Synopsis: Fresh from her close encounter with a vampire on the school trip to Whitby, Fliss Morgan is not keen to take part in Bottomtop Middle’s celebration of the local legend of the Elsworth Worm. Once more, her dreams warn of evil, and as her friends fashion their worm costume she sees that they are being caught up in something far darker than a mere play. Soon she finds herself frozen out, as the ‘dragon’ set themselves against the world. Pranks and practical jokes give way to darker deeds, and as the play draws nearer – the play in which Fliss must face down the terrible worm – it becomes clear that an ancient evil is determined to rise again.

Review: Robert Swindells’ sequel to Room 13 sees a large cast of returning characters, but changes the group dynamic from the outset. The outrageous behaviour of the children in the dragon becomes a shadowy allegory for teenage anger, mob mentality and social exclusion. Although on one level this is a book about an ancient dragon-spirit seeking to reincarnate in the present day, there is also a story about friendship, isolation and social cliques. The setting is very real and very ordinary, making this story in many ways more frightening than the overtly gothic Room 13.

Fliss Morgan is a very appealing heroine; ordinary in many ways, but courageous and strongly moral. Her friends, meanwhile, can for almost the entire length of the book be seen as merely insensitive adolescents, creating a self-delusion of acceptability by acting as a group. It is only in the climactic confrontation that it is certain that the influence on them is supernatural, rather than merely hormonal.

Inside the Worm is not a novel for the very sensitive, but that is not to say that it is inappropriate for the young. Swindells is a sophisticated writer, but for a strong reader this is gripping and rewarding stuff.

2008-05-24