The Magic Toyshop - Angela Carter

The Magic Toyshop is an ideal starting point for Angela Carter virgins. A gripping well-written novel, the story contains Carter's hallmark dark and eerie imagery and shows off her limitless imagination while following a clear beginning, middle and end structure. The novel has a story that readers want to follow and lively characters even Carter first-timers will want to know more about. Carter is escapism at its best. Her work allows us to consider things we never thought possible and come to think of fantasy and fairytale as perfectly normal and almost achievable. But her writing also encourages us to explore gender, feminist and class themes, usually ...  Read the complete review

ANGELA CARTER'S novel THE MAGIC TOYSHOP is a novel that explores feminine qualities at an early age and written in the third person. The plot focuses on a young girl called Melanie who is obsessed with her mother's wedding dress so puts it on and goes into the woods. Scared by the woods she comes back and her world changes forever as her parents die. Forced to leave Mrs Rundle their housekeeper Melanie moves to live relatives that she has never met. They include her aunt the mute Margaret who is very loving and adores Melanie. On the other hand her Uncle Phillip who is a cruel grumpy man vicious verbally and physically to everyone. Aunt Margaret's ...  Read the complete review

I couldn't get enough of this novel. From an unenthusiastic start this soon took off at chapter 2 and then I couldn't put it down. I love Carter's writing style and I was surprised to see that this was only her second novel; it seemed so structured and confident. A super super novel! In discussion with others I was trying to work out why this a fairy tale when we tend to associate them with fanciful tales of legendary deeds and creatures, usually intended for children; however a fairy tale can also be a fictitious, highly fanciful story or explanation and I think it falls into the latter. It is an explanation of Melanie finding herself as a woman or an object in society. ...  Read the complete review