Bingo 17: Borrowed
Imagine my surprise one day when I went to my mailbox and saw two book boxes, when I was only expecting one. The second book had my name on the outer label, but was ordered by and for someone else per the sales slip. It was a busy Saturday and I wasn’t going to be able to go to the local Barnes and Noble to return this mistake in shipping, so I may have borrowed the book to read before sending on it’s way to where it’s supposed to be. Thus I count The Bookshop at the Back of Beyond as “borrowed”.
This is a child’s chapter book, so I’m definitely not the audience, however it is fantasy of a found family variety. It’s the third book of a series, but that’s not really a major issue (I also looked up the summaries of the first two afterwards). Basic premise, the human girl Nine has joined the household of the wizard Flabberghast, which also includes Professors Dish and Spoon (who may actually sort of be sentient versions of said objects), Eric the troll who loves cooking but is horrible at it, and a few others. Flabberghast has trouble with using magic and is also obsessed with strawberry tea. Why does this matter? It’s his only defining quality, other than being oddly formal with Nine calling her “Madam” a lot of the time, unironically. Eric is intellectually challenged, and Nine is your standard street-smart former kid thief, and Dish and Spoon are alchemists obsessed with their work. Everyon’es pretty flat, and it annoyed me, but then I had to remind myself, this book was written for someone whose about a quarter of my age, so it’s actually fine.
Plot-wise, there’s actually a fair bit of action. Lots of losing and finding things and people. The gang and house which can sort of teleport (I think?) land in this realm where you have to buy something from every shop before you can leave, but there’s this one shop that’s seems to be permanently closed? We mostly follow Nine do some shopping (think sort of Diagon Alley), and then there’s a kidnapping that needs to be solved, evil auntie witch to avoid, and the apparent mystery from Nine’s past that might be relevant. The secrets shop is also an interesting place, mostly because of who it turns out the owner is, and there’s a bit of an afterward to the story that relates to her that makes things more interesting.
Would I have read this if it hadn’t shown up by mistake? Probably not after opening it and seeing the reading level. It’s cute though, and it’s got some potential as a series. I did kind of appreciate how the gang figured out how to shop at the bookstore (the seemingly always closed); it’s showing progress and some interesting hints about Nine’s mysterious past which even she doesn’t seem to realize.