I’ve pondered a couple of days before writing down my thoughts on this one. Imagine Ben Aarononvitch’s Rivers of London mashed up with some Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde and you might get a hint of what The Left-Handed Booksellers of London has in store for you.

The year is 1983, 18 year old Susan Arkshaw has never known her father, leaving her slightly eccentric mother in the country she moves to London hoping to hunt him down. She starts with Frank Thringley, a man who has been a constant in her life, a man she has never met except through yearly presents but her plans to question him are thwarted when he turns to dust in front of her.

From this point onwards Susan’s life changes drastically, the cause of Frank’s demise was a pin prick handed to him by the stupendously attractive and slightly androgynous Merlin St Jacques, he is a book seller and a left-handed one at that. His job is to sell books and fight the things us non-book sellers cant see. Susan takes this unusual news well and is taken under his wing. He takes her to one of his families many bookshops where he meets Merlin’s sister Vivien who is a right-handed book seller, this means she gets the brains not the brawn and through a series of strange events they realise that something or someone is out to get Susan and it is related to her search for her father.

This book is great fun with magic, mirth and some gore thrown in for good measure, the St Jacques siblings and Susan make a great team as they deal with all manner of fantasy creatures trying to kill Susan. Susan is not a helpless female, you’ll be happy to hear, despite her young age she deals with the constant information overload from the book sellers quite stoically.

I don’t know if this is a stand alone book or if it’s going to be a series, I’m hoping the latter as the alternate 80’s setting that Nix has created is definitely worth exploring further.

Thanks to Net Galley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Set in the nineteen-eighties, Eighteen-year-old art student Susan Arkshaw arrives in London in search of her father. But before she can question crime boss Frank Thringley he's turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin. Merlin is one of the youngest members of a secret society of booksellers with magical powers who police the mythic Old World wherever it impinges on the New World - in addition to running several bookshops, of course! Merlin also has a quest of his own: to find the Old World entity who arranged the murder of his mother. Their investigations attract attention from enemies of the Old and New Worlds. Soon they become involved in an even more urgent task to recover the grail that is the source of the left-handed booksellers' power, before it is used to destroy the booksellers and rouse the hordes of the mythic past. As the search for the grail becomes strangely intertwined with both their quests, they start to wonder... Is Susan's long-lost father a bookseller, or something altogether more mysterious?

Garth Nix is one of the most gripping fantasy writers out there and layers up his stories so much that they often resemble Russian Matryoshka dolls with each layer simply revealing another below. His worldbuilding is so intricate, exciting and simultaneously complex and simplistic that immersing yourself in the enchanting world which magicians inhabit is so very easy. I cannot get enough of this series as it feels so special and original compared to other fantasy novels and there's no doubt Nix is highly underrated. Full of myth, mystery, intrigue and entertainment, we are treated to a fast-paced and beautifully plotted tale with an engaging cast of fascinating characters who are fun to follow. This is escapism at its finest and lord knows we all need some of that right now. I used to consider these books as young adult but actually, they could surprise and delight any age of reader. An utter joy to pick up and highly recommended to fans of beguiling, magical books. Many thanks to Gollancz for an ARC.

“The world you know, the ‘normal’ human world is the top layer of a palimpsest.”

Magical booksellers, swords, mythical creatures, folklore, oh and jaffa cakes, this book has it all.

It’s a full-on fantasy romp that tells the story of eighteen-year-old Susan Arkshaw’s search for her long-lost father, set in a London of the 1980s that’s one step removed from ours, where Britain’s second female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, is hell bent on rolling back the reforms of the first woman Prime Minister, Clementina Atlee and shoving the country back to the right. You get the gist.

Susan travels to London for her 18th birthday and gets caught up with the booksellers after witnessing one of them murder her “uncle” Frank, a notorious gangster. As the tale unfurls, we meet the booksellers of London, a secret society who deal with the creature incursions into our world from the many layers below.

We meet Merlin (left-handed) and his sister Vivien (right-handed) who help Susan with her search for her father, a search that leads them into danger and peril, all the way from London to the Lake District, with an ending that will keep you guessing until it’s all revealed! Susan’s story intertwines seamlessly with Merlin’s who’s been trying to find out who killed his mother, and as the Old World breaks through into the New, will the booksellers be able to stop all hell breaking loose?

