Imogen should be nice to her little sister Marie. She should be nice to her mum’s boyfriend too. And she certainly shouldn’t follow a strange silver moth through a door in a tree.
But then… who does what they’re told?
Followed by Marie, Imogen finds herself falling into a magical kingdom where the two sisters are swept up in a thrilling race against time – helped by the spoiled prince of the kingdom, a dancing bear, a very grumpy hunter… and even the stars above them.
What a beautiful book. This is going to be a classic, it's going to sit with Narnia and Harry Potter for years to come. Apart from anything else, look at that cover! It's amazing.
But this book could be wrapped in brown paper, like the textbooks people of a certain age will remember, and it wouldn't matter, because the story is the important thing. And this story is fantastic. Literally (yes, that's really what 'fantastic' means.) Like all good quests there's a monster, some allies, some enemies, and some heroes who are stronger than they think they are. There's also some heart wrenching, a partially reformed villain, and a deep dark secret. And also a hook for a sequel. That's a lot to fit into one book! And yet it never feels crowded.
I have to be honest; the moments that are likely to stay with me are when Imogen imagines her grandmother and mother looking for them, back in the real world. That's the kind of thing that really hits me. And then we discover - hang on -
SPOILER BELOW
we discover that unlike most world slip novels, time has not stood still in our world. The girls have been missing for weeks and their mother and grandmother are understandably terrified and frazzled when they come back.
SPOILER OVER
All in all, this novel will stay with me for quite a while. It's just that good.
A Clock of Stars publishes on the 1st October, 2020.
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