4.5 — this is great. Can see why it left an impact on Robert Smith. A nice creepy, suspenseful story, with period details. Unsurprisingly, very reminiscent of the books I read as a child. Nice bits of existentialism in there, and some almost hallucinatory scenes. Very nicely written. ( )

Charlotte starts at a boarding school for the first time and is allocated a bed in a small dorm room. [return][return]On her first night she sleeps fitfully, and then wakes to a different view outside the window - and everyone calling her a different name! She then swaps bodies and timeframes with a girl called Clare, and between them have to navigate a new school as well as two different timeframes. There is plenty to threaten them both, including the flu epidemic, and the fact that Charlotte could be evauacted to the countryside during the war whilst stuck in Clare's body. Everytime they switch, there's always a chance that they will become "stuck" as the other.[return][return]I have to re-read this as an adult, but remember enjoying it as a child - it was the first book I really remember having a sci-fi/fantasy aspect to it (time travel & switching bodies being such sci-fi staples).[return][return]I dont *think* I knew this was the third part of a series although reading the synopsis of book 1 makes me think i've read that one too. ( )

Although published in 1969, this book felt much older in writing style. This book told the story of Charlotte, who for some reason switched places every other day and became Clare, 40 years in the past. It was convenient that both Charlotte and Clare were at the same boarding school in England. I can see why this book would not have been a popular check out, as least in the 2000's. However, I found the read to be mildly entertaining as it did portray life in England during WWI. 186 pages ( )

I read this when I was young but it must have been a library copy because I never had a copy. Memory made it much better than it was, the writing is clumsy and far too modern and misses the beat all too often. Still, there is a little spark here and there, I did feel Charlotte's sense of dislocation at times. The oddest bit was to have the 1918 flu pandemic be such a feature while I am at home in COVID shutdown.

On Charlotte's first day at boarding school she feels out of place and unsure of who she really is, but when she wakes up the next morning in the same bed only 40 years in the past, she becomes even more unsure of her own identity. She spends most of the school year, then, switching places each night with Clare, a boarding school girl from the past, and it seems a fun adventure until Clare and her sister are sent to stay somewhere off the grounds, which strands Charlotte in the past and Clare in the future.
A fair-to-middling time travel book for Middle Graders, which is somewhat saved by the interesting plot twist at the end. I think it could have been a much more interesting story if we could also get Clare's point of view as well as Charlottes, perhaps in alternate chapters. ( )