The characters are great, especially Merlin, who’s dashing, handsome, gender-fluid and such a snappy dresser, and Nix keeps the action and plot moving along at just the right pace.

More please! Preferably a sequel!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC 😊

My many thanks to NetGalley, Orion Publishing Group, and Gollancz for providing an early galley of this book for an honest review! This review is scheduled to be published on the book's publication date (24 September 2020)

The year is 1983. The town, London. Susan is just out trying to explore the world, find a job, go to her classes, and find her biological father. Her only tangible lead, a crime boss, suddenly gets disintegrated into dust and she ends up being thrust into a chase at the lead of the same person who killed him. After a rather abrupt orientation with the clan of "booksellers" who police the boundary between the mythic (Old World) and the modern (New World), her quest unravels a chain of events that not only unveils revelations about her father but also personal ones about the booksellers' own. If anything, this is to be a very strange 18th birthday for her...

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London is such a fast-paced, relentless story. The first chapter kickstarts the action almost immediately and it rarely lets up until the story's conclusion. Nix manages to build a sinister atmosphere and real feeling of peril as the main characters get thrust to danger after danger, always finding themselves knee-deep in the next one by the time they have barely escaped one. This book just jumps straight into the action and explains later, if it even gets to at all.

The banter between the characters is a much welcome aspect in The Left-Handed Booksellers of London. The characters (Susan and the bookseller siblings Merlin, and Vivien) vibe well with each other to create an enthralling dynamic. There were just so many brain cells connecting with each other that I had no choice but to be hooked into following them. On the flip side, however, this came at the cost of a very dialogue and exposition heavy book. The never-ending flow of dialogue leaves little down-time to take a breather and explore any character's thoughts or emotions. In fact, some emotional beats seem to heavily rely on being carried by dialogue.

The true star of this book is our newly-introduced heroine, Susan Arkshaw: she is the very embodiment of a reluctant hero, finding herself in too deep with something she doesn't understand. I think the level of cluelessness and confusion she experiences in face of her latest predicament would be quite relatable. The struggle to keep up with the booksellers she experiences was palpable as she receives no foundation and quite sudden info-dumps, reflecting this book's nature as very much an "in for the ride" read [I mean, I just know I'd totally go "huh?" every single time]. It isn't, however, all there is to Susan. She is very level-headed and perceptive, given what little information she had to work with. While this contrasts the admittedly well-written heart-thumping chase and fight sequences, I found Susan's collected yet quick-on-her-feet nature particularly fascinating to see. It was especially more rewarding to see her character development as truths about her mystery biological father intersect with the mythical world and compel her to take a more pro-active step to realising her identity, as well as how she wants to navigate it given its implications to both the Old World and the New. It was by all means her coming-of-age story, and oh how thrillingly weird it is.

Garth Nix's The Left-Hand Booksellers of London presents a bloody, fast-paced, fun, (relatively) light fantasy romp coursing through the 1983's folkloric London. The transition to the story may prove hectic with its heavy exposition and blood-splattered chaotic action scenes, and there may not be much book-selling per se in this book; but the twists and turns in Left-handed Booksellers will thrill readers enough to continue seeing this fun little journey through its conclusion.

Set in a familiar coming-of-age narrative filled to the brim with folkloric and mythological creatures carrying strenuous tension to the boundary between the myth and the modern, Garth Nix's latest offering may appeal to fans of Rick Riordan's best-selling Camp Half-Blood series looking for a smidge more blood in the action 😉😉😉😉

This is a fun, light-hearted YA fantasy adventure, with great action, fights and chase scenes. I just felt it was a bit shallow and lacking some depth character wise. That doesn’t man it wasn’t a fun read, if you want a well written YA fantasy with lots of action this is for you, if you don’t want to think to heavily or overthink this is good for that too, it doesn’t emote any great emotion sadly no guffaws or tears, but overall a nice fun read.


Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Now really, I ask you, what self-respecting book blogger could resist a book with a title like that? The questions that it raises! What about the right-handed booksellers of London? What, it eventually becomes apparent I should be asking, about the evenhanded booksellers of London? And why does it matter in the first place?

