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Loading... The Left-Handed Booksellers of London (edition 2021)by Garth Nix (Author)
Work InformationThe Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix (Author)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Not quite my cup of tea. It is a competently executed fantasy story for young people with bookstores, odd creatures and attractive young people running around with swords. ( ) Not particularly well written (so much awkward exposition! is it really realistic for an 18 year old to be an expert in art history and antiques, even if she does have a (stated, not shown) desire to be an artist?) but it moves fast and ultimately it was a lot of fun. Many of Nix's favorite tropes are here (girl questing for her distant/inaccessible father, ancient evil and zombies, the overlap of the mundane world and magic, the competent-but-out-of-their-depth (para)military officer trying to be helpful and only occasionally succeeding), but recombined and remixed. I liked where Nix left the relationship between Susan and her father emotionally. Also, the main character is quite butch and the love interest is genderqueer/transfeminine/questioning, which is always a draw for me....! Looking forward to reading the next one(s), also I hope someone's done fan art. This is a charming book, but it didn't quite grab me. It unfolded the Urban Fantasy setting too slowly, and the romance plot felt pretty shallow. I had to drag myself through the first half to get to the good stuff. The setting itself is great - just the right mix of sophisticated old traditions and dark, creepy magic. I would like to read more stories from this London, jumping straight into the good stuff now that the ground has been laid. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesAwardsNotable Lists
Fantasy.
Historical Fiction.
Young Adult Fiction.
Young Adult Literature.
HTML:A girl's quest to find her father leads her to an extended family of magical fighting booksellers who police the mythical Old World of England when it intrudes on the modern world. From the bestselling master of teen fantasy, Garth Nix. In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is looking for her father, a man she has never met. Crime boss Frank Thringley might be able to help her, but Susan doesn't get time to ask Frank any questions before he is turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin. Merlin is a young left-handed bookseller (one of the fighting ones), who with the right-handed booksellers (the intellectual ones), are an extended family of magical beings who police the mythic and legendary Old World when it intrudes on the modern world, in addition to running several bookshops. Susan's search for her father begins with her mother's possibly misremembered or misspelt surnames, a reading room ticket, and a silver cigarette case engraved with something that might be a coat of arms. Merlin has a quest of his own, to find the Old World entity who used ordinary criminals to kill his mother. As he and his sister, the right-handed bookseller Vivien, tread in the path of a botched or covered-up police investigation from years past, they find this quest strangely overlaps with Susan's. Who or what was her father? Susan, Merlin, and Vivien must find out, as the Old World erupts dangerously into the New. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.92Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 2000-LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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