Mandragora (novel)
1991 novel by David McRobbie
Mandragora (1991) is a young adult fantasy novel by Australian author David McRobbie.
Plot summary
deals with the sinking of a sailing ship. Dunarling. Adam Hardy and Catriona Chisholm accidentally find a cache of five small dolls made from mandrake roots. The dolls were left in a hole a hundred years earlier by two other teenagers, Jamie and Margaret, who had survived the wreck of the Dunarling.
Transcribing a diary from that same fatal voyage, Adam and Catriona learn of the cursed mandrake roots, whose power destroyed the Dunarling in 1886. It seems the curses are working again in the town of Dunarling today.
The book has an end piece with historical details of the real mandrake dolls together with a discussion of shipwrecks of the late 19th century.
Critical reception
Adele Walsh, writing on the Kill Your Darlings website noted: "With today’s YA market saturated by the paranormal, the notion of possessed mandrake dolls might sound a touch underwhelming, but they aren't. There is a pervading sense of danger as people are possessed; buildings burn and the young lovers (past and present) suffer the wrath of a wronged woman and the tools of her dissent...McRobbie has crafted characters that endear and repulse.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1991 novel by David McRobbie. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6748177. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1991 and 1886.
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