Nix’s novel does not, however, begin in London. It begins somewhere in the West of England, not far from Bath, at 5:42 am on May Day, 1983. Susan Arkshaw is celebrating her 18th birthday and wondering again just who the father she has never met might have been. Susan is planning to make her way to London, to study art when the new academic year begins but in the interim to try and find out something about this mysterious father of hers. Is he in any way related to the mystical dreams that she has been having or are they simply the product, as she muses, of “a childhood diet of Susan Cooper, Tolkien and CS Lewis”? She intends to start by visiting ‘Uncle’ Frank, who always sends and signs a Christmas card and who might, therefore, just be a possible candidate. However, no sooner does she arrive at the home of Frank Thringley than he is ‘disincorporated’ by a young man who turns out to be one of the left-handed booksellers of the title. Not only is Uncle Frank not Susan‘s father, apparently he is not human at all but what the young man, who introduces himself as Merlin, describes as a ‘Sipper’, a blood-drinker and thus one of the evil mystical folk from the Old World of magic against whom the booksellers, both left and right handed, (‘one for the books and one for the hooks’) are ranged. Why booksellers you might well ask. Well, as Merlin goes on to explain, the ‘normal world is the top layer of a palimpsest’ and ‘under certain conditions or at particular times, the Old World comes to the top…Booksellers can exist on multiple levels at the same time…and for various reasons we’ve ended up…policing, I suppose’.

Susan is confused. Why should one of the denizens of the Old World be concerned with her? In fact, as she and Merlin make their way across London it soon becomes apparent that Uncle Frank is not the only Old World creature seeking to do her harm. Urchins or goblins surround the couple as they pass along Mayfair and very nearly trap them in the mystical fair ground from which the thoroughfare takes its name. What is it about Susan that attracts so much Old World attention? Is it to do with her absent father? The Left-handed Merlin and his Right-handed sister, Vivien, set out to help her find the answers.

‘Merlin’ and ‘Vivien’ – I trust you are making the connection. You should be, because this book is riddled with nods in the direction of other fantasy writers: writers who, presumably, have provided gateways to the Old World for their readers over the decades if not over centuries.

Children’s writers…quite often they discover the key to raise some ancient myth or release something that should have stayed imprisoned, and they share that knowledge via their writing. Stories aren’t always merely stories, you know.
Part of the pleasure of this book for anyone who is as soaked in fantasy and children’s literature as I am, is picking out the references to other works. Susan doesn’t leave home before indulging in my favourite meal, Tolkien’s ‘second breakfast’. Merlin has clearly been spending time in the company of Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant as both of them have a tendency to attract what can only be described as ‘weird shit’ and like all good wizards, as teenagers booksellers are sent off to their own very special school ‘at Wooten Hall’.

I am a great fan of Garth Nix’s Abhorson novels, but I’ve never really green able to engage with any of his other books, so although the title definitely intrigued me, I have to say that I picked this up with a little trepidation. I shouldn’t have worried, I absolutely loved it. So much so, that I am disappointed to see that there is no indication that there might be a follow-up, or even a series. I could happily spend a lot more time in the company of the Left-Handed Booksellers of London. Please don’t dismiss this book just because it’s intended for a teenage readership. Anyone who enjoys good fantasy writing will enjoy this, not the least because of the homage it pays to so many of its predecessors, to which it is a worthy successor.

With thanks to Gollancz and NetGalley for the review copy.

This book was amazing. It's full of mystery, intrigue and magic. I loved the characters of Merlin and Vivien, and how they joined Susan on her journey to discover more about her heritage. The Old and New World stories were a great mix of reality set in London, and mystery set in magical woods, mysterious fogs and dark cauldrens. Mystical creatures added the suspense and fear to the story with ancient powers shared and fought over. A brilliant fantasy.

