Flights and Chimes and Mysterious Times by Emma Trevayne

It was not only Thomas that was wonderfully developed, I really liked all the characters on account of their quirky and multi-faceted personalities. He also grapples with being an ordinary boy trying to do the extraordinary and learns that sometimes intelligence can be more useful than magic. His selfishness made him infinitely more realistic than heroes who drop everything to save others at great personal cost.

How far someone should go in order to rescue others is the question that Thomas faces over and over again as he is caught between saving the fairies and living his own life.

The story is a twist on the typical changeling tale, so it felt fresh and original. It’s set in Victorian England (an era I love) and is an intriguing and unusual combination of grave digging, spells and spiritualism.Īs the story unfolds, none of the characters know the full story so you are never quite sure just how it will end, and there are some interesting twists along the way. I was actually more reminded of The Witch’s Boy by Kelly Barnhill which is a excellent novel that I also recommend. There is little to no commonality between the two novels, a testament to Trevayne’s wonderful imagination. I loved Trevayne’s other novel, Flights and Chimes and Mysterious Timesand Thomas Marsden is equally good. It is exactly what I look for in Middle Grade fantasy it is well-written, imaginative, thought provoking, and magical. The Accidental After Life of Thomas Marsden is a fun, captivating read. Faery folk who need his help.ĭesperate to unearth the truth about himself and where he comes from, Thomas is about to discover magic, and ritual, and that sometimes, just sometimes, the things that make a boy ordinary are what make him extraordinary. Others follow, but it is a fortune teller’s frightened screams that lead Thomas into a strange world of spiritualists, death and faery folk.įaery folk with whom Thomas’s life is bizarrely linked. This is only the first clue that something very strange is happening. For lying in an unmarked grave and half covered with dirt is a boy the spitting image of Thomas himself. A bad business.Īnd for Thomas Marsden, on what was an unremarkable spring night in London, it becomes a very spooky business.

Flights and Chimes and Mysterious Times by Emma Trevayne