The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton

This is a book for older kids or younger teens. It was written over 40 years ago and takes place in Ohio, where a professor, his wife and their 3 young children move into a historical house. This is a house that was built as part of the underground railroad. Its original owner, Dies Drear, built many hidden compartments and passages into this house to hide fleeing slaves. He is a man of legend, with a legendary hidden treasure too. This book is a bit historical, a lot mysterious and rather suspenseful as well.

It took me awhile to get into the story. I found the narration to be disjointed in parts--I felt lost from time to time. I didn't care for the writing style in general. The suspense felt heavy handed and self-conscious for the first half of the book.

One notable thing about the book, though, is that this book about some of the history of slavery hides the race of the main characters for the entire first half of the book. Does she do this on purpose? Or was I being a particularly dense reader?

I finally became engaged in the story in the back half of the book. I became more interested in the characters and part of the mystery was resolved.

Did this book actually have a plot? Well, kind of. It certainly wasn't a clear cut plot and was very slow to develop. It was almost like the retelling of one incident, rather than the unfolding of an actual complete story. There is a second book to this little chronicle, "The Mystery of Drear House"--written some 20 years after the first. I'm hoping that book is better than this one and that it finishes this tale, which definitely felt unfinished at the end of this book, "The House of Dies Drear".

At the very least, however, this book gives a look into a little bit of history and a little bit of race culture. I did like our protagonist, Thomas, who is also our narrator. I liked his relationship with his father and his little brothers. It's nice to read about a family that is loving and unified. And the author, Virginia Hamilton, did create a powerfully evocative setting for her story (such as it was). The Drear home and the home of its caretaker, Mr. Pluto, were both very atmospheric.

So...some good things and some not so good things. I'm looking forward to reading the next one. I'll let you know how it all finishes up.