In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is seeking her father, who she's never met. Flighty and distracted, her mother has never given her more than crumbs of information, so Susan travels to London with a worn-out library ticket, an engraved lighter, and a contact with crime boss Frank Thringley. Except that before she manages to ask Frank any searching questions, a mysterious, incredibly good-looking left-handed bookseller named Merlin pricks him with a silver hatpin and turns him to dust.
This is the beginning of a frantic adventure as it becomes clear that Susan's father is someone or something more powerful than anyone could have expected. As she tumbles into the world of magical booksellers whose right or left hand glows, and learns that handedness is more about whether you're fighty or writey than it is about which hand you hold the pen with, Susan experiences depths of English folklore that she had no idea existed around her. From goblins to grandmothers, murder and mayhem, and London taxicabs, Susan, Merlin, and his right-handed sister Vivien embark on an adventure of discovery to solve the mysteries of who Susan's father is, who killed Vivien and Merlin's mother, and will Merlin ever manage to pack less than three suitcases of clothes for a trip?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a solid, enjoyable romp through English countryside with a wolf, a naive newcomer to a dark world, a flamboyant, occasionally cross-dressing lead, nostalgic touches, and an underlying depth of development which permeates the book without ever bogging down the reader. Show, don't tell is a world-building instruction for all fantasy writers, and Nix masterfully weaves his world of magical beings through and around Susan's life and her quest.
In tone, this felt a lot like Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, albeit with fewer references to London landmarks as characters. It's hugely enjoyable, hits just the right kind of lightness of tone to make it a read which swept me away on a jolly but occasionally perilous quest up and down the country, and left me decidedly satisfied at the end. I would have liked more time with Susan, Merlin, and Vivien, but I'm always greedy for more.
A neatly plotted standalone infused with British magic and charm, this is Nix at his finest - while technically an adult book, I can see this appealing across age-groups, and would happily recommend it to many.

I should know by now that any Garth Nix book is sure to be a little quirky, with some brilliantly written characters and magic, and The Left-Handed Booksellers of London ticks all three. Susan Arkshaw is just a regular girl, living a regular life looking for her father. She has some weird dreams she can't really explain and her mums a little 'different' but her life so far can be easily described as normal. That is until she goes to London and witnesses her 'Uncle Frank' disappear into dust after being poked by disarmingly handsome young boy who tells her his name is Merlin and they need to run. Susan unwillingly gets dragged into the 'Old World' and soon realises that Merlin, his sister Vivian and the rest of the Booksellers (both left & right handed) may be the only ones who can help her find out who her father is. But there is something bigger afoot, and the booksellers may need to look a little closer to home to realise where the true danger lies.

Told in 3rd person The Left Handed Booksellers of London follows Susan, Merlin and Vivian on a slightly dangerous, definitely magical journey. Susan thinks shes normal, until that fateful night when she finds out there is magic in the world, and that magic might be the key to finding her father. For someone who has had no real contact with the magical world she seems to react to the stranger situations a lot better than I feel I would, but that be more down to Merlin's handsomeness (at least if you ask him) than her ability to cope. Merlin is a Left-Handed Bookseller (the fighting kind) and has never quite met anyone like Susan before, he also thinks she may have clues to the death of his mother years before and keeps a tight hold on her for that reason alone (at least that's what he tells himself). Vivian is a Right-Handed Bookseller (the intellectual kind) and puts slightly more thought into her decisions than her brother does. The three make for a slightly unusual looking, mostly effectual team.

As well as our three MC's we get introduced to a whole host of people/creatures that form the bridge between the New and Old World including Booksellers both Right and Left Handed (both the superior depending who you ask), Inspector Greene (who sometimes really hates her job), as well as Goblins, A Shuck, Sippers (which are NOT Vampires), and The Old Man of Coniston ( yes, he really does exist.) Few people mix the magical with the mundane as well as Nix and this book was no exception. He made you believe these creatures could exist in our world quite effortlessly, and I was easily dragged into his alternative 1980's London.

I will admit it took me a little to get into the swing of this book. But once you meet all the characters and understand a little better what is going in I found myself flying through the pages. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep the readers guessing and some pretty epic fight scenes (in fact Merlin has a bit of a thing for ancient weaponry so you may get more descriptions than you bargained for), and if there is one thing Nix's writing doesn't lack it is imagery. I found this to be a really fun and fast paced book, set in a world I wouldn't hesitate to come back too.

I am a huge fan of Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series. The new title has Booksellers in it, so being one of these myself I was keen to read the new book.

Susan (maybe a nod to fantasy author Susan Cooper/ Susan in the Narnia books or Susan in The Weirdstone of Brisingamen ) is on a quest to find her Father. Her mother Jassmine is somewhat vague and fey (in a Faerie like way) When Susan goes to London to begin University she is soon swept up into an adventure with Bookseller siblings Merlin and Vivien (nods to Arthurian legends) which involves sinister large beasts, a Mayday fair (Goblin Market?) a cauldron etc on her quest to find her father.

