Changes

|title=Midwinterblood

|author=Marcus Sedgwick

|reviewer=Linda Lawlor

|buy=Yes

|borrow=Yes

|pages=272

|publisher=Indigo

|website=http://www.marcussedgwick.com/Marcus_Sedgwick/Home.html

|video=N0v-NWW8W0s

}}

Half a century into our future, a journalist called Eric Seven scents a story on a small, isolated island and goes to investigate. Rumours have spread, saying that people there never age, and that there are no children. He has barely set foot on the quay when he sees, and to his surprise falls in love with, a girl called Merle. But almost immediately we, the readers, realise that there is more than one mystery in this strange place. Why are the inhabitants so overwhelming in their welcome to him? What is happening on the other half of the island? And, most worryingly, why is Eric sleeping so much, and forgetting his reason for coming to the island for hours on end? From the very first page there are signs of menace and disorientation, and at last Eric overcomes his torpor and comes to understand that something is badly wrong. He endures terrible nightmares, full of blood and violence, and at the last, just as the islanders drag him to a stone table to kill him, things become clear in his mind. He has been here before. In fact, he has been here many, many times.

Further reading suggestion: If you want another strange and unsettling story by Marcus Sedgwick, try [[My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick|My Swordhand is Singing]], a spine-chilling tale set in seventeenth century Romania. And for a second chilly tale, this time set in a more down to earth but equally atmospheric cabin beyond the Arctic Circle, try [[Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick|Revolver]]. They'll both make you shiver!

{{commenthead}}