Of Mothers and Little People

Review By Ryan Grigg

How does this story make me feel? Mystified? Engaged? Somewhat confused? In fact Of Mothers and Little People by Lucy Wood brings out its own world of thoughts, feelings and emotions. Whether this is through her vivid discussion of a seemingly usual family home, but with an air of mystery; through the creation of a wonderfully unusual and sometimes mystical group of characters; and through a tale that only the most imaginative mind could have thought of; whatever your tastes, there is always something exiting and unexpected around the corner when you send your mind into a rollercoaster of a story; this is like nothing you’ve ever read before.

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->The story tells the tale of young lady who returns to what she thinks is her mother’s ordinary home. However, with the help of some magical cleansing product, she enters herself into an adventure with hallucinations and a walk on the wild side. Lucy Wood has the upmost ability to enter a style of writing that can only be compared with Cornish myths and legends of old.

As I am not a huge fan of this particular genre, I was quietly pessimistic about this story. I didn’t expect to be enthralled in the way that I was. At every stage of the tale I was expecting something magical to happen. But these events did not occur in a way that you would have expected. At some points of the story a may have become slightly confused with the way that the tale would twist and turn, but then I thought that that might be the whole point of the story: to take you on a rollercoaster ride in just a collection of intriguing paragraphs. This story has obviously not been made just to please one’s mind, but to challenge it with its mystical plot twists and the beautifully captivating setting.

In summary, this mythical tale of fantasy and wonder is something that I was pessimistic about to begin with, but having read it, I now feel as if I have just left an exciting rollercoaster of a tale that really challenges the mind with its high level of mystery and imagination.