From the moment I read Death, the Devil, and the Goldfish, I knew I wanted to read more from Andrew Buckley. Stiltskin did not disappoint. The story follows the moderately hapless and ever-gangly Robert Darkly as he is going about a very odd day. Robert is no stranger to strange days, as strange things have strangely been happening to him for as long as he can remember.
After being cruelly deprived of a much-needed warm respite by the presence of an irritable dwarf in his bathwater, Robert gets dragged screaming and confused into another world. Once there, he sees the creatures that inspired classic fairy tales from the other side of the looking glass.
We have been a touch misinformed.
As Robert chases the mad dwarf, he runs into a bevy of characters he thought familiar but prove to be anything but. Mr. Buckley has created a fanciful story that appeals to the little boy or girl inside every one of us―the one that likes to light things on fire when no one is watching.
Filled with quirky humor and classic British understatement, Stiltskin had me laughing out loud quite a few times, much to the dismay of others in the room. The jokes and situations are spot-on, the dialogue is perfect, and the characters practically leap off the page―and grab you by the jubblies. The story, alas, is ill-suited to faint-hearted goats who may not take well to certain scenes of hircusine violence.
