Maggie Blue and the Dark World

A sophisticated magical tale, awash in sinister villains and perplexing plights...bursting with invention * Financial Times *
Dreamy and odd, yet razor sharp and terrifying all rolled into one... The Neverending Story and Spirited Away and Coraline all rolled into one amazing story. If you have fans of manga, fans of headstrong, flawed characters, witty and brave sidekicks and truly gut-wrenching monsters then this is the one for you. I can't recommend it enough. -- Lucas Maxwell, School Librarian of the Year
The story is every bit as bizarre, brilliant, fantastical and exciting as I’d hoped. Definitely one to watch out for. -- Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Troubling, exultant, terrifying and magnificent....it seems to create worlds within worlds, connect the climate change to emotional frailty. Furthermore, it is clever, urgent and searing. -- Bookwagon UK
As well as being an incisive critique of capitalism and human greed – especially the devastating impact it has on our environment – Maggie Blue and the Dark World is a fast-paced adventure story, full of humour, bravery and good old-fashioned wickedness. By centring the experience of somebody typically overlooked, it shows readers that we are all worthy of adventures – exactly as we are. -- Cheshire Education Library Service
The characters are so well drawn and delightfully eccentric that one can become totally engaged in this well-developed story...An author worth watching – and a good read for fans of fantasy-based adventures. -- Lovereading for Schools, Book of the Month
An under-confident child who goes through a portal into another world on a rescue quest is a standard formula in children’s fantasy adventures. So too is a talking animal companion. What distinguishes this well-crafted debut is the freshness of its prose and the way it sidesteps clichés. Twelve-year-old Maggie lives with her aunt, who is eccentric as expected, but in particular, unfamiliar ways. Her mother is ill — her depression portrayed with grim truthfulness. The classmate Maggie is trying to rescue has been unkind, but is not just the mean-girl type. The cat companion who speaks is not just there to be wise-cracking, but is elderly and only eventually heroic. The female villain does not wear high heels and red lipstick. The evil mastermind and the dangers of the other world are strange. We come to care. Happily, this is the first of a series. * Nicolette Jones, Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week *