A delightful mystery-adventure with a nonbinary protagonist and a thoughtful theme about how we care for the ones we love.
Twelve-year-old Perigee’s dad hasn’t seemed like himself lately, worried about the bills piling up for his construction business, and sometimes finding it hard to get out of bed. But Perigee has a plan to help: a visit to Eklunds’ Puzzle House, the mysterious bed-and-breakfast that their dad’s parents built, but which had never opened because of their grandfather’s death in a car crash. From the keypad at the door that triggers different responses depending on the code one enters, to the shifting corridors and vividly themed rooms, the house is a wonder.
Perigee hadn’t counted on the ongoing tension between their dad and his mother, however, nor on the snowstorm that trapped them all in the house along with visiting neighbor girl Lily Ishioka. Most of all, though, the science-minded Perigee could never have predicted the House’s own erratic behavior, slamming windows and shaking foundations, which hints at a consciousness within the walls.
As the story switches between Perigee’s perspective and that of the House itself, we see the House’s actions becoming even more dangerous and potentially deadly, while Perigee and Lily rush to solve a series of puzzles that might hold the means to stop it. Are they on the right track? And can the cracks in Perigee’s family be healed as well?
Perigee’s nonbinary identity is incidental to the plot, although occasional remarks keep this from being a label that was simply slapped on without any regard for their experiences as a nonbinary person. Among other things, the book mentions that Perigee’s dad jumped to their defense when someone questioned their pronouns; and we learn that “Phys ed had never been Perigee’s favorite period at school, even after their school got a non-gendered changing room.” The book never deadnames Perigee or indicates the gender they were assigned at birth, both of which would have been unnecessary details and examples of bad practice.
Both Perigee and Lily are engaging characters whose different personalities and skill sets sometimes complement each other and sometimes clash; Perigee has an analytical bent, but their judgment is sometimes clouded by their need to try and fix their dad; Lily has picked up survival tips from her mother, who does search-and-rescue missions, but Lily is also sometimes too rule-bound. Both know what it is like to be the target of other kids’ harassment, though.
The story is full of action and puzzles, and would make a dazzling television or film adaptation with the right special effects to showcase the House’s many puzzles, illusions, and moving parts. It is more than just an adventure tale, however, but also one about the ways we sometimes try to fix the ones we love, even when that’s not our job, and how we can instead learn to care for them while valuing our own happiness, too.
A highly recommended tale.
Perigee, their dad, and grandma are White; Lily is Asian. It is also mentioned in passing that Perigee’s dad grew up with his mom’s sister, Granny Joan, and her wife, Abuela Elena, the latter of whom is presumably Latina.
Pair this with any of author Jenn Reese’s other LGBTQ-inclusive novels of magical realism, A Game of Fox & Squirrels and Every Bird a Prince, or with Nicole Melleby’s Winnie Nash Is Not Your Sunshine, another story about a young person trying to help their parent who is struggling with mental health challenges.)
