only reiterate that the book is a romp. Not perhaps one of Cooper’s deepest works, but it’s very satisfying to see a sleazy real estate developer routed by the boggarts, with a little help from their human friends.
Some scattered thoughts:
I love that the boggarts conceptualize Trout as an invader, like the Hanoverian armies come to stop Bonnie Prince Charlie.
It’s extremely funny that Nessie’s first attempt to scare Trout off is to turn into the Loch Ness Monster, and Trout instantly gets dollar signs in his eyes and is not even slightly frightened at all. Oh Nessie. I understand why this seemed like a good plan to you, but any human could have told you it wouldn’t work!
The boggarts talk a lot more in this book than in the earlier books. It does take away somewhat from their Old Thing mystique, but it’s also a lot of fun to see them having a council of war with the Camerons to decide how best to rout Trout.
Coming right off reading the other Boggart books, I was a little bit sad that we didn’t see more of Emily and Jessup in this book. (We get only the briefest mention of Jessup!) But it didn’t bother me at all the first time I read The Boggart Fights Back, so I don’t think it’s actually a flaw in this book, just that reading about Emily and Jessup so recently reminded me how much I like them.
Shout out to Captain Macdonald, the captain of Trout’s yacht who is extremely done with everything. Good on you for saving your ship from the Blue Men of the Minch, sir! Please find new and more congenial employment!
At the start of the book, Nessie is still his sookish self from The Boggart and the Monster, but having an outside enemy to fight really cheers him up. By the end he’s cavorting through the loch, a happy mischief-filled boggart once again. Go Nessie!
littlerhymes I can only reiterate that the book is a romp. Not perhaps one of Cooper’s deepest works, but it’s very satisfying to see a sleazy real estate developer routed by the boggarts, with a little help from their human friends. Some scattered thoughts:
I love that the boggarts conceptualize Trout as an invader, like the Hanoverian armies come to stop Bonnie Prince Charlie.
It’s extremely funny that Nessie’s first attempt to scare Trout off is to turn into the Loch Ness Monster, and Trout instantly gets dollar signs in his eyes and is not even slightly frightened at all. Oh Nessie. I understand why this seemed like a good plan to you, but any human could have told you it wouldn’t work!
The boggarts talk a lot more in this book than in the earlier books. It does take away somewhat from their Old Thing mystique, but it’s also a lot of fun to see them having a council of war with the Camerons to decide how best to rout Trout.
Coming right off reading the other Boggart books, I was a little bit sad that we didn’t see more of Emily and Jessup in this book. (We get only the briefest mention of Jessup!) But it didn’t bother me at all the first time I read The Boggart Fights Back, so I don’t think it’s actually a flaw in this book, just that reading about Emily and Jessup so recently reminded me how much I like them.
Shout out to Captain Macdonald, the captain of Trout’s yacht who is extremely done with everything. Good on you for saving your ship from the Blue Men of the Minch, sir! Please find new and more congenial employment!
At the start of the book, Nessie is still his sookish self from The Boggart and the Monster, but having an outside enemy to fight really cheers him up. By the end he’s cavorting through the loch, a happy mischief-filled boggart once again. Go Nessie!
