Children's Writer, Book Reviewer, Teacher, Artist
The third in the series by Amy Sparkes, 'The Bookshop at the Back of Beyond' is unrelentingly fun and funny, full of marvellous magic and mayhem, with mysteries that keep you hooked. I really enjoyed returning to the worlds of Nine and her friends! My reviews of the previous instalments: 'The House of the Edge of Magic' and 'The Tower at the End of Time.'
Nine and her friends have cured the house's hiccups and are off to the strange and utterly unpredictable Back of Beyond in search of Professor Dish - Spoon's best friend and partner in all things alchemy. When they find Dish trapped by the greedy witch Ophidia in the basement of a particularly marvellous shop, it soon becomes clear they're going to need something more than Flabberghast's dicey magic and Nine's quick thinking to triumph this time. What they really need is a rather clever witch - one particularly good at curses...
It felt like welcoming back old friends when I started reading this third in the series. By now, I've come to expect the unexpected with Amy Sparkes' wonderfully engaging writing and explosive imagination. The parallel plots of finding Spoon's partner Professor Dish, while Nine follows clues involving her mother's music box, results in propulsive, engaging storytelling. And there's oodles of fun to be had. The Back of Beyond is a bustling, chaotic shopping town full of surprises. The bookshop itself is wild and I loved how it can read your mind to pick the perfect book for you, although I'm not sure about the violent, attacking books who also want to be bought! Like Terry Pratchett or Diana Wynne Jones, Amy Sparkes has a powerfully wicked imagination; the story infused with wit, sarcasm, playfulness and characters that are threatening and shambolic while also being strangely endearing. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this series goes next and what else Nine will learn about family and the magic of the worlds around her.
Thanks to Walker Books for my copy to review.
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-bookshop-at-the-back-of-beyond/amy-sparkes/9781529505665