A Bitter Magic
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
A deliciously quirky tale of secrets, magic, and illusions.
Everything is in place: the packed theater, the Amazing Thummel, and, center stage, the magician's mysterious assistant. Some have called her the most beautiful woman in Europe.
Then, in a swirl of light, she vanishes!
An astounding illusion, but she never reappears. All that remains are a bloodstained white scarf and her daughter, Cisley, who lives in a glass castle and walks her pet lobster each morning by the sea.
Enter Cole, a rambunctious boy from town and Cisley's first true friend. Together they hunt for clues to her mother's disappearance. They puzzle over broken mirrors, ever-shifting labyrinths, a closet full of whispering ball gowns, and a fatal quest for a pure black rose.
Roderic Townley spins a deliciously spooky tale of one girl's journey to discover what's real and what is simply an illusion.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After Cisley's mother vanishes during a magic act, the 12-year-old returns home to her family's glass castle by the sea. As her Uncle Asa attempts to harness his sister's powers, Cisley tries to solve the mystery of her mother's whereabouts, her father's identity, and her own healing abilities. Townley (The Door in the Forest) mixes the whimsical and the tragic, but the story never quite reconciles the two elements. Cisley struggles to belong, seeking solace with a pet lobster she outfits with a gold collar and takes for seaside walks, while Uncle Asa is obsessed with creating ever-shifting mirrored corridors, a labyrinth maze, and cruel experiments to imbue himself with his Cisley's mother's otherworldly power. Cisley's quirkiness provides some needed levity to an otherwise dark tale, but muddled aspects of the storytelling including a misplaced last-minute twist and a bloody finale that also tries to tie up the narrative's loose ends with a silver-lining happy ending keep it from finding a successful balance of reality and illusion. Ages 9 12.
