Pictures of the Night (Egerton Hall Novels) (Turtleback)

Bella is the most flamboyant and rebellious of the trio: she is constantly compared to Carmen throughout the trilogy, a nod to the allure she has for men and her troubles with them, and she is the one who keeps up with popular culture. However, although Bella loves Elvis and other rock'n'roll singers, she is deeply touched by the world of jazz and the blues. And this is a perfect example of her character: though she can seem shallow, arrogant and irritating, inside Bella is actually quite thoughtful. The agony of blues and jazz touches her because she has had sadness in her life. Bella adores to sing this type of music to get rid of her agony, and even the title of the story comes from a song in the story which is about chasing the blues away.

A major strength of the book - as in the previous ones - is that the dynamics of the original fairytale remain the same. As before, the stepmother whom Bella wanted to love despises her beauty and does everything she can to stifle her spirit. Therefore, Bella is, in fact, probably the most isolated of the trio, because she seems the most invulnerable. As the book progresses, Geras carefully reveals the insecurities behind Bella's breezy façade: her doubts about love, just as real as Alice's and Megan's; her distress about what happened to Alice (she was the one, after all, who decided to protect her that first night); and most of all, is Marjorie really as hostile as Bella thinks she is, or is she just being too 'melodramatic'?

The sense of doom that permanently hovered over 'Watching the Roses' is subtly changed here into a creeping suspicion, as Geras brilliantly mimicks what happened to Snow-Drop in the original fairytale, even managing to get the bit about Bella's colouring. The meeting of her 'prince' in Paris, on a holiday after her A-levels, is incredibly romantic, but typically the course of true love does not run smooth and he disappears, leaving Bella vulnerable.

As both Megan and Alice's tales reach their end, Bella feels left out, remarking that 'it would never, never be only the three of us ever again'. Where is her happy ending? And why does she keep seeing a white cat every time something strange happens...?

This story is powerful, but also sensitive as it probes Bella's mind, her defiance of the adult world and its rules as personified by her stepmother, her refusal to pity herself, but also her longing for love, to be the protégée instead of the protector. Characters are incredibly believeable. Marjorie is especially well-detailed: her jealousy of Bella is increasingly sinister, but Geras also ridicules it, and gives the reader the satisfaction of a kind of show-down between the two. Bella herself emerges as a fully rounded character, and the story ends in a very romantic, upbeat way, typical of her.

However, the book does leave you wondering what it was like for Megan alone on holiday with Dorothy, and what Alice did in France. What is Bella going to do after the end of the story? Is that all that happened to Marjorie?

There is sex, but it is dealt with as a fact of life, something that girls on the verge of womanhood would obviously think about, just as it was in 'The Tower Room' and 'Watching the Roses'. 'Pictures of the Night' will not disappoint fans of the series.

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Because this is loosely based on the story of snow white it make me think of how it was going to end. There were some references to the choking on the apple, and of course the seven dwarves. I was impressed by how Adele Geras interpreted them as seven grown men in a band, and I thought it was a very clever approach.

However, at some points I thought it was just a conclusion to the other two books. I was also a bit disappointed with the stepmother, her storyline seemed to just fizzle out towards the end.

Basically, in conclusion if you were hooked on the first two, which both my friends and I were when we read them, you should read this book. I don't regret buying it, but I think some things could have been improved.

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