A review by jenny_librarian
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix

adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

For a story with an 18 years-old protagonist, this had a very distinct MG feeling at some points. Kind of a Nevermoor vibe.

I always love books set in London, because of the memories that of my time there. So I obviously wasn’t going to hate that book. However, it felt a bit muted and I didn’t connect all that much with the characters. I mostly kept reading for the plot.

I liked Susan, as well as Merlin. They were interesting as separate characters, but I didn’t see the chemistry between the two.

This story is well set in the 80s. I suspect this is mostly because none of what happened would fly today. Interestingly, Merlin’s gender-bending didn’t raise eyebrows because of the era. I would have liked to get more on how he identifies, but the vocabulary wasn’t exactly how it is today, back then. I appreciate that Nix didn’t try to force a label deemed offensive by today’s standards.

It was a good book, but I wasn’t blown away by it. 
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