COME SEE THE FAIR

A runaway teen spirit medium encounters real magic.

Eva Root hadn’t planned on becoming a fraudster running fake séances, but when Mrs. Blodgett takes her from Miss Augusta Grandage’s Home for Unwanted and Destitute Girls, that’s what she demands of the pink-cheeked 7-year-old. She’s lived with Mrs. Blodgett for nearly half her life, bilking the unsuspecting out of their savings, before she finally swipes a wad of cash from Mrs. Blodgett’s carpetbag and runs away. When she meets a boy called Henry Poole on her train journey, she’s unsure how to deal with his genuine friendliness, and she decides to join him at his destination: the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. It doesn’t hurt that she’s been having visions that seem to lead her to Henry, and he’s been drawing visions of his own, including pictures of Eva’s dreams and Eva herself. The magical adventure they’re consumed by in Chicago is dreamy, with lost time, lost memories, and, for most of their adventure, very little free will. The unmoored reality flows dreamily, and the prose is nearly the opposite, disconnected and staccato. The result keeps readers at a distance, as if Eva’s experiences and reactions are all padded in cotton wool. Spot art adds to the historical setting. All characters appear to be White.

An emotionally distant historical fantasy.