TENSY FARLOW AND THE HOME FOR MISLAID CHILDREN

Don't you hate it when you just finish the last book of a really good series? I do. After finishing that final page, although elated at finally finding out the ending, I can't help feeling somewhat empty. So in the post novel boredom that comes after reading a book so intently for so long I managed to pick up one of the weirdest ones I have ever read. Seriously. And weird is just modest. I was scouting round my sisters room for something to feed my 'emptiness' when I came across Tensy Farlow. I guess ts my own fault thinking my sister could ever read something NORMAL!

The book seems to have been set in the 1950's, but seems partly earlier in the sense of some of the language used and abundance of more modern necessities, and tells the story of Tensy Farlow, a young girl whisked up in an odd world. It opens with the very start of her life, when she ends up In a laundry van with Albie Gribble, unaware of her presence in one of the bins. Basically, the van manages to skid of a cliff (I'm still not sure how!) and into a rivet but Albie finds the will not to drown and also save the baby teensy who is happily afloat on the water. Albie becomes attached to tensy, but his mother does not want any part in the flaming redhead girls life, so calls Matron pluckrose, head of the home for mislaid children. Que scary evil antagonist who Even manages to intimidate you on paper. Some humour is designed through her character by her eccentric ways (and also hairless head!). Matron in the end manages to get her hands on teensy and sends her off to a rich family for adoption and gains a lot of money (matrons main obsession in life apart from herself.) but ten years later teensy reappers at the home with her new prents who want to give her back As all they wanted was to not be cut out of one of heir mothers will. The home is horrid but teensy makes friends and gets in trouble etc... But then I got confused. Basically this whole extra plot and idea of guardian angels and purgatory is weaved into the book and It is really confusing. Turns out this angel gone bad wants Tensy Farlows soul because she has no angel to protect it. A couple of kids go missing and everyone thinks it's tensys fault. Oh yeah and she can also connect and see angles of other people but doesn't quite know what they are. Anyway, inThe end somehow she destroys the bad angel because she is a Way shower. By the way, I don't know what a way shower is either. I was just finishing the book thinking how they where going to escape from the cave or whatever they where doing when suddenly tensy kind of explodes and takes the bad angel with her. And of course it makes perfect sense- because she is a WAY SHOWER! Excuse the heavy sarcasm, but i mean, they could have at least told readers properly what way showers are! This might sound like a bad review, but the book was just too random and confusing to make sense of anything! 

Apart from the odd plot and confusing outlook, the quality of the writing is definitely very high. the author did create a very good atmosphere to the book- a dreamy and magical one- that really kept me from giving up when I didn't understand a word from a chapter. They also filled it with sweet extra details, that seem to metaphorically convey the story and emotions felt within it. For example, at the beginning of the book, the author aims to create a very bleak and miserable outlook and mentions how all the swans disappeared from the river Charon ( the one the van fell into ) but right a the end of the book-the final line in fact- goes,' the swans had returned to the river Charon' thus emphasising the peace and return to old ways that ended the story.

Overall, I would give the book  stars because Although confusing and oddly ended, the tone used by the author was consistently witty and perfectly suited to the type of book it was.