Part of Series
Don't get yourself noticed and you won't get yourself hanged. In the faery slums of Bath, Bartholomew Kettle and his sister Hettie live by these words. Bartholomew and Hettie are changelings—Peculiars—and neither faeries nor humans want anything to do with them. One day a mysterious lady in a plum-colored dress comes gliding down Old Crow Alley. Bartholomew watches her through his window. Who is she? What does she want? And when Bartholomew witnesses the lady whisking away, in a whirling ring of feathers, the boy who lives across the alley—Bartholomew forgets the rules and gets himself noticed. First he's noticed by the lady in plum herself, then by something darkly magical and mysterious, by Jack Box and the Raggedy Man, by the powerful Mr. Lickerish . . . and by Arthur Jelliby, a young man trying to slip through the world unnoticed, too, and who, against all odds, offers Bartholomew friendship and a way to belong. Part murder mystery, part gothic fantasy, part steampunk adventure, The Peculiar is Stefan Bachmann's riveting, inventive, and unforgettable debut novel.
Author
Stefan Bachmann was born in Colorado and spent of most of his childhood in Switzerland, where he graduated from the Zürich University of Arts with degrees in musical composition and theory. He's lived in Tokyo, Prague, and Berlin, and now divides his time between Zürich and a small town on the Dutch border. He's the author of several books for young readers, including his debut, THE PECULIAR, which was an international bestseller, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, and was translated into eight languages. His latest book, CINDERS AND SPARROWS is a Bank Street Best Book of the Year and a Golden Dome Award finalist. His other books have been named a VOYA Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, a New York Times Editor's Choice, a New York Public Library's 100 titles for reading and sharing, and have been selected multiple times for the Junior Library Guild. website | insta | blog | twitter (Note about my reviews: I use Goodreads to keep track of the books I read, and to rave about books I love. Not rating a book doesn't mean I *didn't* love it, but five stars - which is pretty much the only rating I use - means I really, really did.)
