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2020

Format:	Book
Author:	VanderMeer, Jeff, author.
Title:	A peculiar peril / Jeff VanderMeer ; pictures by Jeremy Zerfoss.
Publisher, Date:	New York, NY : Farrar Straus Giroux & Dvorak, 2020.
Description:	632 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Summary:	"The first book in a two-volume fantasy about a teenaged boy who inherits his grandfather's mansion and discovers three strange doors, evidence his grandfather did not die of natural causes but spectacularly unnatural ones, and clues to the family's ties to an alternate Europe immersed in a war fought with strange tech and dark magic"-- Provided by publisher. Jonathan Lambshead will inherit has grandfather's mansion-- after he and two schoolmates catalog its contents. They discover that the mansion's basement contains portals, with one leading to an alt-Earth called Aurora. There magic abounds, history has been re-written, and an occult dictator called Aleister Crowley leads an army pillaging alt-Europe. Jonathan pieces together his destiny as a member a secret society devoted to keeping our world separate from Aurora. But alliances shift as the trio pursue the profound evil-- and discover it is also chasing them. -- adapted from jacket
Target Audience Note:	Ages 12-18. Farrar Straus Giroux.
Series:	The misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead ; volume one VanderMeer, Jeff. Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead ; bk. 1.
Subjects:	Crowley, Aleister, 1875-1947 -- Fiction. Magic -- Fiction. Europe -- Fiction.
Genre:	Fantasy fiction. Paranormal fiction.
Other Author:	Zerfoss, Jeremy, illustrator.
LCCN:	2019037060
ISBN:	9780374308865 0374308861
Other Number:	1104304414
System Availability:	3
Current Holds:	0
# Local items:	3
Control Number:	862380
Call Number:	YA Vand
Course Reserves:	0
# Local items in:	2
# System items in:	2

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Publishers Weekly Review

Jonathan Lambshead plans to spend his summer inventorying the English countryside manor of his dead grandfather, Dr. Thackery "Thwack" Lambshead--a task the 16-year-old orphan must complete before inheriting Thwack's estate. Assisting are classmate Danielle Rackham, 17, and her adopted brother, Dirk Wulf Rackham--a grad student with a prosthetic left leg and a damaged right foot. Thwack left Jonathan cryptic instructions regarding bird-children, a quest, and the Order of the Third Door, which Jonathan suspects are dementia-inspired nonsense. Then he finds a portal to Aurora, an alternate Earth full of talking animals and vegetables where warlock Aleister Crowley (aided by his bat-monster familiar and Napoleon's disembodied head) intends to capture an alchemical energy source and use its power to become Lord of Everything--actual Earth included--unless Jonathan and company can stop him. First in a duology, adult author VanderMeer's sprawling YA debut offers a riotous, slyly sophisticated take on the hero's journey. Boldly drawn characters, sublimely ridiculous worldbuilding, and a witty, prismatic narrative further distinguish the unique tale. Ages 12--up. Agent: Sally Harding, CookeMcDermid. (July)

Booklist Review

Adult best-selling author VanderMeer (Annihilation, 2014) turns to YA in this elaborate fantasy that in reality will enamor adult readers as much as teens. Taking the peculiar darkness of Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine series and the absurd humor and wit of Terry Pratchett, VanderMeer dreams up a wholly original tale, filled with complexity, imagination, and talking marmots. Here readers step into a multiverse, where different worlds are connected by magical doors, protected by the secret Order of the Third Door. Most people live their entire lives none the wiser, but 16-year-old Jonathan Lambshead gets pulled into the Order's sphere and a larger magical war upon the death of his eccentric grandfather, whose house of oddities and legacy as an Order member is left to the young man. The reader is tossed into a bewilderingly strange alternate Earth called Aurora, along with Jonathan and his two friends, Rack and Danny. Chapters focus among a variety of magicians, spies, beasts, and historical figures (Jules Verne, Napoleon, and Aleister Crowley, to name a few) set on new trajectories, gradually bringing these disparate players into a unified narrative. It's a wild ride that requires a few leaps of faith from readers, but they're in good hands with VanderMeer, who has a sequel in the works for those who emerge victorious from Aurora.

Summary

A Peculiar Peril is a head-spinning epic about three friends on a quest to protect the world from a threat as unknowable as it is terrifying, from the Nebula Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation , Jeff VanderMeer.

Jonathan Lambshead stands to inherit his deceased grandfather's overstuffed mansion--a veritable cabinet of curiosities--once he and two schoolmates catalog its contents. But the three soon discover that the house is filled with far more than just oddities: It holds clues linking to an alt-Earth called Aurora, where the notorious English occultist Aleister Crowley has stormed back to life on a magic-fueled rampage across a surreal, through-the-looking-glass version of Europe replete with talking animals (and vegetables).

Swept into encounters with allies more unpredictable than enemies, Jonathan pieces together his destiny as a member of a secret society devoted to keeping our world separate from Aurora. But as the ground shifts and allegiances change with every step, he and his friends sink ever deeper into a deadly pursuit of the profound evil that is also chasing after them.

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