Curioddity
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Will Morgan is a creature of habit—a low-budget insurance detective who walks to and from work with the flow of one-way traffic, and for whom imagination is a thing of the distant past. When a job opportunity enters the frame in the form of the mysterious Mr. Dinsdale—curator of the ever so slightly less-than-impressive Curioddity Museum—Will reluctantly accepts the task of finding a missing box of levity (the opposite of gravity). What he soon learns, however, is that there is another world out there—a world of magic we can only see by learning to un-look at things—and in this world there are people who want to close the Curioddity museum down. With the help of his eccentric new girlfriend Lucy, Will will do everything he can to deliver on his promise to help Mr. Dinsdale keep the Curioddity Museum in business.
Curioddity is Paul Jenkins’ debut novel... exciting, fast-paced, and uncanny. A must-read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Comics writer Jenkins seems a little lost in his debut novel, a contemporary story of hidden magic that too often trips itself up in a chaotic whirl of whimsy. Wil Morgan was a dreamer who loved science and believed in magic until he was 10, when his mother who shared those traits died in a horrific accident. As an adult, he's a sad-sack private detective who spends his day in the same routine, going to and from work and barely getting by. When a mysteriously wacky client named Mr. Dinsdale stops by and offers him a job tracking down levity (the opposite of gravity), he discovers streets he'd never heard of, items that defy physics, and an odd thrift shop managed by a gorgeous woman named Lucy who (naturally) falls for Wil in spite of his shyness and lack of social skills. Like that relationship, pretty much every beat of Jenkins's novel is predictable, from slapstick injuries to the twee ending. The book's not bad, but Jenkins offers nothing new.