There are different kinds of booksellers who have abilities according to whether they are right or left handed. The Old and New Bookshops have added aspects not seen by the book buying public and are lovingly described.
Merlin is gender fluid in some ways and there is much banter between him , his sister and Susan.

Susan herself finds strength and courage as she continues in the parallel world, taking her to unexpected places (magical forests etc) as she finds out the truth about her father.

There are exciting plot turns , peril and great action sequences that have you on the end of your seat.

However, I am still nostalgic for the Old Kingdom - the Abhorsen's house of Sabriel etc., the Moggett, The Clay's glacier , Lirael's Library and the Disreputable Dog. I know Nix has to write about other people and places but I didn't have such a connection with this book.

I did love Susan's list of Childhood favourite books which are mostly mine too. The Winter of Enchantment by Victoria Walker, Power of Three by Diana Wuynne Jones, Narnia etc. In this lit you will find some of Nix's inspiration.

I am a huge fan of Garth Nix's Abhorsen series and have gone back to read it on a few occasions over the years. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London crossed my path and I thought it would be nice to indulge in a new Nix fantasy world. Indeed, world-building is one of Nix's strong points, and this novel is set in a "slightly" alternative 1983 in which, as we learn, an "Old World" of fantastical beings lurks at a level of reality beyond our sight. An improbable league of protectors (who are either "left-handed' or 'right-handed,' which refers to field agents versus those who strategise, broadly) keeps things copasetic, while working as booksellers to pay the bills. Our 18-year-old protagonist, Susan Arkshaw, is quickly drawn into this world after moving to London in search of the father she never knew, and the narrative moves at a breakneck pace from that moment on.

While my hunger for the details of the Old World's secrets certainly kept me reading and I zipped through the novel in just a day, I was somewhat disappointed by the sheer number of similarities between this book and Sabriel. While I won't go into detail on this point to avoid spoilers, I will just say that it is possible to map a great deal of this world's key characters, powers, locations, and villains on to their counterparts in the world of the Abhorsen. The difference is that Susan, though an interesting figure, somehow lacks the depth and nuance of Sabriel. Even the set piece moments of breathless battles felt like ghosts of events I had read before. I suppose it is better to be derivative of one's own work than that of the work of others?

There's no doubt that Nix can write a page-turner, but long-time fans will undoubtedly recognize these similarities and feel a similar disappointment. 3.5 stars.

On her 18th birthday Susan wakes up from a recurring dream where she experiences the water creature guarding her say ‘I watch and I ward’. It ties into the books she loved as a child so, to her, it’s not that strange although her mother’s confused comments later have her wondering was it real?
A few months later, on the first stop in London to find her dad, she meets Merlin. Merlin is a Left-Handed Bookseller who has just killed her ‘Uncle’ Frank yet she runs with him from the house. As they walk the old path till dawn Susan learns that the old world is very much still a part of our country and starts down a path where it alters her life.
Garth Nix has done it again! From the moment Susan and Merlin enter the old path I was sold. I swallowed this book overnight as I couldn’t wait to see what happened. Who was Susan? Who is the traitor in their midst? (I only half guessed right!). With an easy style and a use of classic myth-based fantasy this could easily become my favourite Nix.
The story reminds me so much of the fantasy I loved as a child, that which used the old legends and the old Gods to bring us an adventure, especially Susan Cooper (the more I think, the more I notice the names of our key players hark back to her work and other similar tomes). Merlin, Susan and Vivien are clearly drawn characters with their own personalities who grow during the story. I especially liked that Merlin is non-binary and has a confident front that Susan upsets. The family background and the use of real places make this seem grounded in our reality but this world’s 1983 is a step to the side. Women have been heading to equality since after the war, some of our classic TV and authors have been gender flipped and there’s just a hint of alternate alongside the very strange old-world creatures. As we travel this Britain on an adventure/quest with an uncertain goal the atmosphere is well moulded to the situations, there are some really freaky tense scenes that are aliviated with a bit of laughter or a calm alternate place in the following pages. I’m hoping we get to see more from this world. After all there are plenty of hints of a wider world in here. Although don’t ask me what age it is aimed at, it has that timeless feel that can be enjoyed by anyone who loves a bit of fantasy in their lives.

