Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #120741 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 327 pages

Synopsis
Verdigris is a blue-green rust that tarnishes ageing and forgotten copper coins, altering them entirely...One evening, Ryan and his friends steal some coins from a well. Soon after, strange things begin to happen. Peculiar marks burn on Ryan's knuckles and light bulbs mysteriously explode. Then the well witch appears, with her fountains for eyes and gargled demands. From now on the children must serve her and the wishes rotting at the bottom of her well. In the tradition of truly fantastic story-telling, "Verdigris Deep" is darkly witty, utterly creepy and clever.

Customer Reviews

"Verdigris n. a blue-green rust .....
...that tarnishes ageing and forgotten copper coins, altering them entirely...."

Throwing coins in a wishing well
And making a wish
It seems so simple
But have you ever spared a thought
For the coins?

Lying for eternity under the water
Among the slime and leaves
Forgotten by all but the verdigris
And of course the Well Witch
`Cos she's real

Three children find out the hard way
Short on bus fare
They dare to disturb the rusty rest
Of the coins, and naturally
The Well Witch

A price must be paid for their crime
He who takes the coin
Must grant the wish
Like verdigris, they become
Altered entirely

But, the tricky thing about wishes
Is that you can't just
Take them at face value
Because people don't always wish for what
They REALLY want

This book works at many levels
The characters
So cleverly developed
The plot so fiendishly crafted
I have goosebumps

Before introducing your child
To Stephen King
Lead them to
The murky waters and rotting wishes
Of the well


(Recommended for kids from 12 yrs to 99 yrs)

See also: Fly by Night by the same author


Amanda Richards

Easy to Read with Much to Ponder
Like all good books the premise of Verdigris Deep is simple:Be careful what you wish for.

Three misfits disturb an old wishing well, awakening a long asleep witch. They then have to placate the spirit by completing the well's unfulfilled wishes. The adventure part of the novel is fast paced and exciting; new revelations come along regularly, building up the tension as the book comes to its apocolyptic climax.

The strength of this book though lies in its second layer. In essence this book is about self-worth; nearly all the characters wish, in someway, to be different. Hardinge shows that growing up is far from easy without laying it on with a trowel. With a deft touch she shows that nearly everybody doubts themselves in someway and to do so is perfectly normal. The characters find that wishing their problems away never quite works out how they expected and are forced to find the solutions to their woes within themselves.

With Verdigris Deep, Frances Hardinge has managed incorporate a strong and valuable message within a cracking supernatural adventure story; I had great trouble putting it down and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Really awful!
I finished "the black book of secrets" a few weeks ago and loved every page of it, I then thought to myself that children's literature isn't half bad, so I purchased verdigris deep by frances hardinge- I was shocked! Firstly I let my partner read it, but he gave up after a few days, he couldn't bare it anymore as he couldn't quite understand what he was reading, he felt that the language used in the book and hardinge's used of sentence's where really confusing, it angered him as he felt conversations between the young characters should not have been so intensely confusing, but more readable. So I gave it ago, and I completely agreed. I felt so frustrated when I had to read the sentences over and over again just to make sense of what the author was trying to say. I felt aggravated by the characters, no longer could I see them as naive children- I kept thinking of the authors poor attempt of creating these children and how badly created they where. I tried to read further but the more I read the more the characters meant nothing and the more the language frustrated me. After reading the reviews on this page I am genuinely shocked that people loved this book, I gave it a real go but I have to name this book as one of the worst I have ever read, I have such a wild imagination that most book are readable to me & after finishing a "Macmillan Children's Books" previously I thought I would enjoy this, but no luck!