If Edward Gorey ever sat down to write a YA book, it might've been something like this: a deeply weird, Victorian oddity about an family in which each member is given a "birth object" to keep with them always, to guard jealously from harm and the impertinent gaze of others. It might be a bath plug, or a doily, or a box of matches. Weird enough yet? Did I mention the protagonist is a young gentleman of the family who has the talent (curse) of hearing the birth objects, and occasionally other inanimate objects, SPEAK? YA these days feels like a never-ending repetition of dystopian-set love triangles, and in its way, this is one also. But in the face of slick movie productions and pressures of the market, young Clod (that's his name!) and his travails will be a happy reminder that some writers have kept and even cultivated their idiosyncrasies.

I wasn't too sure about this book as it was advertised as similar to the Series of Unfortunate Events (which I haven't read and really am not interested in reading). I did like this one-and was surprised that I did. This is supposed to be the first in a trilogy, so I'm intrigued to see where the author takes the storyline in the next book.

Would make an interesting movie!

"Clod is an Iremonger. He lives in the Heaps, a vast sea of lost and discarded items collected from all over London. At the centre is Heap House, a puzzle of houses, castles, homes and mysteries reclaimed from the city and built into a living maze of staircases and scurrying rats. The Iremongers are a mean and cruel family, robust and hardworking, but Clod has an illness. He can hear the objects whispering. His birth object, a universal bath plug, says ‘James Henry’, Cousin Tummis’s tap is squeaking ‘Hilary Evelyn Ward-Jackson’ and something in the attic is shouting ‘Robert Burrington‘ and it sounds angry. A storm is brewing over Heap House. The Iremongers are growing restless and the whispers are getting louder. When Clod meets Lucy Pennant, a girl newly arrived from the city, everything changes. The secrets that bind Heap House together begin to unravel to reveal a dark truth that threatens to destroy Clod’s world."

Beautiful, strange, and the most different thing I have read in a while. Cannot say it better than the NPR review: if you'd like to read something that combines Dickens, Dahl, Gorey and Lemony Snicket to produce something original and compelling, this book is for you.

Una premisa de las más originales que he leído y que arrastra lo que promete hasta el final. Un gustazo de historia que toma lo cotidiano y lo convierte en algo inexplicable.

disturbingly fun and imaginative!