by Chloe
Garth Nix is one of Australia’s most prolific and successful fantasy authors. He writes across many age groups, with his latest book – The Sinister Booksellers of Bath – marketed toward the young adult audience but appropriate for anyone aged 16 to 100 (as Nix himself stated in a recent interview – I paraphrase – the labels are irrelevant and books are for everyone). The content of The Sinister Booksellers of Bath and its predecessor The Left-Handed Booksellers of London is designed for an older audience, however. Firmly set in 1983, this story will appeal to any who are nostalgic for the age of punk, of Bowie and MTV – even if the pop-culture references are mainly applied to books.
The main character, Susan, has strong Sinead O’Connor vibes (or perhaps Deadpool’s Negasonic Teenage Warhead), while her paramour Merlin exudes a Bowie-esque charm. In The Left-Handed Booksellers of London we find out that Susan is in fact a demi-human, daughter of a human mother and the mythical Old Man of Coniston. In The Sinister Booksellers of Bath, Susan’s wish to live a normal life despite her heritage is thwarted as she’s drawn into yet another mission with the left-handed booksellers.
It could be that I’m a bookseller myself and this series speaks to me due to its constant references to retail at Christmas and bookseller conferences – and books in general – but I think any lover of books and reading is going to devour this series. Susan, with her shaved head and her trademark Doc Marten boots, and Merlin – introduced, in this novel, as cos-playing as one of the Bennett sisters from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice – are an iconic couple. Their relationship plays a secondary role, however, the focus settling upon Susan and her reluctance to become the true daughter of Coniston. She wants to be normal, just for a little while, and at every turn she is reluctant to do what needs to be done – knowing that it’ll sink her deeper into power she does not want.
The Sinister Booksellers of Bath is a book filled to the brim with strong, multi-faceted women and non-toxic men – just the way we like it.
Eighteen-year-old art student Susan Arkshaw arrives in London in search of her father. But before she can question crime boss Frank Thringley he's turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin. Merlin is one of the youngest members of a secret society of booksellers with magical powers who police the mythic Old World wherever it impinges on the New World - in addition to running several bookshops, of course! Merlin also has a quest of his own: to find the Old World entity who arranged the murder of his mother. Their investigations attract attention from enemies of the Old and New Worlds. Soon they become involved in an even more urgent task to recover the grail that is the source of the left-handed booksellers' power, before it is used to destroy the booksellers and rouse the hordes of the mythic past. As the search for the grail becomes strangely intertwined with both their quests, they start to wonder... Is Susan's long-lost father a bookseller, or something altogether more mysterious?