Grades 9 – 12
Moderated by Ismery Pavon, program coordinator at Miami Book Fair.
In Jeff VanderMeer’s A Peculiar Peril, Jonathan Lambshead stands to inherit his deceased grandfather’s overstuffed mansion – a veritable cabinet of curiosities – once he and two schoolmates catalog its contents. But the three soon discover that the house is filled with far more than just oddities: It holds clues linking to an alt-Earth called Aurora, where the notorious English occultist Aleister Crowley has stormed back to life on a magic-fueled rampage across a surreal, through-the-looking-glass version of Europe replete with talking animals (and vegetables).
In Gold Wings Rising, the final installment of Alex London‘s Skybound Saga, Kylee and Brysen must fight for their lives and their humanity. The war on the ground has ended, but the war with the sky has just begun. While the humans fly familiar circles around each other, the ghost eagles create schemes far greater and more terrible than either Kylee or Brysen could have imagined. Now, the tug-of-war between love and power begins to fray, threatening bonds of siblinghood and humanity alike.