THE SECRET OF LILLIAN VELVET

A birthday gift, her very first, gives a 10-year-old Australian girl a chance to prove her mettle.

Astounded though she is when the harshly repressive grandmother who has raised her in isolation presents her with a pickle jar full of gold coins, that’s only the first of a string of wonders as Lillian is unexpectedly shoved over and over into the magical land of Kingdoms and Empires. There, she’s informed by a mysterious collector that the coins pay for wishes. Each visit leads to encounters in which a person or creature (including, once, a huge dragon) is in a pickle and needs help. Actually, Lillian turns out to be a pawn in an evil and potentially deadly scheme, and around its twists and turns, Moriarty weaves a complex tale involving sprites and genies, time travel, fearsome dangers, hard decisions…and also the Mettlestones, a clan whose 11 sisters and their offspring have gone on to all sorts of splendid feats. The clan’s close-knit, noisy dynamics give Lillian an eye-opening view of what family life could be like. Presented through multiple points of view, the tale has an overstretched feel; the author sends Lillian back and forth more than 15 times, strings out the suspenseful climax, and repeats herself occasionally. Still, watching kind, smart, and brave Lillian overcome an upbringing designed to leave her mousy and fearful makes for compelling reading, as does watching the intricacies of the plot unfold. Most characters read white.

Absorbingly rich and strange.