My best pop culture comparison reference for this novel would be to imagine an early Harry Potter book written by Lemony Snicket. The author (and if “Ysabeau S. Wilce” is not a nom de plume, then I’ve never heard one) revels in words as she speaks to us through her clever-yet-innocent narrator. Flora’s world is rich with magick, warfare and crumbling family honor. There are real life issues present in this child’s world (pressure to meet a parent’s expectations, helplessness in the face of a parent’s decline) as well as fantastical ones (living in a house that has 11,000 rooms but only one functioning toilet... that is often not where you expect it to be). Flora struggles with her life -- who she really is versus who her family expects her to be -- and this makes her easily identifiable to the reader; that she does so with believable charm and humor makes her a friend to us.

It is my understanding that this is Wilce’s first full-length novel; I hope that it does well enough that she is able to continue to develop a series around these engaging characters as I think there are many stories yet to be told in this world. I was instantly charmed by Flora and I dare anyone else not to be.