August 6, 2024 by Labyrinth Road
E ARC provided by Netgalley
Charles lives in the Beatrix building in New York City in 1986 with his mother, who is studying to be a nurse. Since his father is not around, he is frequently babysat by either Mrs. Hwang, an older Korean woman, or the building superintendent, Mr. Miles. Charles often thinks of the building as the Sanctuary, and pretends that the residents are "dream folk"who have moved there to get the protection of Mr. Miles in his dragon form, sometimes referred to as Glory. Charles has two imaginary best friends, Ruby, who is based on a real friend hw had who moved away, and Fig, who is a dwarf. These thoughts sometimes spill over into school, where he imagines that the twins who bully him are "ogres". School is difficult for Charles, who can't read and frequently gets in trouble. When a father and son move into the building, there's a lot more trouble to be had as evil magical characters start to infiltrate the building. Mr. Calixte and his son, Junior, are identified as being trolls by Mr. Miles, and he tells Charles to steer clear of them. Junior tells Chalres that he doesn't like his father, and would rather be called Will. The two become good friends. Charles starts to be attacked by a large variety of dream folk who cause all sorts of problems. Mr. Miles gives him a "magic pen", and Charles tries to control what is going on through his drawings, but he can't stop a Tokoloshe from possessing him, doppelgangers from running wild, or creatures from the Place Between from getting loose. He works with Mr. Miles and even Mrs. Hwang to fight against the creatures, but it's a constant battle, in the same way it's a battle for people in New York City at this period in history to battle rolling blackouts, the crack epidemic, and fires in apartment buildings like the nearby Riley Towers. Children from Charles' school are going missing, and he and Mr. Miles believe that the Calixtes are behind it. Will they be able to fighting against these forces to make their apartment building safe?
Strengths: This combined a New York setting with a wide variety of culturally connected fantasy creatures and even quoted Carroll's The Jabberwock frequently. The writing was lyrical and descriptive. There's a great found family in the Beatrix, and the descriptions of the prewar apartment building as well as the residents. Charles and his mom have a great relationship, since it's "just you and me" (the mother's code for "I love you"). There is nonstop action for most of the book, and readers who want fantasy battles will be quite happy with the level of conflict, as well as Charles' ability to be triumphant. The author has quite an impressive list of speculative fiction writing credits and is a teacher. (http://www.rob-cameron.com/)
Weaknesses: Since this was set in 1986, I felt like there was some history behind a lot of the action that I didn't understand, and that maybe the fires were similar to the ones in Woodson's Remember Us. I also felt like the missing children might have a basis in reality, but I couldn't find information about specifics like Riley Towers online. I was in college at this time and had limited access to the news, so feel like I was missing a lot of history. Also, if the book description hadn't said that Charles was neurdivergent, I wouldn't have picked it up from the text.
What I really think: This is a very long fantasy book that will be popular with fans of Eggers' The Eyes and the Impossible or other allegorical fantasy books like Malinenko's This Appearing House or Reynolds' Izzy at the End of the World. There are some similarities in place and time with Zoboi's My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich. It will probably win several awards, so I would definitely take a look at this one.
Strengths: This combined a New York setting with a wide variety of culturally connected fantasy creatures and even quoted Carroll's The Jabberwock frequently. The writing was lyrical and descriptive. There's a great found family in the Beatrix, and the descriptions of the prewar apartment building as well as the residents. Charles and his mom have a great relationship, since it's "just you and me" (the mother's code for "I love you"). There is nonstop action for most of the book, and readers who want fantasy battles will be quite happy with the level of conflict, as well as Charles' ability to be triumphant. The author has quite an impressive list of speculative fiction writing credits and is a teacher. (http://www.rob-cameron.com/)
Weaknesses: Since this was set in 1986, I felt like there was some history behind a lot of the action that I didn't understand, and that maybe the fires were similar to the ones in Woodson's Remember Us. I also felt like the missing children might have a basis in reality, but I couldn't find information about specifics like Riley Towers online. I was in college at this time and had limited access to the news, so feel like I was missing a lot of history. Also, if the book description hadn't said that Charles was neurdivergent, I wouldn't have picked it up from the text.
What I really think: This is a very long fantasy book that will be popular with fans of Eggers' The Eyes and the Impossible or other allegorical fantasy books like Malinenko's This Appearing House or Reynolds' Izzy at the End of the World. There are some similarities in place and time with Zoboi's My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich. It will probably win several awards, so I would definitely take a look at this one.
I don't have the readers for this type of fantasy, so will probably pass on purchase.
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