Pictures of the Night Review

Title: Pictures of the Night     

                     

Author: Adele Geras

Release Date: 3^rd January 2002

             (this is the UK re-release date)

Publisher: Red Fox

Once, Megan, Bella and Alice shared a room. The Tower Room was theirs alone, remote from the rest of Egerton Hall School and here they formed a deep friendship which would continue long after they left their enchanted world.

But now Bella thinks her life is in danger. Is her stepmother really as wicked as she believes, or can imagination sometimes be more sinister than reality?

Based loosely on the fairytale of Snow White, this is a thrilling story of jealousy and enchantment.

The novel is a lovely read, set in the 1960s. Despite being set so many years ago, the story did not feel out of place in the modern world.  Apart from the dates and cultural references such as the release of Gone with the Wind, a film Bella’s parents went to see before she was born, I felt that the novel could have been set in modern day as it was so easy to relate to.

Pictures of the Night is very typical of an emotional teenage novel written in first person from Bella’s point of view. She experiences many of things teenage girls do and we get to understand how she actually feels about things through letters she writes to her friends, Megan and Alice. Bella is a very headstrong character and gives up her spare time to sing with a band of seven young men. However, things get a little complicated when she develops an interesting relationship with Greg, one of the band members.

As mentioned on the blurb, the novel is ‘loosely’ based on Snow White and it was this that made me want to read it as it intersperses real life with the story we all love and know.  The novel is easily compared to Snow White because of the similar plot structure and characters, however, it also takes things a step further, as we would expect with a longer novel.  We are shown the development of Marjorie’s (Bella’s step-mother) hatred for Bella and how this has affected the way Bella is today. Her friends, Megan and Alice also have stories and this added depth to Bella’s life. Although Bella has to deal with aspects of life that aren’t always happy cheery, don’t worry, she does get her own happy ending in the form of a knight in shining armour.  While I always knew what was around the corner for Bella, because of the basis of the plot, there are some lovely touches to the novel, her depth of character as well as updates to the old fairy tale.  

Pictures of the Night is actually the third book in the ‘Egerton Hall’ novels and I would therefore encourage people to start from the beginning of the series with The Tower Room (it is one I am going to read). I wasn’t aware of the order of the novels (or even that it was a series) before I began reading the book and it can definitely be read as a stand alone story. However, the characters of Megan and Alice are explored in the first two novels (The Tower Room (based on Rapunzel) and Watching the Roses (based on Sleeping Beauty) ) and so I feel I have missed out a little on the back story. Overall, a really pleasant read which has left me wanting to explore the lives of the Egerton Hall girls from the beginning of the series.

4/5 Modern update of a favourite classic