I received an ARC of this book from Gollancz and netgalley in return for an honest review.

Garth Nix is one of my favourite authors. I have read and loved so many of his Middle Grade and YA books (Old Kingdom, Keys to the Kingdom and Seventh Tower series, plus several standalones) that I was intrigued to read one of his books for older readers. Depending on the country, this book is either classed as YA or adult. I would say contentwise, it's fine for older YA, but in terms of setting and the way the narrative is written, I think it will appeal more to adult readers. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London is historical fantasy/adventure story with a lot of the features I have come to love and expect in a Nix story. The plot, world building and atmosphere were all excellent. The main reason my rating wasn't higher was due to not really connecting with, or caring that much for any of the characters.

This book is set in the UK in 1983. 18-year-old Susan Arkshaw arrives in London. She plans to spend her summer before starting art school trying to find out more about her father, who she has never met. However, all she has to go on are her mother's hazy memories of the people she met in the 60s, few scraps of paper with potential names and a silver cigarette case. Susan's plans are quickly derailed when she unexpectedly becomes involved with the mysterious and dangerous world of the booksellers and the secrets that they keep.

The best part of this book by far is the setting and the world building. As noted by the author himself, he came to London as an 19-year-old in 1983 and he has clearly used these experiences when describing what Susan sees there. The level of accuracy and attention given to even small details made the setting feel so authentic. Features such as the names of the books on sale, the pubs closing for a few hours in the afternoon, the guest house having just one landline phone for visitors to share and so many more, created a wonderful feeling of nostalgia and immersed me in the 1980s setting. Nix's love of books and booksellers also shines through and for a booklover like myself, this was wonderful to read. As well as the setting being historically accurate, the fantastical elements are also beautifully created. One of Nix's strengths as a writer is way that he can describe a world full of magic and mythical beings and make it feel believable. He manages to weave so much (made up) lore and history into his stories that it's easy to forget I knew nothing about this world before reading the story, as the legends and rules in it start feel like something I have always known about!

This story is fast-paced and relentless. The action pretty much starts in Chapter 1 and doesn't really let up until the end! The sinister atmosphere builds brilliantly and there is a real feeling of peril as the characters are hit by danger after danger, barely escaping one problem before they find themselves knee deep in the next one.

As for parts that I didn't like as much, the biggest one by far was the characters. I didn't dislike the characters, I just didn't really feel anything for them at all. I cared about Susan's search for her father because I wanted to solve the mystery, not because I was invested in her as a character and what she wanted. All the secondary characters were useful in the way that they furthered the plot but they felt very two dimensional with either no individual goals or personality, or just one overwhelming goal or personality trait. I also had a hard time believing in Susan's acceptance of everything that was happening around her. The story seems to take place over the space of a few weeks. Susan goes from knowing nothing about the world of the booksellers to accepting and becoming fully involved in it without much resistance or argument at all.

As I stated earlier, I really do love the attention to detail that went into creating this setting and for the most part, I was totally immersed in the 1980s setting. That is why the slip ups when they did happen were so jarring to me as they took me straight out of the world. The author being Australian explains the use of certain words that are Australian or American slang. However, as the book is set in the UK and written from the point of view of a UK teenager they stuck out clearly. Examples of this were sixth form school (we just call it sixth form or sixth form college), tennis shoes (trainers), pants (trousers), underpants (we just call these pants).

The other issue I had was the way gender was discussed. I don't know this for certain but given the title, I think there is a nod in this book to Ursula K. Le Guin's 'The Left Hand of Darkness'. I have not read this book but I know that part of the plot involves a group of people who don't have a fixed gender and can change their gender. This link seems even more likely as there is a character in this book who is male, though considering changing to female. I'm always pleased to see greater representation in books and I applaud Nix for doing this. However, I do worry when a cis author tries to write about a trans character they may not always represent them correctly (and as a cis person reviewing this book, I might not have perceived this correctly). The character is male and referred to as 'he'. When considering changing to being female and even when wearing a dress and presenting as female, the character is still referred to as 'he'. As there is no discussion about this, I was left feeling unsure if this was because the character still thought of himself as 'he' and wasn't ready to make the transition, or if the narrative was saying that even if the character changed to being female, it was still just a man wearing women's clothing. I don't think the author would have meant to offend anyone by doing this, but I am aware of how important correct pronouns are and would have liked some acknowledgement of this.

