Review of The Captain's Collie

Thimble · Post by **Thimble** » 03 Jun 2022, 21:45

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Captain's Collie" by Ace Mask.]

4 out of 4 stars

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Fire, ashes, and rubble. A German bomber destroys a hospital one night during the Blitz before getting shot down. A young girl’s mom dies due to this attack and she is relocated to the large home of a reclusive Captain Bramwell in a quiet country village. While there, she befriends an effusive collie named Banner. This is the premise of The Captain’s Collie by Ace Mask.

Alice Piper, the young girl, has to navigate life in a new place, without her parents. The plot centers on her exploration of the village and estate and the development of her friendship with Bramwell and Banner. This short historical fiction goes much deeper than the surface, however. There are two important themes I noticed while reading. The smaller theme is forgiveness. Throughout the book characters learn who, what, and when to forgive. The much larger theme is the invisible damage of war. Captain Bramwell was disfigured while fighting in WWI, but his internal struggles are the main culprits that make him hide in a cottage for 26 years. Along with a severe mental disorder, he has depression, which is also what Alice understandably suffers from while grieving her recently deceased mother.

Alice is intelligent and precocious in nature, but she still makes poor 11-year-old child decisions. Many of which bring a lot of tension to the narrative. Unlike other ‘wise’ child characters I’ve encountered before, she does not feel like a mini-adult. This balance really shows off the author’s writing skill. He also does a great job with Banner. The adorable collie is never seen to be human-like and behaves like many dogs I have met in person. One second he’ll follow instructions and the next second he’ll be running off after something he finds to be more interesting. A big aspect of his character is his work as an emotional therapy dog for Bramwell and Alice and it’s something that is brought up often and in various ways.

There are also many secondary characters that make up the household and people in the village. They are all distinctive and participate in the ongoing, somewhat mysterious, plot. Their stations in life and general levels of education are displayed by their varied accents and ways of speaking. Alice’s father is away fighting in the war, but she isn’t the only one affected in such a way. Many of the people in the village have sons, husbands, or fathers that are away or dead because of the war. There are also some that don’t appear to have anyone missing and the way they speak about the bombings and fighting is very different from the others with loved ones in peril or gone.

This book was almost entirely a positive reading experience. The only negative aspect for me was the ending. While it was emotional, realistic, and well written, it’s just not an ending I prefer and I would add an epilogue. The narration of the story is written in third-person omniscient and switches characters often, but it’s always clear who is speaking or thinking. The pacing of the story is smooth, even with a suddenly action-packed climax. There were a few minor typos, but the only possibly confusing one I must mention is near the end when Mrs. Thorndike calls Alice “Miss Pointer” in her dialogue. It should be “Miss Piper”, and appears to be an actual typo rather than a character choice.

I rate The Captain’s Collie 4 out of 4 stars. Ace Mask does a fantastic job with the storytelling and writing and I could see myself enjoying some of his other published works that also feature collies.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the relocation of UK children during WWII, readers who appreciate fiction containing dogs as main characters, and anyone who would enjoy reading a short novel about characters navigating life while having PTSD or depression with the goal of recovery and/or management.

This story does have some narrative flashbacks to an explosion as well as light description of death of both humans and an animal. A child and some animals are put in peril. The author consistently does not use an Oxford comma. If you are too disturbed by any of these things, I would skip this book.

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The Captain's Collie
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Amy Luman · Post by **Amy Luman** » 05 Jun 2022, 08:19

This would be a good book for anyone interested in the war and it’s effect. Unfortunately, that’s not me. I am inclined to read it because of the dog. Their ability to “listen” and “understand” is highly underrated in my opinion.