What if children's pretend games came alive? In this thickly layered and deeply imaginative story the remaining children in the Bronte family, Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell, have developed a very complicated and ongoing pretend game in their Yorkshire home. When it is time for the older girls to go to a dismal boarding school, the children find that they have the opportunity to take a magic train to visit the world they have created. They seize at the chance, but soon find that their pretend wars and battles are much more frightening when they are real.This book has received a bunch of good reviews but it was a bit much for me. It was to dense, and too long. There were some sparkling moments. I especially liked when the girls were at the ball trying to convince The Duke of Wellington, and Lord Byron to help them. But most of the book was a bit of a slog for me. In fact, when I turned my play back speed to 1.4 I actually enjoyed the book more, even though it made the reader sound like she were on a java trip. I was trying to decide to whom I would give this book. I would probably recommend it to an adult who was an avid reader, liked the Bronte sisters, and loved Alice in Wonderland. (2017, 535 p.)
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