Seren Rhys is travelling alone to her new home when a very perturbed man hands her a package. "If They get me, whatever happens, don't leave it here alone. Promise me?" And then he is gone, and she is left not knowing what to do. The train carries her on, and he does not return, and so she keeps hold of it. So when she arrives, she finds she has come with a clockwork crow, in pieces.
Her godfather and his wife aren't home. Nor is Tomos, their son, who has been missing a year and a day, and is a subject not to be spoken of. Instead, there's an unfriendly housekeeper, lots of unused rooms, and no answers about what happened to the boy, Gradually Seren unravels the story of his disappearance. And when she reassembles the clockwork crow, and finds that he is a creature with his own thoughts, considerable knowledge, and a rather acerbic personality, she gains a companion in figuring out how to find the lost boy again.
So, in a strong echo of Tam Lin, Seren and the crow venture down below the house to a place that shouldn't be there to bring Tomos back from those who have stolen him away.
What a magical, cold and snowy and mysterious story! This is an outstanding addition to the "plucky orphans braving the magic of the fair folk" subgenre of children's fantasy, and I loved every minute of it! The old, snow-bound house, the unravelling of the mysteries, and the journey into the land of Them, full of deception and trickery, would have been enough, but the clockwork crow made it even better. He is a wonderful character, providing not only comic relief but a mystery of his own, one that's not totally resolved here. And he manages to overcome his egotistical self-interest to rise to the occasion when Seren needs him most, adding considerably to his likeability quotient.
The story ends with Tomos and his parents all home again, and a wonderful Christmas (I'm so happy to have a new addition to my "mg fantasy Christmas" reading--The Dark is Rising and Greenglass House being the only two reliably read every year...). But this is just the first book in the series, so the happy ending is undercut by ominous whispers of danger to come....I might have to order the next two books from the UK!
But on the other hand, I didn't notice any glaring American English changes, and I like the US cover better, so I might wait and get the matched US set...here's the UK cover, also attractive, but not as closely tied to the story:
Just as an aside: in the publisher's description, it says- "Evoking the classic fantasy adventures of Joan Aiken..." and I guess Aiken has become shorthand for saying "this book has at least one orphan and lots of snow and is set one to three centuries ago and really strange things happen." Turns out it didn't evoke anything else Aiken-esque for me. It all made sense, for one thing, and has magic in a classic fantasy sense (the Fair Folk as antagonists), which you don't actually see in Aiken (except in her Armitage family stories). Which isn't to disparage Aiken, but it made me stop and ponder, and wonder if invoking Aiken actually entice people to try books...since I'll read anything with orphan(s), snow, and strange things, it works for me.
disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher
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