Originally Posted by
Earl of Popkin
Originally Posted by
St. Troy
This morning I finished The Letter, The Witch, And The Ring and began The Treasure Of Alpheus Winterborn, which will complete my Bellairs mini-marathon.
How are they resonating with you? I dug him so much as a kid but am worried that I’ll be so underwhelmed by reading them now after having built those childhood reading experiences into near mythological proportions of joy that it’ll almost tarnish my childhood memories of bonding with his stories
They are resonating with me just great.
Certainly you become a different person and a different reader as you age; I've found books that have "aged" poorly for me (of course, the book hasn't changed, I have), but the Bellairs books held up perfectly.
I think King once referred to his work as the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries; you could say that Bellairs' work was the literary equivalent of cookies and milk, with a basic, cozy combination of mystery, creepiness (not quite "horror"), simply sketched yet intriguing characters, in plots that are complex enough to hold interest but don't strain to reach some kind of literary height. Ordinary (adult) novels take on heavier loads; there is more potential fault to find when a more advanced, observant "you" re-reads something that had impressed you years earlier. With Bellairs, I don't think there are any plot holes to find, tropes to worry over, strained prose, inconsistencies etc.; again, these are chocolate chip cookies, not baked alaska, and Bellairs made good cookies.
If, like me, you haven't outgrown cookies, you might not have outgrown Bellairs. If the idea of creaking stairs, secret passageways, bits of magic lurking here and there, and the ticking of an unseen clock still catch the attention of the part of you that just wants to hear or read a story, you may still be as in tune with these books as you were. I hope you get the result I did.