Description:

From Publishers Weekly

Published in Great Britain in 1981 and available here for the first time, this gripping novel serves up often giddily hilarious fantasy that nonetheless deals unflinchingly with some ugly issues. At least twice in the course of the multi-layered narrative, the heroine has not the faintest idea who she is?a powerful metaphor for the novel's underlying theme of alienation from self. The story begins with the as-yet-nameless heroine floating?literally?through a boys' boarding school and its outlying grounds, a setting she finds oddly familiar. With a little spectral sleuthing (easy enough to accomplish when you're invisible) the disembodied spirit concludes that she is Sally Medford, one of a quartet of eccentric sisters who live at the school and are grossly neglected by their overworked schoolmaster parents. As the plot continues on its intriguingly convoluted path, evidence of time-travel begins to emerge: the college-age Sally is in a hospital, gravely injured after her abusive boyfriend throws her from a speeding car. Some part of her has journeyed back seven years into the past, where?with the help of her sisters and their schoolboy friends?she must undo a rash bargain with a powerful and ancient goddess. Given the violent boyfriend and the girls' ill-tempered father (prone to referring to his daughters as "bitches"), this tale is less overtly lighthearted than such Wynne Jones works as Howl's Moving Castle and Charmed Life but it is just as profoundly satisfying. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-9-This convoluted novel, first published in Great Britain in 1981, is unlikely to find a wide audience despite the popularity of the author's later works. Although the basic premise is intriguing and the story's background and characters are potentially engaging, the fragmented plot and shifting time frame make it difficult to follow the action or to understand the story's abrupt resolution. In a nutshell, a ghost returns to the past and attempts to effect a change that will prevent her impending death and free her from an ancient evil. The fact that the ghost is unsure of her identity (although she knows she is one of the four Melford sisters) contributes to the confusion as does the discovery, halfway through the book, that the events described thus far have actually taken place in the past. The briefly sketched British boarding-school setting, sophisticated (and occasionally unfamiliar) vocabulary, and the sisters' cryptic communication styles provide further challenges to readers. Finally, those who persevere may be frustrated by the amount of action that is implied and by the anticlimactic ending. Ironically, despite the supernatural aspects of the story, it is the book's resemblance to real life that prevents it from being successful: it is too chaotic, confounding, ambiguous, and arbitrary to be a truly satisfying reading experience.
Lisa Dennis, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.