THE FOREST IN THE HALLWAY

A teen follows her missing parents into a fantasy world chock-full of literary allusions. When her parents vanish from their Des Moines home, Beatriz moves in with her uncle in Manhattan. When she travels to the 19th floor of her uncle’s building, Beatriz finds herself—in a pattern that will be familiar to connoisseurs of magical wardrobes and other gateways to the fantastic—in a hallway that becomes a forest. There, after an unhelpful and snarky encounter with Death, Beatriz quests for her parents. As the days pass, and Beatriz becomes grubbier and hungrier, she picks up a pack of fellow questers: a helpful woman and her children; an amnesiac boy; a silent and victimized girl. On their way upriver, they’ll encounter monsters, life-force vampires at a perpetual dinner party and a witch in a leather miniskirt. Though the literary allusions (to the likes of James Joyce, Ovid and Jorge Luis Borges) lack context and accessibility, the surreal and slightly gritty world is compelling in its humor. Despite a lackluster conclusion, this debut charms. (Fantasy. 10-13)