A review by linneahedvig
Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng

5.0

This was super fun. It’s a take on the gothic novel about a girl who goes to stay with her brother who’s a missionary to Arcadia or Elfaen (sounds like “profane,” probably not a coincidence...). She meets a changeling who is her traveling companion (because changelings understand the human world, of course) and a gnome who is the only convert to Christianity (and he has a lot of questions) and she discovers old writings in Enochean, along with allusions to John Dee (actual court magician to Elizabeth I) and the story kind of goes from there. It’s a glorious interweaving of gothic convention, actual history and philosophy, and fantasy tropes. It gets darker and darker as the story goes on, but in a very Brontë way. And the main character always takes her tea with milk!