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Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms

Magic, Mystery & a Very Strange Adventure
FindingJane
Nov 05, 2015FindingJane rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Stuart Horten is a little guy with a big curious streak. Finding that there’s a mystery in his family involving his long-lost great-uncle, he sets out to unravel the clues and unearth a treasure. The story is mildly titillating, with Stuart trying his darnedest to figure out what’s going on in his world. However, it turns out that he’s not quite equipped to deal with all the dangers that he encounters. So he gets help from an irritatingly smart girl named April. (A little side note here: Intelligence in fictional girls always seems to engender annoyance. Smart boys get a certain amount of censure, too. But they’re often beat up by other boys, so we’re forced to feel sympathy for them. So the reader never dislikes them as much as they despise smart girls.) The book has the children involved in the usual shenanigans—sneaking around, breaking and entering, vandalism, petty theft—all in the name of uncovering a secret, of course. They lie to their parents, who are the typical oblivious adults found in such stories. The typical tropes behind this story get touched by a bit of real enchantment, one that is hinted at throughout the novel and becomes a reality when Stuart finally unlocks his great-uncle’s startling secret. This is a good book for older children, especially those who cut their teeth on J. K. Rowling’s famous boy hero. However, this book challenges the intellect as the reader tries to puzzle out the clues alongside Stuart. Therefore, it calls for more cerebral immersion on the part of the reader. Even though this book promises a sequel, it stands on its own just fine.