April 2010

Author/s: Tim Bowler
Publisher: Oxford University Press UK
Reviewed by: Esta Burger Age 15
ISBN 13: 9780192754455

Another book written by the author of the brilliant Bloodchild, Storm Catchers is yet another thrilling and bold adventure with a lot of surprises.

Fin’s sister Ella is kidnapped one night, when he was supposed to look after her. His strange little brother, Sammy, also disappears. Fin feels guilty and responsible for the terrible thing that happened to his sister. His father is furious and his mother totally devastated. And then the kidnapper calls...He wants one hundred thousand pounds in return for their beautiful sister’s life. Because Fin’s dad is a pillar in the community and owns a lot of the shops in town, money isn’t a problem. They arranged for the money immediately.

In the meantime, Sammy is acting real weird. Sammy always had imaginary friends, and a lot of them. He is always playing games with them and calling it ‘secrets’. But since Ella has been kidnapped, Sammy sees this girl with beautiful blonde hair, and she wants him to play with her. Soon Sam is found outside the house near the cliff running along in a storm, calling for the girl to stop. His parents believe it’s just one of his make-believe games and they get fed-up with him. But this girl wouldn’t let Sammy go and Sammy wants to be with her, so he follows her into the storm and the little girl is yelling that they must catch the storm.

Fin can’t make head or tails of anything. When he gets the money and goes to the lighthouse as the kidnapper ordered, he is told to throw all the money over the cliff, into the rumbling waves. He does what he is told, and gets a rather unfriendly reaction from his father.

At nerve’s end, Fin listens to his friend Billy’s advice to make a pendulum. He takes one of Ella’s golden hairs, ties it to a ring of hers and tries to find her. The pendulum moves, but can he trust it? So he asks Sammy to do it. When Sammy takes the pendulum and moves his finger over a local map, the pendulum, hanging lifelessly, starts spinning and swinging. Sammy is in such a trance that he makes a hole in the map on the spot where the lighthouse is.

After a lot of thought and a sudden realisation, Fin takes his father’s boat and head off to the cave beneath the lighthouse. He finds the remains of a hostage hidden there; definitely Ella. He rushes back to the house and he tries the pendulum again, involving his parents. Together they rush to the location and make an unexpected discovery... When they come home, everything is revealed. A ghost of a girl, a boy who wants take revenge and a family left broken all forms part of the strange story. You’ll have to read the story to discover how everything perfectly fits together like the pieces of a very intriguing puzzle.

This book, like Bloodchild, is written very cleverly. You can’t guess the ending or the plot of the story till the end. But it is also very sad. I would describe it as a drama. It’s about real-life issues, but the blunt truth of it makes you want to cry. The writer describes the characters so precisely that you feel their pain when they discover the truth. I would recommend it to anyone who likes books and stories that aren’t predictable. I loved it despite the fact that it was so sad.

Link to online catalogue
Storm Catchers