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The Curse of Salamander Street by GP Taylor. Pub Faber, pp335, ISBN 0571228739, £9.99
Fiction for teenagers sells well – whether bought by the teenagers or by relatives who want to encourage reading, or by adults for themselves, it is very popular. Teenagers at school are given a depressing diet of social realism for class reading: dysfunctional families, addicts and down and outs figure largely in the novels. Perhaps the current trend in fantasy is a reaction against this. JK Rowling has tapped this seam most profitably, but GP Taylor, a vicar and novelist, has achieved remarkable success with his stories of the battle between good and evil. His latest, The Curse of Salamander Street, the sequel to the best-selling Shadowmancer, throws light on the potent brew of the genre.
Although the theme purports to be religious, it is not religious in the sense of that which binds society together; the emphasis is on those things which drive it apart. Kate and Thomas, having escaped from Demurral, the Devil incarnate, at the end of the first book, are being pursued by a grim assortment of evil characters, and a shape-shifter who takes on the form of a terrifying dog, on their journey to London. These characters are all unremittingly evil, ready to rip people apart; London is a Dickensian creation, where children are indentured in industrial hell-holes; Kate becomes addicted to a powerful and deadly drug, harrowed by a ghost from a portrait. At the end, which is relatively upbeat, we are warned that the end of this particular devilish character is not the end of evil in the world.
Running throughout the novel are half-hidden Biblical references: the Galilee Rocks and the madman who is found there; the criminal who begs for a drink while being led to his execution on a Friday; such comments as ‘Did someone once say birds have nests and foxes their holes, but I have nowhere to lay my head’ and ‘By his fruit is a man known... I feel as if we stand on the verge of winter and there has been no harvest and the thorn tree cannot bear a fig’. But these are not related to any thematic consistency, and would not be picked up by the target readers. Teenagers are so often exposed to stomach-churning goings-on that they will probably take these dastardly deeds in their stride, but let’s not pretend that the novel does anything to justify the ways of God to their generation.
GG
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