Review: Flights and Chimes and Mysterious Times by Emma Trevayne

Flights and Chimes and Mysterious Times by Emma Trevayne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There is one doorway to Londinium, a dangerous city blanketed in smoke and ruled by the Lady. Faeries and clockwork dragons live there on the cusp between magic and science. But the peoples' concerns are more mundane--poverty, breathing the soot-filled air through brass grills, and creating valuable mechanical replacements for their missing limbs.

The Lady demands a new son, so the door to London is opened and a perfect, pink child is selected. When curiosity gets the best of ten year-old Jack Foster, he steps through and finds himself in a clockwork version of London where things are only familiar on the surface. He doesn't know that the Lady's servant, Sir Lorcan, will stop at nothing to find him.

I adored this book from the very first page. Trevayne's beautiful and timeless prose reads like a classic fantasy tale. The rich world is only bounded by her wonderful imagination. But my favorite moments were those in the cozy home of the found-family she creates between Jack, Dr. Snailwater, an automaton named Beth, and Xeno. Like any family, each has their own limitations but together they create a whimsical whole.

I hung on every word. I wish I could bottle this story's soul and use small wisps of it when regular life seems too mundane.

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