The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry by Ransom Riggs

Seventeen-year-old Leopold Berry is seeing weird things around Los Angeles. A man who pops a tooth into a parking meter. A glowing trapdoor in a parking lot. A half-mechanical raccoon with its tail on fire that just won’t leave him alone. Every hallucinatory moment seems plucked from a cheesy 1990s fantasy TV show called Max's Adventures in Sunderworld—and that’s because they are.

Not a good sign.

In the blurry weeks after his mother’s death, a young Leopold discovered VHS tapes of its one and only season in a box headed for the trash—and soon became obsessed. Losing himself in Sunder was the best way to avoid two things: grieving his mother and being a chronic disappointment to his overbearing father. But when the strange visions return—at the worst possible time on the worst possible day—Leopold turns to his best friend Emmet for help. Together they discover that Sunder is much more than just an old TV show, and that Los Angeles is far stranger than they ever imagined. And soon, he’ll realize that not only is Sunderworld real, but it’s in grave danger.

Certain he’s finally been chosen for greatness, Leopold risks everything to claim his destiny, save the world of his childhood dreams, and prove once and for all that he’s not the disappointment his father believes him to be. But when everything goes terribly, horribly, excruciatingly wrong, Leopold’s disappointments prove to be more extraordinary than he ever could have imagined.

How do you battle darkness when no one believes in you—not even yourself?

Welcome to Sunderworld.

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PRE-READING

I actually read Sunderworld when it first came out in 2024, listening to the audiobook, but with Volume 2 now arriving I thought it was time to revisit Leopold Berry and his strange little corner of Los Angeles.

And I still love the basic idea.

A teenager discovers an old, cheesy 1990s fantasy TV show on VHS, becomes completely obsessed with it, and then starts seeing things from the show appearing in the real world.

As someone who was a TV-watching kid in the 1990s, I knew exactly what sort of show this meant. Give me some questionable special effects, enormous adventures, a world-saving teenager and a theme tune that probably should have been left in the decade it came from, and I'm there.

POST-READING

The 90s-TV premise is still fantastic, but what really works is the way the magic of Sunderworld sits underneath Los Angeles.

The city feels familiar and strange at the same time, with magic hiding in the places you might normally walk straight past. Neon, glitz, shadowy alleys and strange creatures make a particularly good combination, and the magic system is clever without feeling like it needs a twenty-page lecture before you can understand it.

Leopold's obsession with Sunder also makes complete sense. It's not simply that he likes an old TV show: this is something he discovered while grieving his mother, and it became a way of escaping both that grief and his difficult relationship with his father. When the world he has spent so much time imagining turns out to be real, of course he's going to want to be part of it.

As I expected

I remembered enjoying the magic system, and I still do.

I also remembered Emmet, although apparently not his name until I went looking for it again. Fortunately, I remembered why I liked him. He is exactly the kind of best friend I always want to see in a fantasy story: supportive, funny, involved, and actually useful rather than simply standing around while the protagonist has the adventure.

Isabel is wonderfully clever, Max is effortlessly cool, and together they make a good group.

And yes, I saw the twist coming.

It was still fun.

Sometimes guessing a twist doesn't make it less enjoyable, particularly when the pleasure is in watching the pieces fall into place.

I was surprised by

Coming back to this after two years, I was surprised by how much of the emotional story still worked for me.

There is quite a lot going on underneath the magic and the adventure: grief, the ways people cope with losing someone, the stories we build around ourselves, and Leopold's desperate need to prove that he isn't the disappointment his father thinks he is.

The fantasy gives him the opportunity to become the hero he has always imagined himself to be.

Naturally, this goes extremely well.

Or, to put it another way: when a teenager who has spent years dreaming about being chosen for a magical adventure finally gets chosen, perhaps someone should check whether he has considered the possibility that being chosen might not mean what he thinks it means.

I enjoyed the combination of big, colourful fantasy and much more personal emotional stakes. The world is strange and inventive, but the reasons Leopold wants to enter it are painfully human.

Also, I adore the cover. I will take no questions on this.

RECOMMENDATIONS

If you like the idea of fictional TV shows becoming part of real life, try The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow.

For television, The Librarians has a similarly playful relationship with fantasy, adventure and the idea that the impossible might be hiding just around the corner.

MUSIC PAIRING

“Video Killed the Radio Star” — The Buggles

It is very difficult to write a book about a beloved, slightly ridiculous 1990s television show without acknowledging the medium's long history of being told that the next shiny new thing will destroy it.

Also, it is extremely 90s-adjacent, which feels appropriate.

VIBE CHECK

Colour palette: Neon pink, electric blue, purple, black and the warm glow of Los Angeles streetlights.

Soundtrack: A slightly overdramatic 1990s TV theme, traffic humming in the distance, arcade noises, and something magical crackling just out of sight.

Season: Late summer — hot pavement, bright nights and the sense that something strange could be waiting around the next corner.

Mood: Nostalgic, adventurous, funny, occasionally melancholy, and just a little bit dangerous.

Scent: Hot concrete after dark, city air, old VHS tapes and the faint ozone smell of magic.

Texture: VHS plastic, denim, glossy TV screens, hot pavement and something unexpectedly rough beneath the glamour.

Sunderworld is neon and glitter on the surface, but there's a much more thoughtful story underneath it about grief, friendship and the stories we use to make sense of ourselves.

And sometimes, apparently, those stories are real.

TAROT CARD PULLED: The Star
Hope, healing, imagination and believing that something better might exist beyond what you can currently see. Leopold's relationship with Sunder begins as an escape from grief, but finding that world is real gives him a different kind of hope - even if it doesn't turn out quite the way he imagined.

I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.