The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on September 22, 2020
ISBN: 006268325X
Pages: 416
Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Folklore, Humor, Romance
Format: Chapter Book Fiction
Goodreads

Recommending for cream consideration for High School readers.  Seventeen year old Susan has arrived in 1983 London from the country earlier than her school schedule to seek out the father she has never met.  What happens next changes her view of reality, mythical tales and booksellers as she watches a left-handed bookseller disintegrate the only man she believes could help her with a hatpin.  Susan is immediately catapulted into the magical underworld of Old World beings that continue to collide with her everyday human life in action packed, richly descriptive, dangerously magical and sometimes romantic ways.  With the assistance of Merlin, the seventeen year old left-handed bookseller, who is charming, gender questioning, magically manipulative, and a little hot, and his right-handed bookseller sister Vivien, Susan survives Goblin fairs, meetings with the Ancient Ones, some normal London police action and revelations about her lineage.  Nix spins a fast-paced fantasy that bestows ancient powers and fascinating responsibilities to booksellers, explores unknown myths and sets it all in an alternate London that feels authentic and desirable.  Lovers of fantasy, folklore, everything British and romance will find this book a winner.

Reviewed by Sheila Dube, Youth Services Librarian