1. We loved the spooky cover and the central idea of this book, ‘what if the Great Fire of London had been started deliberately?'  and were drawn in very quickly by the intriguing mix of history, horror and magic.  The sights, sounds and smells of Stuart London seemed very well described and really made the reader realise how different the circumstances of the kitchen boy, Jem, and the Duke must have been.  Cazalon is a great villain, backed up by a bizarre cast of variously convincing characters including a pet monkey (instead of the usual dog!).   In general though the characters were difficult to care about, the plot twists increasingly hard to believe.    The amount of action and exciting description kept us turning the pages but the Jade Boy works for us as a creepy horror story rather than a historical mystery.

Cramlington Learning Village, Northumberland