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The Children's Home
The Children's Home: A Novel | Charles Lambert
For fans of Shirley Jackson, Neil Gaiman, Roald Dahl, and Edward Gorey, a beguiling and disarming debut novel from an award-winning British author about a mysterious group of children who appear to a disfigured recluse and his country doctorand the startling revelations their behavior evokes.In a sprawling estate, willfully secluded, lives Morgan Fletcher, the disfigured heir to a fortune of mysterious origins. Morgan spends his days in quiet study, avoiding his reflection in mirrors and the lake at the end of his garden. One day, two children, Moira and David, appear. Morgan takes them in, giving them free reign of the mansion he shares with his housekeeper Engel. Then more children begin to show up. Dr. Crane, the town physician and Morgans lone tether to the outside world, is as taken with the children as Morgan, and begins to spend more time in Morgans library. But the children behave strangely. They show a prescient understanding of Morgans past, and their bizarre discoveries in the mansion attics grow increasingly disturbing. Every day the children seem to disappear into the hidden rooms of the estate, and perhaps, into the hidden corners of Morgans mind. The Childrens Home is a genre-defying, utterly bewitching masterwork, an inversion of modern fairy tales like The Chronicles of Narnia and The Golden Compass, in which children visit faraway lands to accomplish elusive tasks. Lambert writes from the perspective of the visited, weaving elements of psychological suspense, Jamesian stream of consciousness, and neo-gothic horror, to reveal the inescapable effects of abandonment, isolation, and the grotesqueas well as the glimmers of goodnessburied deep within the soul.
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diovival
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I left all my responsibilities behind and finally feel free to rest, to read. Nearing the end of this strange little book I started in January. Feels absolutely wonderful.

Michael_Gee Oo that is a strange one! Enjoy! 10mo
29 likes1 comment
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diovival
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"He lounges with one arm supporting his head, surrounded by the carnage his imminent death has triggered...soothed to see the destruction of everything he has owned before he also dies, believing that he will find it all around him when he wakes again on the other side of his death, the fragments of porcelain miraculously reunited, the wounds of the women and horses and slaves miraculously healed."

Image: La Mort de Sardanapale by E. Delacroix

13 likes1 stack add
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diovival
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Quenched my craving for bubble tea and finally sat down to read. A momentous occasion because I've gotten no reading done in months and months and months, so I'm feeling great right now.

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Moray_Reads
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Panpan

Some excellent ideas and a brilliantly tense and unsettling atmosphere in early parts but then it starts to flounder and become disconnected. A sense of time and place never emerge and the sparse hints of a history are not enough to ground it. The (many!) loose ends and unexplained elements seem more a result of the writer's own confusion about his story than a deliberate technique. And I HATE it when characters fortuitously find answers in books!

jillrhudy What an articulate review 👏🏻 6y
45 likes1 comment
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diovival
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When your to-read list becomes less realistic and more aspirational. #oopsididitagain #usedbooksaremykryptonite #bookhaul

EvieBee 😂 6y
IamIamIam I've been so crazy this month that the last 5 books I've read were audio books!!! 6y
diovival @IamIamIam that counts! 🙌 6y
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Michael_Gee Cool cover! Is that the hardback version? 6y
diovival @GhostStories Yep. Found it at a library sale for $2. 6y
Michael_Gee @diovival Great find! 6y
44 likes6 comments
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callunakeep
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Pickpick

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ & a bonus🌟 LOVED LOVED LOVED THIS BOOK!! The story of Morgan Fletcher, a disfigured recluse living alone with his housekeeper in a huge mansion, and a group of mysterious children who appear out of nowhere and take up residence with him. Gothic, mysterious, supernatural, extremely thought provoking, and intense! I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was a little piece of perfection!!

16 likes2 stack adds
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Aluciddreamstate
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Pickpick

4/5. I loved this book. Ghosts of 👶🏻 buried in the soil, the ending to ponder about life. If you pick up the book think roald Dahl and the meaning behind all fairy tales is a moral to be had. Give it a try. I dare you 👹👹👹👹~Lucid

KCorter With a review like that, I can't *not* read this book. 7y
38 likes7 stack adds1 comment
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MrBook
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#TBRtemptation post! I want, I want, I want 😁👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻! Gothic magical realism horror anyone?! I thought so 😎👌🏻. In the vein of Shirley Jackson, Neil Garman, & Roald Dahl, this debut novel revolves around a mysterious group of children who appear to a disfigured recluse on his estate & his country doctor. The children behave...straanngely. Hooked yet 😆?! Think Narnia or Golden Compass inverted. Whaaat? #blameLitsy #blameMrBook 😎

StephBengtson I wanted to like this one so bad! I heard the author speak and it sounded amazing, but in the end it was just a little too out there for me. 7y
tricours @StephBengtson but was it creepy? 7y
StephBengtson @tricours it wasn't as creepy as I wanted it to be. More Narnia and less Shirley Jackson. 7y
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tricours @StephBengtson oh... I think I'll unstack it then 😕 7y
MrBook @StephBengtson @tricours Awww, it sounds so good though 😩!!!! 7y
StephBengtson @MrBook give it a shot! Maybe you will like it better than I did. I think my expectations were different based on the interview I listened to. (edited) 7y
94 likes25 stack adds6 comments
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Karionie
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Mehso-so

Singularly weird.

mcipher So.... that's creepy! 😳 Weird sounds good though. 7y
3 likes1 comment
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ingredientx
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I tried to take a photo of a creepy book by some creepy Halloween flowers, but it came out looking like a creepy book wearing a creepy Ronald McDonald wig! #accidentalspookiness #booktober #allhallowsread

