Books With Bean ~ The Dark Unwinding

Title: The Dark Unwinding 

Author: Sharon Cameron

Published: 2012

Genre: Historical fiction, Steampunk, mystery 

Summary: Katharine Tulman lives with her aunt and her spoiled cousin in a less then amazing life. When her aunt sends her from London to the country to their family estate to declare her uncle insane so her aunt can have the land and money (to care for in her son’s place until he comes of age of course) Katharine thinks it will be an unpleasant task but soon over. When she gets there, however, she finds the estate and Uncle Tully much different then she thought it would be. The main house on the land is mostly deserted however hundreds of people live on the estate in two villages and have their own working towns with governing councils and several factories for producing goods to sell. Uncle Tully she finds is also nothing like she expected. He is odd in the head but he is also a genius, the mechanical creatures he makes are fantastic to Katharine but he is also somewhat childlike in his mannerisms. Now Katharine who thought her job would be easy finds herself confronted with a problem, if she says her uncle is crazy then the estate will go to her spoiled cousin and his mother. Katharine is sure that they will turn out the people of all ages that live on the estate, all who came there to get away from the workhouses of London. But what will happen if she doesn’t? She can go home and pretend everything at the estate is fine, but how long will it be until her aunt wants to go to the estate and see for herself? Finally after debating this for a few days Katharine decides to take the whole month her aunt allowed her to evaluate the situation. She soon finds out that her choice only becomes harder to make the longer she stays and learns from the people on the estate.  

What I liked about it: I like the characters. Katharine was interesting, Lane was intriguing, Uncle Tully was a lot of fun and the other characters added depth to the story that made it come alive to me. 

Language: None

Romance: Katharine begins to develop feelings for Lane, her uncle’s assistant, but it never gets past one or two brief kisses. 

Violence: When someone Katharine begins to trust turns out to not be very good she is exposed to some dangers but its never gory.

Magic: None

Recommended Age: I would say 14+ its good and clean but I think that it simply not the sort of thing that would be interesting to younger kids.