Overall, this was an enjoyable standalone fantasy story with a fast-paced adventure and packed with 1980s nostalgia.

I really enjoyed this book, a fast paced fantasy from the author of the Sabriel series. Set in the 80s in and around London, it follows Susan, a young woman arriving in London to start at art college, but also to discover who her father is. Through some vague clues dropped by her bohemian mother, she visits her first possible lead, Frank, who turns out NOT to be who he seems. After watching him disintegrate (by being pricked by a silver pin) she escapes along with Merlin, a young man who reveals himself as a left-handed bookseller, part of a clan protecting the mortal world from Old World threats. The novel becomes a race to discover why evil entities are after Susan, to discover her parentage, and to find out who she really is.
* * *
The book's speed hits you right from its opening moments, slightly to its detriment (the first escape montage seems overly dramatic and not explained enough), but as we settle into the world Nix is building, this becomes less and less important. For book lovers, there are constant tit-bits dropped in, from Tolkien to Shakespeare, which I absolutely loved.
* * *
A great novel, and hopefully only the start in a new series!

I tried, I really did. But unfortunately I couldn't bring myself to finish this. I'm sure a lot of our customers will be interested in this title and will love it, so I am glad to have had an opportunity to read it and recommend it when appropriate. But I personally couldn't stand the style, the characters or the way the action progressed even if the concept was extremely fascinating! My brain shut down after the description of the manic pixie grunge thin but athletically built girl and it went downhill from there. A no from me!

I am a bookseller and I, now, really want to be a left-handed bookseller. I love Waterstones, but I think the Old Bookshop could be the dream place to work. As well as talking books, selling books and generally loving books; imagine being part of a family that guards magic. The proper, old world, ancient powers kind of magic. This was a fast paced, fun filled and a thoroughly entertaining read. There was so much that I enjoyed about it, and I am really hoping that it's the start of a series.
It would be amazing if there were references to local myths and legends from all over the UK.

Set in London in 1983, this is the story of Susan, who, after her eighteenth burthday, sets out to try and find her father. Within hours of arriving in London, she finds herself under attack. Coming to her rescue is one of the Booksellers of London, a member of a strange family who have special powers and knowledge of mythical beings. Aligning herself with the Booksellers, Susan has to fight off kidnappers and other enemies, whilst trying to discover the reasons behind the interest in her.
This is an original and fast-paced story. Plenty of action from the fun and feisty characters. An exciting and engaging read.

I would say this book is pure fun. A focus on plot, with frenetic action, fights and chase scenes. We don't get into much depth with the characters which means while warming to Susan, Merlin and Vivien, I wasn't particularly emotionally invested. I enjoyed Nix's take on 'Old' and 'New' worlds coming into conflict, the use of folklore and mythology, and loved the idea of booksellers policing ancient entities and running beautiful bookshops. A book that celebrates the escapism available to readers.

I may be a right-handed bookseller, but there was no way I was going to let a title like this one pass me by. Between that and the description, I knew I was in for something special here. And it met all my expectations and then some, the best way to describe this story is a cross between Harry Potter and Warehouse 13, with a tiny bit of Doctor Who thrown in for good measure.

The writing was really fun and definitely made me chuckle a few times. We jumped into the action right from the get-go, and I was initially worried I was going to get confused, but I didn’t find that at all. It took me very little time to get into the rhythm of the story and I found myself turning pages quite quickly. Maybe it is that I didn’t experience much of the 80s myself, but I really enjoyed Nix’s descriptions of the era and the pop culture references really helped bring everything together. The three main characters had such brilliant personalities, and the relationship dynamics between them really worked.

I loved everything about this with one exception: it is a standalone! Why? Why set up a fantastic world of magic, great characters and brilliant storyline, and not make it a series? This story could easily be made into an excellent series, so many creatures and characters were introduced, I would love for this world to be explored more!

I received a free copy from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lots to love about this story, particularly the concepts and world that’s built around those concepts. The ideas came thick and fast, loved the booksellers and their shops. Liked the links in with folklore and the quirky characters throughout the story. Didn’t really feel like a YA story to me, just a regular fantasy. Felt thoroughly original, would recommend.