Review by Alex- The Uninvited

The Uninvited by Tim Wynne-Jones

Mimi Shapiro had a disturbing freshman year at NYU, thanks to a foolish affair with a professor who still haunts her caller ID. So when her artist father, Marc, offers the use of his remote Canadian cottage, she’s glad to hop in her Mini Cooper and drive up north.

The house is fairy-tale quaint, and the key is hidden right where her dad said it would be, so she’s shocked to fi nd someone already living there — Jay, a young musician, who is equally startled to meet Mimi and immediately accuses her of leaving strange and threatening tokens inside: a dead bird, a snakeskin, a cricket sound track embedded in his latest composition. But Mimi has just arrived, so who is responsible? And more alarmingly, what does the intruder want?

Part gripping thriller, part family drama, this fast-paced novel plays out in alternating viewpoints, in a pastoral setting that is evocative and eerie — a mysterious character in its own right.

A little bit spooky, a little bit eerie, a whole lot of family problems. The three young ones, Mimi, Jay, and another guy Cramer, act as the main characters. The viewpoint switches from each of those characters often.

The story is just so compelling. It’s very hard to put down, especially towards to the end. Actually no. At the end, it is impossible to put down. I just had to speed through it to figure out what’s happening.

Basically, there are two mysteries. One is introduced in the synopsis, being Jay is getting these creepy presents. It escalates to thievery and so Jay, Mimi, and also Cramer on his own, are trying to figure out just who is taking all the stuff. I guess it’s not really a considered a mystery, but the second to me is: each of the main characters know a little bit, but not everything of the story. There’s all these different relations between Jay, Mimi, and Cramer, and none of them know all of them to what extent. It’s a bit confusing what I’m saying, but I don’t want to spoil anything…

I thought some of the phrasing was a little funny. The story takes place by a snye (look it up on Google- lots of pictures to place the setting and atmosphere) in Ontario so I guess it makes sense. These are not city folk, and so a lot of them have odd phrasing and speak differently than usual.

A thing I really liked about this book, being Canadian, is that it takes place in Canada, specifically in Ontario close to Ottawa. There were many Canadian references like the University of British Colombia (where my parents went), all the big cities close by, like Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal, etc. As much as I love American books too, Canadian books hold a special place in my heart. Okay, yes, I will go barf at my corniness now.

It’s honestly just this really intense read that’s completely gripping. The setting is amazing and richly detailed. The characters are interesting, all with their separate histories, pasts, and problems, but they all seem to converge on this same path. The ending is a complete shocker. You may think you know the culprit, but no, no, you don’t. Figuring out the mystery is just what keeps you going until the very end.