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A review by scrooge3
The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix
3.0
2024 Lodestar Award finalist for Best YA Book
2024 Locus Awards finalist - Young Adult Novel
This is a fairly standalone book, with a few nonessential references to the first book of the series, and not having read that book, I was not at all lost or confused by this book. The main characters are three "booksellers", Merlin, Vivien, and Susan, which is basically code for paranormal investigators sanctioned by the UK government. These three are all in their early 20s, it seems, so I'm not sure why the book is categorized as YA--probably more of a marketing tool since Nix's previous works are in the YA arena. The writing style is light and breezy, but I don't think that by itself makes this a YA book. This book reminded me a great deal of Charles Stross's Laundry Files series, but without as much snark and satire. There are several action set pieces in the book, but there are also long sequences where not much happens, and where lots of tea and cake are consumed. The story is set in a slightly altered 1983 (with some short flashbacks) Bath, England, where a malevolent entity is poised to rise on the Winter Solstice. There's some chaste romance and more than a bit of danger included.
2024 Locus Awards finalist - Young Adult Novel
This is a fairly standalone book, with a few nonessential references to the first book of the series, and not having read that book, I was not at all lost or confused by this book. The main characters are three "booksellers", Merlin, Vivien, and Susan, which is basically code for paranormal investigators sanctioned by the UK government. These three are all in their early 20s, it seems, so I'm not sure why the book is categorized as YA--probably more of a marketing tool since Nix's previous works are in the YA arena. The writing style is light and breezy, but I don't think that by itself makes this a YA book. This book reminded me a great deal of Charles Stross's Laundry Files series, but without as much snark and satire. There are several action set pieces in the book, but there are also long sequences where not much happens, and where lots of tea and cake are consumed. The story is set in a slightly altered 1983 (with some short flashbacks) Bath, England, where a malevolent entity is poised to rise on the Winter Solstice. There's some chaste romance and more than a bit of danger included.