Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassedy
Genres: Ghosts, Mystery, Paranormal, Supernatural
Intended Age Group: Middle Grade
Publisher: Avon/ Camelot/ Hearst Co.
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 0-380-69843-9
Rating: 2/5
Amazon ThriftBooks
Description from the Book
At twelve, Maggie had been thrown out of more boarding schools than she cared to remember. “Impossible to handle,” they said—nasty, mean, disobedient, rebellious, thieving—anything they could say to explain why she must be removed from the school.
Maggie was thin and pale, with shabby clothes and stringy hair, when she arrived at her new home. “It was a mistake to bring her here,” said Maggie’s great-aunts, whose huge stone house looked like another boarding school—or a prison. But they took her in anyway. After all, aside from Uncle Morris, they were Maggie’s only living relatives.
But from behind the closet door in the great and gloomy house, Maggie hears the faint whisperings, the beckoning voices. And in the forbidding house of her ancestors, Maggie finds magic…the kind that lets her, for the first time, love and be loved.
Personal & Info
This is a children’s book from 1983. I can’t remember if I got it from a pre-owned book sale or as a random grab from Goodwill. Either way, I got it as something a little different to try.
The cover is misleading. Yes, there are dolls in the story. No, Maggie is not a ghost. I have no idea why the artwork makes her look like that. Yes, there is a dog in the story, but it’s supposed to be ceramic. I have no idea why the cover portrays an actual normal looking dog.
The description is also misleading. The magic it refers to is metaphorical.
Content Warnings
-Self Harm (mild)
-Self Hate
-Anorexia
-Death
-Animated Dolls
Characters
There are a few characters I will not list here, because knowing them ahead of time would take away from the story.
Margaret Ann Turner, who goes by Maggie, is the main character. When the story begins, she is twelve, but by the end, she’s approximately fourteen. Both of her parents died in an accident, so she’s an orphan who has been passed from one living situation to another.
Great-Aunts Lillian and Harriet are Maggie’s aunts who take her in for the duration of the story. Maggie can only tell them apart by Lillian’s freckles and Harriet’s wrinkles.
Uncle Morris is Maggie’s eccentric uncle. He always says strange things and makes odd jokes that Maggie doesn’t understand. Most of his dialogue takes what anybody says extremely literal.
Edith and Clara are Maggie’s new younger sisters to whom she is telling the story.
Story & Thoughts
Behind the Attic Wall tells the story in the form of both a memory, and retelling of events to Maggie’s new little sisters. Maggie looks back on her time living in Adelphi Hills with her great-aunts. Overall, it’s pretty sad.
Maggie is a frustrated and troubled orphan who has been treated poorly, insulted, and bullied by pretty much everyone, since she lost her family. She doesn’t want any friends, or even any things from anybody. She won’t even accept the clothes her aunts provide upon her moving in.
The torment she’s endured has taken a toll on her self-confidence to the point she is starting to believe the nasty words people use to describe her. Maggie even emulates the way people treat her when playing with her imaginary friends. She imagines them as poorer than herself and dumb as rocks with the memories of goldfish, and she lords this over them to be in a position to be able to say mean things to somebody else. It’s possible she just thinks that’s how people normally interact, because of her personal experience, but she’s only been on the receiving end and clearly wants to be on the end that dishes it out.
Maggie is supposed to grow and heal throughout the story, but the whole thing is bittersweet. Her life gets better just for it to fall apart. It’s one of those simple stories about a child who has a supernatural experience and then has to move on with their life as if it never happened. It’s an unsatisfying ending that leaves a lot of questions.
The story is cute and a little silly, because the friends Maggie encounters are eccentric, but I don’t think it holds up to modern day books. I think kids of today would find it dull. Some with similar mental health struggles might relate, but I don’t think that’s enough to save it.
What I think would make the story better, would be to latch onto the mysterious aspects. Explore the lore more deeply. I certainly have questions I would like answers to after reading it, so it would be nice if the story would go more deeply into some hows and whys. However, doing so would likely change the feel of the story enough that it probably would no longer be what the author was aiming for.
When all is said and done, it was okay. I have no interest in ever reading it again, and I’m probably not going to keep it. I can’t say I would recommend it to anyone, either. It’s a product of its time and it really shows with how Maggie acts more like a six-year-old than a modern day twelve-year-old.