[recommended reading]
After growing up in foster homes Gerald Noone discovers that he has a family after all. The Noones live in Owlcote, a fantastic stately home, and seem to have everything.
But Gerald discovers that the family is bitterly unhappy. His adopted cousin Harriet wears gloves and claims that everything she touches is poisoned. His other cousins have allergies that threaten their lives, his aunts and uncles are also broken and his grandmother rules the house with an iron rod. Forbidden to enter the house’s maze, Gerald enters regardless but during the day time it is a simple structure of hedges and paths. Only at night does it become magical and mysterious – surrounding the riddle of what has cursed the Noone family.
I’d consider this book suitable for readers aged 12+.