Malamander

June 15, 2019
Not your average coastal getaway, Eerie-on-Sea is brimming with secrets, including its own monster. In the dismal offseason, young Herbie Lemon, the Grand Nautilus Hotel's cautious (he's heard the legends) Lost-and-Founder, is on the job, keeping warm, when Violet Parma, abandoned at the hotel as an infant 12 years ago, arrives, searching for her lost parents and fleeing pursuit. Fearless and determined, she recruits Herbie into her schemes. He knows she isn't telling him her whole story--but then, he isn't telling her (or readers) his, either. When a clue leads them to the Eerie Book Dispensary, a mechanical mermonkey steers Violet to a book about the malamander, an aquatic monster that lays a magical egg at Midwinter, then takes it back. Other egg seekers include a local author; the imperious hotel owner, whose grandfather once possessed it; the ghostly Boat Hook Man; and Violet's parents. (Her father, the only character identified by race, is black; whether the white default that seems to apply to the rest of the book applies also to Violet is unclear.) While present-tense narration frequently has a bland effect on fantasy, flattening time and the contours of history, here lively characters, droll humor, and steampunk-tinged worldbuilding counter the effect. The limited art available for review amplifies the spookiness. The deeply atmospheric setting is a standout. This creepy, quirky debut trilogy opener--think H.P. Lovecraft crossed with John Bellairs--is dank, misty fun. (Fantasy. 8-12)

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July 8, 2019
In this endearingly strange middle grade adventure set against the backdrop of a seaside resort town during the off-season, two orphans are caught up in a local legend. In the appropriately named Eerie-on-Sea, Herbert Lemon, 12, works at the Grand Nautilus Hotel as a lost-and-founder, responsible for maintaining lost items. When Violet Parma, also 12, asks him to help find her parents, who went missing from the hotel when she was an infant, the resulting search quickly takes a turn for the weird. Violet’s parents’ disappearance connects to the local story of the malamander, a half-man, half-fish creature whose egg is believed to grant wishes. Everyone wants that egg, from local writer Sebastian Eels to the hook-handed “Boat Hook Man,” to the Grand Nautilus’s intimidating owner, Lady Kraken. Taylor (Haunters) combines atmospheric descriptions with tongue-in-cheek humor, off-kilter concepts (a mechanical mermonkey that “prescribes” books), and quirky characters to create an unusual series opener. Meanwhile, exaggerated, stylized illustrations from Booth (This Is Christmas) bring both cast and setting to life, capturing the feel of this fantastical, energetic mystery. Ages 8–12.

August 1, 2019

Gr 5-7-In the beach town of Eerie-on-Sea, "twelvish" orphan Herbert Lemon is the Lost-and-Founder at the old Grand Nautilus hotel. When, one winter night, Violet Parma drops through the cellar window, on the run from sinister forces and determined to find her parents who disappeared from the hotel when she was a baby, a friendship and an adventure begin. Their madcap search, with bold Violet spurring on reluctant Herbie, takes them to the Eerie Book Dispensary where an automaton-half-monkey, half-merman-provides book "prescriptions"; Mrs. Fossil's Flotsamporium where mysterious beachcomber findings are on offer; Dr. Thalassi's natural history museum; and sea mist-shrouded trips to the waterfront where an old shipwreck and a menacing sea creature, the eponymous malamander, lurk and threaten. Readers will be drawn in immediately by Herbie's chatty second-person voice. The fast-paced narrative includes subtle humor, clever plays on words, and rich cinematic details augmented by black-and-white illustrations and a map. Colorful characters, palpable atmosphere, close calls and some deliberately unanswered questions (how did little Herbie get washed up onshore in a lemon crate, and just what did happen to Violet's parents when they took a rowboat out to sea to find her?) will hook readers on this new British series and leave them eager for more. VERDICT A crowd-pleasing fantasy.-Marie Orlando, formerly at Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

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Starred review from August 1, 2019
Grades 5-7 *Starred Review* The resort of Eerie-on-Sea makes an appropriately named setting for the scary adventures of two orphaned (or seemingly orphaned) children who find themselves swept up in a scheme to seize the wish-granting egg of a legendary mer-creature ( half man, half fish, half goodness-knows-what ). Whether the Malamander even exists is a matter of much conjecture, but along with heavy fogs, weird howls, and spooky yarns spun around the sunken old battleship rusting just offshore, Taylor assembles the sort of supporting cast that makes anything seem possible?from Lady Kraken, enigmatic proprietor of the Grand Nautilus Hotel, who spies on the whole town through a moon-powered cameraluna, to oily, murderous author Sebastian Eels and a crazed undead mariner who smells like something bad is about to happen. That's to say nothing of the talking cat or the mechanical mer-monkey in the window of the Eerie Book Dispensary that will, for coins, recommend peculiarly useful titles. Odd encounters and narrow escapes set in motion by the arrival of Violet Parma, searching for parents who disappeared on the beach 12 years before, lead her and half-reluctant young Herbert Lemon, who himself washed up as a baby in a crate of lemons, to a desperate climactic struggle. A lack of firm resolution hints at future visits to this winningly strange town. Finished illustrations not seen.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)