Alfoster It's a great pic!👍 7y
ReadingOver50 Looks great! Like a giant orange brain 😄 7y
rachelm 😉 7y
See All 7 Comments
JonathanDunne Love the picture 7y
JonathanDunne The flowers give the branches a 3D effect 7y
LauraJ Hey, nothing is creepier than a clown. 7y
Bette Flowers look like their roots are reaching out to the book...creeping creepy. 😬😳 7y
97 likes1 stack add7 comments
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ingredientx
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Snuck out for some lunchtime reading! It's beautiful today! #booklunch #booktober

Readingrobin Great cover and photo setting! 7y
Wannabe_Quijote Awesome cover! 7y
AStoriedSoul Yay! I'm so happy to see someone else reading this. It's such an amazing book. It really makes you think and draw your own conclusions. Such a rare gem. Reminds me of Edward Gorey mixed with Poe and Daphne du Maurier. 😄😄 7y
74 likes3 stack adds3 comments
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ingredientx
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Can't believe I found this at a community book sale today! #winning

AStoriedSoul This book is amazing. 7y
LauraJ That cover! 7y
67 likes5 stack adds2 comments
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Josie
Mehso-so

The first half of this book was great. Super creepy kids popping up out of nowhere and a harrowing backstory on the main character had me DYING to find out what was going on. The second half of the book made NO sense. It gave me a headache trying to understand. Still, I give it 3 🌟🌟🌟 because it did creep me out.

BarbaraJean It probably just needed a chainsaw. 😏 8y
AStoriedSoul I think the author leaves things up to interpretation at the end. I adore this book. ☺️❤️ but I love all things Gothic. 8y
37 likes1 stack add3 comments
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Josie
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Starting this one on my kindle today!! It's one of the first books I stacked when I joined Litsy! I can't remember who read it, but thank you to whoever it was for posting about it! It sounds right up my alley. As soon as the baby is down for a nap, I'll be back for #somethingforsept day 7.

ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled This looks GOOD! Thanks for posting! That cover freaked me out. 8y
Josie @ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled.com it freaked me out too!!!! But I love me a powerful cover! Had to go for it 8y
44 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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Yournewfriendsams
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Has anyone else read this?!? I'm just starting and don't know what to think...

StephBengtson I have. I heard a really awesome review so I was excited to read it, but extremely let down. 8y
LeahBergen But it sounds so good! 8y
mauveandrosysky No but now I want to! 8y
MrBook Nice cover! 8y
BookishFeminist I did & really didn't like it despite this sounding very up my alley 8y
56 likes3 stack adds5 comments
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Wendirella

More than half way through and I'm wondering why I chose this.....because I read it resembled Neil Gaiman. Something better happen soon.

3 likes1 stack add
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Cynut

Midway in - riveting

1 like1 stack add
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bookish_wookish
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This book 😩 So far im loving the story and the writing. Its different than anything ive read lately which is a nice change.

12 likes1 stack add
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RandomBookMuses
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Mehso-so

Reviewed by Thalia https://goo.gl/RgDuwz

2 likes1 stack add
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KarenaFagan
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Pickpick

This is a bizarre book. I usually don't go in for the weird, but this was pretty good.

23 likes5 stack adds
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bookish_wookish
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Im going through one of those periods where i just cant settle on a book...Im too restless with the books i grab from the library, but i have high hopes for this book...

12 likes4 stack adds
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Tessyreads
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Currently reading while the kids are going wild at Bounce U. This book is creepy so far.

2 likes1 stack add
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KarenaFagan
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Part of Operation: Read My 2016 Books Before the Damn Paperback Comes Out.

Trav Love the cover! 8y
Gezemice Great cover! And I usually don't notice covers... 8y
21 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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Krisreadsbooks
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I might be a bit out of my comfort zone with this one. I'm finding it to be a little unsettling.

3 likes2 stack adds
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TheWellReadOwl
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Pickpick

Dark, unsettling & atmospheric, this book had a lot going on, but all of it felt elusive. The prose is stylish & evocative, but it needed more ...something? The end was not satisfying & a bit WTF? But I'm giving it ??? on the writing & imagination. Need to reread to get to that "Aha!" moment.

Angelala007 Great review. I'll read it 8y
TheWellReadOwl @asketchyeducation meant to tag you! 8y
TheApesOfWrath Loved it! 8y
tanged Completely agree with the ending! I still don't know what I read! 😄 8y
52 likes7 stack adds4 comments
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TheWellReadOwl
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Me, the littlest owl, the dog, about a million stuffed animals, The Descendants and The Children's Home. 😋 Lazy Saturday.

Megabooks Sounds perfect! 8y
thelibraryofmars What do you think of The Children's Home? I have a copy that I might use for a traveling book project...but I haven't read it yet! 8y
TheWellReadOwl @asketchyeducation I'm about 1/3 of the way in and I'm not sure what to make of it yet. There's the overt plot which I feel like I've barely touched, but there's an entire layer of fairly tale/allegory/psychological fantasy that is filling out the plot. I'll post a review when I finish. 🤓 8y
thelibraryofmars @TheWellReadOwl Hmm, these sound like things I like. Tag me in the review if you remember! Happy reading! 8y
AStoriedSoul I am absolutely in LOVE with Lambert's Children's Home. One of my all time favorites. 8y
36 likes2 stack adds5 comments
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KarenaFagan
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I've heard really good things about this one. #literaryloot

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bookculture
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Pickpick

Deceptive, unsettling, and lingering. A disfigured son of wealth and an ever-growing group of mysterious children who show up at his door with full knowledge of who he is. A short work of fiction difficult to categorize. -Nick R.

Chie Sounds interesting. Is it anything like The Oddfits in how it unfolds? 8y
38 likes39 stack adds1 comment