The Book of Hidden Wonders

July 27, 2020
Crosby’s moody, richly detailed debut tracks a girl’s coming-of-age in Britain’s Suffolk countryside while struggling to piece together her family history. Towards the end of the 1980s, Romilly Kemp, eight, moves with her father, Tobias, to Braër, an old, moldering farmhouse complete with a moat and a gargoyle protruding from the water. Romilly and Tobias have been on their own since her mother left when Romilly was four, and now her father has abandoned his teaching position in London to write and illustrate a children’s book series starring a version of Romilly. Tobias’s young readers are drawn to Braër, believing his books contain clues to a buried treasure. Over the next seven years, Romilly, in the company of her friend Stacey, attempts to make sense of the past through her own interpretation of the book’s clues, such as a drawing of Romilly with a mole placed on the wrong side of her face. A series of discoveries makes Romilly rethink everything she thought she had known about her family. While few readers are likely to be surprised by the plot reveals, such as Stacey’s true nature, Romilly is a spunky and sympathetic character, and Crosby weaves a magical spell in which dark-edged fantasy collides with everyday life. This is a worthy twist on the haunted house story.