The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

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Even though he also became interested in Susan, it was refreshingly not because of her looks or awesome abilities, but rather by her personality and ability to roll with the weird magical situations she was suddenly facing. Unlike Susan, I don't care enough to stick around for someone to finally explain what the hell is going on.

And into this world comes in one Susan Arkshaw, a very practical and grounded 18-year-old daughter of a slightly loopy mother and an absent certainly supernatural father (although the latter bit remains behind the scenes for a little while), and ends up tangled in events that are trying to get her killed.You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Other reviewers have brought up the excessive amount of ellipses that result in stilted and unnatural dialogue, and interrupt the flow of reading. The left-handed booksellers are the physical fighters while the right-handed ones are more intellectual and wields magic. The story gradually grows grander and bigger until it’s nonstop action—confronting monsters, figuring out who’s a traitor, and all that good stuff—like an avalanche. My favorites were the ones with the Grandmother(s), the wolf, and the undine, where the writing started to remind me of Charles deLint.

The world was interesting - set in an alternate 1983 in London - the booksellers, both left and right handed are the ones that protect humans from the old world creatures. And I know it's set in the 80s, but I kept forgetting until a few little historical or pop culture bits were mentioned, so YMMV on why that matters at all. The worldbuilding is exquisite--the broad, immersive world and the specific rules for types of booksellers maintain a sense of discovery, and Susan and Merlin, the heroic protagonists, have vibrant, entertaining personalities (and a realistic romantic storyline). As he and his sister, the right-handed bookseller Vivien, tread in the path of a botched or covered-up police investigation from years past, they find this quest strangely overlaps with Susan's. Il y a de l’action et des rebondissements, on ne voit pas défiler les pages, emportés par la découverte de ce monde surnaturel, de ses codes et de ses mystères.

I'm all mixed up about this book, because on the one hand I did actually enjoy it; it's just that I felt I could have loved it, if there weren't some missing pieces.

They have some magic, some more than others, and lots of knowledge on dealing with other realms and creatures. There’s no real point to the extended clan of magicians engaging in book trade — except for our cultural knowledge that booksellers are odd and awesome and probably a bit out of this world* — because, as Stephen King once said, “Books are uniquely portable magic”.While I found the worldbuilding to be quite clever especially in part of the booksellers, the plot was fairly standard and predictable albeit adequately engaging to keep me entertained. She starts with an old family acquaintance, “Uncle” Frank Thringley, but Frank turn out to be, in rapid succession, (a) a crime boss, (b) disincorporated by the prick of a magical hatpin, and (c) a Sipper — which is a milder type of bloodsucker than a vampire.