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Church of Marvels by Leslie Parry

Historical fiction

Church of Marvels

Debut

We love supporting debut authors. Congrats, Leslie Parry, on your first book!

by Leslie Parry

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Quick Take

Fantastic and absorbing, filled with macabre details, hair-raising twists and heartbreaking turns, and a showdown so unexpected and wonderful that I had to read it twice.

Why I love it

Church of Marvels is a Coney Island ride of a book, providing nonstop thrills and a finish that left me gasping. The novel bursts with imagination and daring as it depicts the rough and tumble world of turn-of-the-century New York City. But the fantastic, fantabulous plot is not just there to entertain us. Leslie Parry also gives us keen insight into what it takes to live by your wits and tackle the challenges of life lived on the periphery.

The book begins as distinct stories told by three poor, young inhabitants of 1895 New York City. Sylvan is a scrappy survivor who works as a privy cleaner and earns extra bucks as a bare-knuckle boxer; Odile is the twisted twin of a missing sister; and Alphie is a vulnerable waif who earns a living fixing up the faces of late night partiers. Each character is hiding some important aspect of their identity as they narrate their stories but when we look closer, all we see are mysteries spiraling out in a multitude of directions.

Those mysteries begin to come together when Sylvan discovers a baby in the privy he is cleaning. His quest to find the baby's mother sets in motion a Dickens-worthy plot of intrigue and deception, fear and heroism, love and forgiveness. Populated with fascinating and endearing secondary characters, the resulting adventure is fantastic and absorbing, filled with macabre details, hair-raising twists and heartbreaking turns, and a showdown so unexpected and wonderful that I had to read it twice.

Church of Marvels is a book of marvels, offering as main attraction a fantastic story of lost souls and found loves, along with plenty of wondrous side shows involving unforgettable characters and eerie landscapes, and delivering a powerful and exciting conclusion. Parry's readers are left satisfied and even more, enriched, by her profound observations on the eternal questions of identity, fate, and self-determination.

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Historical fiction
View all
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
The Women
The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye
The Briar Club
Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade
Spitting Gold
The Singer Sisters
The Great Divide
The Storm We Made
The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard
What We Kept to Ourselves
The River We Remember
The House Is On Fire
Magic Lessons
The People We Keep
The Attic Child
Hester
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
The Nightingale
The Secret Book of Flora Lea
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
Peach Blossom Spring
Hang the Moon
Sisters in Arms
The Postmistress of Paris
Summer of '69
All the Light We Cannot See
The Four Winds
Independence
The Library of Legends
The Night Tiger
Queen of Thieves
Pachinko
The Glittering Hour
The Summer Wives
The Great Alone
The Age of Light
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
The Paris Hours
The Golden Hour
Manhattan Beach
The Wonder
The Japanese Lover
The Witches
Saint Mazie
The Marriage of Opposites
Church of Marvels
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock
Jacqueline in Paris
Don't Cry for Me
The Christie Affair
Bloomsbury Girls
Bronze Drum