YA Review: The Sinister Booksellers of Bath
The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix (HarperTeen, $19.99, hardcover, 368p., ages 13-up, 9780063236332)
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London are back in this fine and fantastical sequel by Garth Nix, in which supernatural Susan Arkshaw must face her growing powers--as well as a malevolent mythical entity--when what she really wants is simply to be human.
Booksellers at the Small Bookshop work to rein in magical engagement and sort through secondhand books looking for hidden artifacts from the enchanted Old World. When the booksellers find a map fragment "saturated with sorcery" that depicts a statue-filled garden, fair-haired and left-handed Merlin is brought in to investigate. The map traps Merlin in the garden, which has, through powerful magic, "been taken out of our world." Susan, daughter of a powerful Ancient Sovereign, creates a "translocation map" to follow him. There, Susan finds the corpses of 26 murder victims as well as the sleeping form of one who, like Susan, is a rare "child of a mortal and an Ancient Sovereign" (a "mythic-mortal"). Animated marble statues and rogue Freemasons complicate attempts by Susan and the booksellers to locate the mythic-mortal's "hostile" mother before there are any more deaths--including the potential sacrifice of Susan to a centuries-old murderous being.
Nix's alternate 1980s London sets the scene for action-packed mythological mayhem, as magic and large-scale firepower are employed to aid the booksellers' containment of the Old Ones. Susan faces pressure from Ancient Sovereigns and strong-willed booksellers but makes her own decisions regarding whether she'll fully embrace her destiny (and her relationship with boyfriend Merlin) or fulfill her desire to live a normal life. The execution's the thing in this delightfully whimsical novel where tongue-in-cheek humor prevails. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author.
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