We begin with the Lady Lamorna, a wicked sorceress, who has decided she needs a new dress - and not just any new dress, a marvelous new dress decorated with skulls. It was deliciously creepy, delightfully wicked, and tartly sweet. I tend to forget things like that) and decided to read it for myself. Until I saw a very enticing blog review of it (sorry, I forgot where. I bought it a couple years ago, I think the title and description appealed to me, and tossed it on the shelf and that was it. This is a marvelously gothic gem of a book. I'm sure this is simply a matter of personal taste, as the other reviewers were perfectly enchanted by it. The author has got a wonderful imagination, painting a very vivid picture of the village of Fracture, the kingdoms of Gorebreath and Dreghorn and the cottage of the Ancient Crones and their various inhabitants, and introduces the reader to some marvellous characters, yet in my opinion she tries just a little bit too hard to be quirky I found the bat Marlon with his 'Ciao!' and constant 'Kiddo!' especially irritating. The characters are established early on, and yet not much happens until one has passed the 100 page-mark and then it was not difficult to predict the ending.

I also noticed that my son was occasionally distracted, having allowed his mind to wander and then had to ask questions to catch up with plot developments, even though the storyline is very easy to follow for young readers. While I enjoyed reading the story with my son, I didn't enjoy it quite as much as expected, having read all the favourable reviews. This is a fairy tale with a difference: we meet the evil sorceress Lady Lamorna who resorts to blackmail to pay for the dress embroidered with skulls, setting into action all subsequent events (hence the title of the book), her troll servant Gubble, the girl and trueheart Gracie Gillypot and her beautiful but evil stepsister Foyce, the slightly rebellious prince Marcus, three ancient crones who spin the web of power and some helpful bats, plus a host of other characters.

The robe of skulls by vivian french