“It’s a feeling that comes from inside a person. A brightness certain people possess that makes them unique. Your heart glows especially bright, Kess Pedrock,” (Averling 116).
Kess Pedrock’s life is unnatural. Her favourite hobby is looking for megafauna fossils and skeletons, she lives in her family’s Unnatural History Museum, and her best friend is Shrunken Jim, a demon’s head that speaks to her from a jar. Despite being an unnatural life, Kess has grown to love it while her parents are off working in Antarctica and her brother Oliver locks himself away in the library. But when a new girl named Lilou Starling comes to Wick’s End asking Kess for help breaking a mysterious curse, Kess is ready to do so. But the key to breaking the mysterious curse hides in the centre of Eelgrass Bog, a place full of witches, demons, and all things dangerous, but Kess and Lilou are ready to solve it’s mysteries. But Kess might be more connected to the curse than she originally thought.
Averling has created a fantastic mystery in her debut novel. The Curse of Eelgrass Bog feels like something Diana Wynne Jones might write, there are demons and mysteries, the story itself is a puzzle for the reader to put together. It might seem like a scrambled mess but sure enough all the pieces are there, and fitting each one together makes a masterful story that tackles loneliness, bravery, and love.
Kess was a wonderful protagonist to follow. I loved being in her cob-webbed filled brain and piecing together the mystery of Eelgrass, her own foggy memories, and her devotion to helping Lilou. Averling created a character with (using the books words) such a bright heart glow but also one with a lot of depth, a lonely girl desperate for a friend and willing to do anything to keep her promises and save her parents museum.
I also love how Averling normalized queer relationships in this book as well as different family dynamics. Kess is being looked after by her older brother while their parents are working in Antarctica, and Lilou and her siblings are adopted by her two dad’s, and Kess and Lilou are also queer characters. I’ve never read a middle grade novel in which the children characters are aware of their own queer identity, and it was wonderful to see how normal Kess’s crush and identity didn’t affect the narrative but were just parts of who she was.
The Curse of Eelgrass Bog is a delightfully creepy mystery that is sure to engage and charm many young readers!
Publication: January 2 2024
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 256 pages (Hardcover)
Source: Playwrights Canada Press (Thank you!)
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, Middle Grade, Horror, Queer
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤
Summary:
Nothing about Kess Pedrock’s life is normal. Not her home (she lives in her family’s Unnatural History Museum), not her interests (hunting for megafauna fossils and skeletons), and not her best friend (a talking demon’s head in a jar named Shrunken Jim).
But things get even stranger than usual when Kess meets Lilou Starling, the new girl in town. Lilou comes to Kess for help breaking a mysterious curse—and the only clue she has leads straight into the center of Eelgrass Bog.
Everyone knows the bog is full of witches, demons, and possibly worse, but Kess and Lilou are determined not to let that stop them. As they investigate the mystery and uncover long-buried secrets, Kess begins to realize that the curse might hit closer to home than she’d ever expected, and she’ll have to summon all her courage to find a way to break it before it’s too late.
Sarah O'Connor 