An eerie, wonderfully original tale of magical realism.
Twelve-year-old Kess Pedrock lives with her older brother Oliver at her family’s Unnatural History Museum, just outside the edge of the mysterious and dangerous Eelgrass Bog. The museum has seen better days, however; no one is coming now to view the woolly whale skeleton or bog mummy exhibits, and the building itself is falling apart. Kess’ parents have in fact left for a research trip to Antarctica, hoping to make enough money to keep things afloat, and leaving Kess and Oliver to fend for themselves. Kess and Oliver don’t get along, however, and Kess’s best friend is Shrunken Jim, a talking pickled head in a jar.
Kess thinks that if she can find a new megafauna skeleton to exhibit at the museum, that might just draw in enough visitors to save it. One day, even before she accomplishes this, in walks Lilou Starling, newly moved to town with her two dads (and adopted, although that is not a central part of the tale). Lilou needs Kess’s help to solve a mystery and break a curse—a curse connected to Eelgrass Bog, where Kess has never dared tread.
The less I say about the rest of the plot, the better, so as not to spoil the truly original twists and surprises here. Suffice it to say that it is a thoroughly enjoyable ride, with a perfect balance of adventure and introspection; that Kess and Lilou begin to “like-like” each other, and that author Mary Averling has crafted an offbeat, somewhat creepy, but nevertheless compelling world and populated it with sympathetically flawed characters. Themes of loneliness, friendship, and family are woven gently through like cobwebs in the museum—and like cobwebs, may cling long after you leave (but with far less ickiness). Highly recommended.
The characters read as White.
