Book Review: The Boggart Fights Back

[osprey_archer]

I approached Susan Cooper’s The Boggart Fights Back with trepidation, because it’s been it’s been almost thirty years since the first Boggart book was published, and I wasn’t too fond of the first sequel, The Boggart and the Monster...

But in the end I couldn’t resist, and it was delightful. (In fact, it was so delightful I might need to reread The Boggart and the Monster: perhaps I was unfair to it.) Twins Jay and Allie Cameron have come to spend two weeks in Scotland with their grandfather, only to discover that Castle Keep is in danger of being turned into a resort by a loudmouth American developer, Trout, who talks like this: “It’s going to be environmentally perfect. I’ve built resorts all over the world, and I’ve had many, many environmental awards.”

“He’s Trump,” I bleated, as I read his superlative-laden dialogue. “Oh my God, it’s Trump.”

You will be unsurprised to learn that Trout’s resorts have earned no environmental awards. Instead, they destroy local ecosystems. Moreover, despite his nattering about creating jobs, he actually brings in his own people to his resorts and leaves the locals out in the cold.

Fortunately, Castle Keep is the ancestral home of the boggart, who cannot but rise to his home’s defense. Trout/Trump is thoroughly routed by the boggart and the boggart’s cousin Nessie (a boggart who was the Loch Ness Monster for a few centuries), with a little assistance from the Cameron twins (and cameos from many beloved characters from the original Boggart books). They eventually recruit a Nuckelavee, and let me tell you, it’s VERY satisfying to see Trout nearly drowned by a horse demon.

Even aside from this real-world resonance, there are some beautiful scenes in this book. I particularly loved the part where Jay begins to sing a Scottish ballad about routing an English general, and as the song goes on and the other characters add their voices and eventually the boggarts join in with the sound of bagpipes, and the song is more than just a song, it’s knitting everyone together in preparation for the battle that lies ahead.

Comments

[landofnowhere]

Wow, I had no idea there was another Boggart book! Maybe I should reread the series. (I don't think I've read anything by Susan Cooper since King of Shadows -- I was vaguely aware that she was still around and writing).

[osprey_archer]

I haven't really followed Susan Cooper's career; at some point I went back and read the Dark is Rising sequence, but until The Boggart Fights Back, King of Shadows was probably the most recent of her books that I've read, too. Now I'm thinking maybe I should check out what she's been up to for the last twenty years. And probably for the twenty years in between The Dark is Rising and The Boggart, too. Gosh, she's had a really long career!

[landofnowhere]

Have you read Seaward? It's the only other one of her books that I've read, and I remember liking it.

[osprey_archer]

I haven't. I was looking at her bibliography last night and I was surprised to see (1) how many picture books she's written, and (2) how few novels she's written, given the length of her career. I was thinking that trying to read all her books might be like trying to read all of Rosemary Sutcliff (who wrote so many books. SO MANY), but actually it might be doable.

[anelith]

Susan Cooper lives in Cambridge MA, not far from where I live. Many years ago she wrote a poem, "The Shortest Day," which is part of the annual performance of the Christmas Revels in Cambridge (in Harvard's Sanders Theater). The Revels changes their theme every year (always traditional music but from a different part of the world or era) but it always has this poem. The music from their first album (now only available as part of a boxed set) is very much in the spirit of the Christmas scenes from the Dark is Rising. Actually all the Revels are in the spirit, because it's always about the traditions of the Winter Solstice all around the world.