Yaxley's Cat - Hardcover

Westall, Robert

3.54

148 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0590451758 ISBN 13: 9780590451758

Publisher: Scholastic, 1992

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When Tim, Jane, and their mother Rose rent a charming cottage for the summer, they reckon little on the mystery and malice connected to the place, a mystery centered on the disappearance of previous owner Sepp Yaxley and the reappearance of his cat.

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From Kirkus Reviews:

Rose, poking along the bleak coast of Norfolk with her children Timothy and Jane, happens on an isolated cottage. Though it's primitive and filthy, the children talk Rose into letting it for a week. The three throw themselves into cleaning, with Rose welcoming the respite from her husband's heavy-handed authority. Mr. Gotobed, who comes to tidy the garden, turns fearful at the sight of an old handmade book. Menace multiplies: a surly tomcat, snares, a locked closet with preserved animal specimens, glowering villagers. It develops that owner Sepp Yaxley, who disappeared seven years ago, was a ``Cunning Man,'' murdered by the villagers when his magic seemed to fail. Thinking that Rose is taking his place, they threaten to kill her too, but Timothy's rifle and Yaxley's vengeful cat intervene. Rescued, Rose is left nearly as alienated by the coolly efficient Timothy--``demonic, tireless... damning souls to hell''--as by the frightened, vicious villagers. Though the book is cast as a conventional horror story, Westall deals with the larger issues of power, mercy, and the loss of compassion. Vacillating and insecure, Rose--whose point of view prevails--seems like a prime ninny, yielding decision to her children or her absent husband; still, she is the one left with an anguished query--``Is there no mercy anywhere?''-- that's answered, ``Yes...in you yourself,'' by the kind vicar. And though there are loose connections here, the story suggests provocative questions, especially for those who note the stunning contrast between the cold intensity with which Timothy wounds his antagonists and Chas's ultimate understanding (in Westall's The Machine Gunners, 1976, Carnegie Medal) of the essential tragedy of shooting an enemy. A minor but entertaining effort by a major author. (Fiction. 11+) -- Copyright �1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 7 Up-- It's hard to feel much sympathy for Rose, the 38-year-old mother of two who is the protagonist of Westall's novel, but that's as much his fault as hers for he has failed to create a fully realized character. Instead he has given readers a stock ``damsel in distress,'' the kind of dimwit who would insist on going alone, on a dark and stormy night, into the basement of a haunted house. Only this time it's a rundown cottage on the remote coast of Norfolk, where Rose has taken the kids on what is ostensibly a holiday but is, in reality, a flight from her husband, Philip. Consider that the cottage she rents is without electricity or plumbing, is unreachable by automobile, has no telephone, and, of course, turns out to have belonged to old Sepp Yaxley, who up and vanished seven years ago. The locals (extras from a road company of The Village of the Damned ) have been afraid to go near the place ever since, for Sepp was the man to see if you wanted your warts removed or a blight placed on your neighbor's crops. Sepp may be gone but his cat (or is it, as some believe, his familiar spirit) puts in an appearance and things get downright ugly. And the uglier they get, the more Rose dithers and wrings her hands, helplessly unable to fasten onto the obvious course of action: to toss the kids and the bags into the car and get out of there. Poor Rose. Poor readers. (Speaking of readers: this is not a young adult novel. It can be read by students, certainly, but its point of view, its protagonist, and its sensibility are all completely adult.) --Michael Cart, formerly at Beverly Hills Public Library
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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