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Summary
Summary
An English teen questions all she knows about aging when she encounters a set of journals that date from the present back to the reign of King Louis XIV in this blend of contemporary and historical fiction from the author of the acclaimed Gideon trilogy.
Stella Park (Spark for short) has found summer work cataloging historical archives in John Stone's remote and beautiful house in Suffolk, England. She wasn't quite sure what to expect, and her uncertainty about living at Stowney House only increases upon arriving: what kind of people live in the twenty-first century without using electricity, telephones, or even a washing machine? Additionally, the notebooks she's organizing span centuries--they begin in the court of Louis XIV in Versailles--but are written in the same hand. Something strange is going on for sure, and Spark's questions are piling up. Who exactly is John Stone? What connection does he have to these notebooks? And more importantly, why did he hire her in the first place?
Author Notes
Linda Buckley-Archer is the author of the critically acclaimed Gideon trilogy. Originally trained as a linguist, she is now a full-time novelist and scriptwriter. She has written a television drama for the BBC and several radio dramas, as well as various journalistic pieces for papers like the Independent . The Gideon Trilogy was inspired by the criminal underworld of eighteenth-century London.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
After 17-year-old Stella Park, aka Spark, photographs an encounter between a businessman and a homeless woman in New York City, the man turns out to be John Stone, a mysterious millionaire, and Spark's brother's benefactor. John offers Spark a summer job at Stowney House in England curating historical journals, but he has ulterior motives: he's a 350-year-old "sempervivens," part of a rare breed of humans blessed and cursed with long life, and in need of "Friends" who will help them hide in the background of history. John hopes Spark will be a Friend to his fellow sempervivens, the gentle Martha and the hostile Jacob, and the journals chronicle his life at 17th-century Versailles. But Spark is more than a potential Friend, and her entanglement with Stowney House's inhabitants goes back further than she suspects. Buckley-Archer (the Gideon trilogy) weaves the novel's time lines together with grace, her binding thread the sempervivens' tragedy of outliving those they love. Delicately balancing history, estrangement, reconciliation, and hope, the story powerfully depicts the fierce, abiding love of family: natural, adopted, and found. Ages 12-up. Agent: Caradoc King, United Artists. (Oct) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
While far from home, seventeen-year-old Spark is offered a job by the mysterious John Stone. Charged with cataloging the mysterious man's journals, Spark learns that John Stone has had many lives over the centuries. This inventive story provides a nuanced perspective on life during different eras in Europe and rewards readers undetered by the novel's slow start. (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Spark is a vivacious British girl with big dreams of seeing the world, so it's a happy opportunity when she snags a summer job living at the manor of John Stone, working in his private archives. Spark is taken aback by the strange occupants of Stone's house, a sort-of housekeeper and a sort-of groundskeeper, who remember a time when Spark and her family lived near enough that they and Stone have met her before. Suddenly, her thrilling summer job seems less and less like luck. Meanwhile, as Spark digs into Stone's ciphered journals, she finds centuries worth of vivid entries, all in the same handwriting, including an account of life in the court of King Louis XIV more than 300 years earlier. These journal entries, lush with imagery and historical detail, alternate with Spark's increasingly disturbed account of Stone's obsession with her. There is a lot to tell, and Buckley-Archer succeeds in maintaining the tension of two very different stories while effectively keeping the suspense high. Stone's supernatural condition is well conceived, especially since it treats the reader to a brilliant historical excursion to the Palace of Versailles in 1685, where lust and intrigue reign supreme. Spark's contemporary coming-of-age story is brilliantly heightened by the reader's understanding of her secret connection to John Stone. Exceptionally well orchestrated and a simply magnificent story.--Colson, Diane Copyright 2015 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-British teen Stella "Spark" Park's chance meeting with her brother's benefactor, John Stone, proves life-altering for both the enigmatic philanthropist and Spark. Taking a job at Stone's estate organizing his archives, Spark alternately befriends and avoids Stowney House's two extremely old-fashioned inhabitants: motherly Martha and ornery Jacob. Despite Spark's crucial role in this tale, the focus is on the titular John Stone, or Jean-Pierre, as he was known when he attended Louis XIV in Versailles. Via journal entries, readers (and ultimately Spark) learn that Stone is over three centuries old: a "sempervivens." Not immortal or vampiric, his secret race is gifted with longevity. In a bittersweet twist, Spark's own secret makes her the now-ailing Stone's reason for living. Conjuring prose; a steady, engrossing pace; believable conflict relating to both families' complexities; and the dangers technology poses to an individual's privacy make this an engrossing title for teens. While there's romance, it is refreshingly overshadowed by the love among family. Rich in historical detail and subtly supernatural yet ultimately relatable, this affecting, intelligent tale addresses themes of forging one's own identity, finding one's niche, and discovering what it means to truly live. VERDICT A must-purchase for libraries with discerning teen readers preferring substance to silliness.-Danielle Serra, Cliffside Park Public Library, NJ © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
What happens when a girl meets a man who has been alive for centuries? Stella, who calls herself "Spark," takes an internship with an attractive man who lives in an odd, secluded mansion in England. Her job is to organize old journals written in a cipher that she cannot read. Her employer, John Stone, lives rather mysteriously with a housekeeper, Martha, and a groundskeeper, Jacob, who both behave oddly. Martha seems unfamiliar with electricity and cooks on a woodstove. Joseph acts with constant hostility toward Spark. The book alternates between Spark's story and John Stone's diaries. Readers learn early that Stone, although he still looks young, is nearly 350 years old and moved at the age of 15 to Louis XIV's court in 1685, becoming a confidant of the king and falling in love with Isabelle, a girl who seemed forever out of his reach. John Stone's story, in his earlier identity as Jean-Pierre, works well as a separate narrative, involving intricate court intrigues that can have severe consequences for himself and for Isabelle. Spark's story is less successful, seeming almost pointless until she finds a connection between herself and Stone very late in the book. Although the book seems nearly as lengthy as Stone's life (only one, despite the title), Buckley-Archer paints an absorbing portrait of the court of Versailles. Good historical fiction with a paranormal twist. (Paranormal historical fiction. 12-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
