The Midnight Swan

Think the joy of The Secret Garden crossed with the magic of Narnia and the dark enchantment of a fairy tale and you get The Midnight Swan. This tale transports you seamlessly from rural Wales to magical lands.

This, the third instalment of The Clockwork Crow adventures, continues the story orphan Seren Rhys and the sinister 'Them' who are always lurking. The story starts with Seren trying to help the crow go back to his human form whilst worrying that she is going to be sent away from the family home which she has been welcomed into. We begin with a fair in the village where they live and are given the first experience of the dark magic surrounding them. The author's description is so vibrant and vivid it felt as if I was there. With my teacher hat on, I was thinking of all the activities and questions I could create to extend the children's thinking - and there were many! As a parent, I could imagine myself reading this as a bedtime story to my children (when they are old enough) and them begging me to read on. Each chapter starts with a poetic sentence or two which serves as a great introduction to the chapter and would be a great discussion point when reading this book with children.

I felt that this was probably the best yet of the books. The characters are well developed and each is lovable in their own way - even the cantankerous crow. This series will definitely become a well loved classic by my class and I could see it being made in to a magical adaption for the screen. Congratulations Catherine Fisher and thanks to Firefly Press for allowing me to read this beautiful book. I can't wait to introduce it to my class when it is published.

Quite simply... The Midnight Swan is the perfect end to the perfect trilogy. Each book is as deliciously dark and utterly spelling-binding as its prequel and Catherine Fisher enchants her reader from beginning to end.

I must admit, I began The Midnight Swan with trepidation. The first two books in the series had captivated me. They were a work of art. Vibrant, almost visceral and all-consuming, I was part of Seren’s world. And so I was nervous...There were so many loose ends to tie together, so many ways that I could be disappointed as a reader. Would this be the classic case of a final book just not quite living up to expectations?

I am delighted to report that The Midnight Swan is the perfect swan song. It was everything I hoped it would be, and more! From the opening couplet to the final sentence, I was hooked. I devoured it, hungry to find out where the writer was leading me. Like its prequels, it cast a spell over me, and dropped me straight back into the world of Plas-y-Fran.

Seren is the perfect protagonist: headstrong, loyal and courageous. Greeting her for the third time was like meeting an old friend. The Crow has retained all of his wit and charm and the relationship between these two characters is a thing of beauty.

The Midnight Swan is everything you could wish for in a children’s book. At its heart it’s an adventure story, steeped in mystery and suspense. Magic runs through each and every page and it’s rich in folklore. It’s historical fiction and it even has some comedy thrown in for good measure. It’s a truly fantastic book and a fitting end to a spell-binding trilogy.