ARCHIBALD FINCH AND THE LOST WITCHES

In this debut middle-grade fantasy novel, a boy unlocks a magical globe and enters a world where witches fight monsters.

Archibald Finch, almost 12 years old, has just moved from London with his family to the rambling, creepy Hertfordshire mansion that his father inherited. Searching for hidden Christmas presents, Archibald discovers a centuries-old globe that shows misshapen continents with peculiar creatures inhabiting them. Even weirder, the globe has an odd mechanism that emits a bright light in a flash of thunder—and then somehow absorbs Archibald within itself. Now in a strange new world called Lemurea, Archibald explores the land—encountering girls, magic, and monsters. The last are called Marodors, each a chimera of other beasts like “some botched experiment.” The magic is wielded by the (nearly) all-girl inhabitants, such as beautiful Faerydae, who finds Archibald and brings him to relative safety. There, the girls teach Archibald about Lemurea and “golems,” stones inscribed with runes and combined in different ways to fight Marodors. (This is puzzlingly far from the classic meaning of golem.) Meanwhile, Archibald’s sister, Hailee, nearly 14, searches for her lost brother. She too faces danger from a robber disguised as a priest, but she gains an ally in Oliver Doyle, the 15-year-old son of the shop owner she consults about the globe. Archibald makes an important discovery about Marodors, but a quest to visit the queen leads to some shocking news. His potentially world-changing ideas will have to wait; the saga is to be continued. In his series opener, Guyon offers an intelligently conceived portal tale with action and humor. Complex storytelling strands are deftly woven here, bringing in Leonardo da Vinci, orphanages, and psychological ideas about the nature of monster-making. Some readers may question the idea that it takes a boy barely any time at all to figure out the Marodor problem, which has eluded the world’s girls for hundreds of years. Archibald becomes a man in his 15-day odyssey, but the much-older (though young-looking) Faerydae still pouts like a child. The images by debut illustrator Kostich are complexly detailed and nicely show atmosphere. 

An engaging adventure, despite the lack of an ending and some characterization problems.