In Grolic’s middle-grade fantasy, a young girl is caught up in a threat to London’s hidden world of magic.

The author pulls readers in from the start with a description of the mysterious, soon-to-open Extraordinary Curiosities shop, located on a narrow London lane. When 11-year-old Chloe Ashley ducks into the place after school to avoid the rain, she’s surprised to find tiny, pointy-eared folk, tidying up and arranging shelves of oddities. After Chloe meets the magician proprietors of the shop—Mr. Ixworth (short and tweedy, “with one of those funny ‘I’ve a bit of chocolate on my lip’ moustaches”) and tall, nattily dressed Mr. Maddox (who’s never “one to use one word when two would do”)—it’s clear that her life will never be the same. Thrilled to discover that magic is real, Chloe is clued into wondrous merchandise that’s ordinarily shown only to magicians, including a magical flying taxi, spectacles that reveal “the paths of the departed,” and a “Memory Desk” for the forgetful. She becomes a welcome visitor to the shop and, before long, Mr. Maddox’s apprentice. One day, after Chloe is followed by a skeletal man with sharklike teeth, she finds that Mr. Ixworth is nowhere to be found. His nemesis, Oswin Blythe, is suspected of being behind other disappearances, but could there be a different, more horrific explanation? The author increases the momentum and the stakes of the story by widening the world of magicians, showing how they occupy strictly bordered realms, which they can lose through death, departure, or intrigue. Clever magical elements pepper the plot, including a spell-conjured pond, magic-detecting fish, travel via hat-rack, and comical and deadly potions. The character of Chloe, meanwhile, retains a relatable, human dimension; readers will relate to her plight as an outsider at school and as a daughter of busy parents who don’t take much notice of her, and this characterization gives believable weight to later, life-threatening tests of her intelligence and inner strength. Luckily, the author leaves some questions unanswered, making room for a sequel. 

An inventive book that offers wit, eccentric worldbuilding, and a look at magic’s dark side.