The Unwritten Rules of Magic
-
-
4.0 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
For fans of The Midnight Library and In Five Years, The Unwritten Rules of Magic is a spellbinding novel that blends magic and memory in an unforgettable journey through love, grief, and the hidden cost of perfection across three generations of women.
Emerson Clarke can’t remember a time when she felt in control. Her father—a celebrated author—was a chaotic force until he got Alzheimer’s. Her mother turned to gin. And recently, her teen daughter has shut her out without explanation. If only she could arrange reality the same way she controls the stories she ghostwrites, life could be perfect.
Or so she thinks.
After her father’s funeral, Emerson steals his vintage typewriter—the one he’d forbidden anyone to touch—and tests its keys by typing out a frivolous wish. When it comes true the very next day, she tries another. Then, those words also spring to life. Suddenly, she becomes obsessed with using the typewriter to rewrite happiness for herself and her daughter.
But the more she shapes her real-life, the more she uncovers disturbing truths about her family’s history and the unexpected cost of every story-come-true. She should destroy the typewriter, yet when her daughter’s secret finally emerges, Emerson is torn between paying the price for bending fate and embracing the uncertainty of an unscripted life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ross's elegant and empathetic debut introduces single mother Emerson, 39, just after the funeral of her domineering father, famous sci-fi author Jefferson Clarke. Emerson, a ghostwriter, always felt overshadowed by Jefferson's success and impulsively takes his 1935 Underwood manual typewriter home as a memento. She uses it to write about their volatile relationship as well as her desires to lose weight and revive her neglected garden. The next day she contracts a stomach bug that makes her lose five pounds and her tulips are miraculously blooming. When her alcoholic mother, Dorothy, finally free of Jefferson's oppression, announces she's putting the family mansion in Connecticut up for sale, Emerson types out her wish to delay the sale—and the next day a previously unknown trust halts proceedings. She realizes that Jefferson must have used the typewriter's powers to become rich and famous and follows clues he left behind to learn how to use it for herself. But there are consequences to its magic and Emerson must decide if it's worth the risk to boost her career and her love life, get Dorothy into rehab, and help her troubled teenage daughter, Sadie. Ross has a light touch with the magical elements, primarily using them to explore the intricacies of familial relationships and drive home a message about facing life's challenges with purpose. Crisp prose, mature characters, and well-wrought emotional trials propel this introspective journey of self-discovery.
