• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2020 June #1
  *Starred Review* Adult best-selling author VanderMeer (Annihilation, 2014) turns to YA in this elaborate fantasy that in reality will enamor adult readers as much as teens. Taking the peculiar darkness of Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine series and the absurd humor and wit of Terry Pratchett, VanderMeer dreams up a wholly original tale, filled with complexity, imagination, and talking marmots. Here readers step into a multiverse, where different worlds are connected by magical doors, protected by the secret Order of the Third Door. Most people live their entire lives none the wiser, but 16-year-old Jonathan Lambshead gets pulled into the Order's sphere and a larger magical war upon the death of his eccentric grandfather, whose house of oddities and legacy as an Order member is left to the young man. The reader is tossed into a bewilderingly strange alternate Earth called Aurora, along with Jonathan and his two friends, Rack and Danny. Chapters focus among a variety of magicians, spies, beasts, and historical figures (Jules Verne, Napoleon, and Aleister Crowley, to name a few) set on new trajectories, gradually bringing these disparate players into a unified narrative. It's a wild ride that requires a few leaps of faith from readers, but they're in good hands with VanderMeer, who has a sequel in the works for those who emerge victorious from Aurora. Grades 9-12. Copyright 2020 Booklist Reviews.

Jeff Vandermeer grew up in the Fiji Islands and now lives in Tallahassee, Florida. His acclaimed Southern Reach trilogy has been translated into more than thirty-five languages. He also wrote the writing guide Wonderbook and helps run the teen science-fiction/fantasy writing camp Shared Worlds. A Peculiar Peril, the opening volume of the Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead duology is his first novel for young adults.