The Painted Portal

Christine Croyden

Equilibrium Books

Web: http://www.equilibriumbooks.com/

The Painted Portal is the first novel by Christine Croyden and it is certainly an impressive debut. It begins as what seems to be a simple coming of age tale based on a young and somewhat immature Australian girl who travels to London as part of a student exchange program. She lives in a world of art and daydreams and is uncomfortable in the world around her. When she reaches London, she finds herself isolated from other students and her only friend, Marion, is an elderly eccentric art restorer. She becomes obsessed by a painting of Lady Jane Grey, but all it not as it seems as slowly the dreamlike world in which Sara lives begins to become real. Through the painting she enters a ghostly world where the spirits of the death move between paintings, pictures and physical locales to continue their earth bound existence, obsessed with the failures and successes of their lives and struggling to find portals to return to the physical world.

The Painted Portal is a beautifully executed tale, combining historical drama, a love of art and a fantasy story of earthbound spirits whose sole desire is to return to the living. Each of these motifs are intertwined into the life of a young girl who is coming of age and dissatisfied by where she is and yet unsure where she has to go. Together these elements create a novel which keeps you intrigued right to its fascinating conclusion, has many twists and turns and is written with a light, dreamlike quality which is both engaging and seductive.