Publisher: 22nd September 2020 by Blackstone Publishing
Pages: 300 pages
How I Read It: ARC book
Genre: historical fiction, New York
My Rating: 3.5 crowns
Synopsis:
Robert Parrish’s childhood obsession with series books like the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift inspired him to become an author. Just as his debut novel becomes a best-seller, his relationship with his girlfriend, Rebecca, begins to fall apart. Robert realizes he must confront his secret demons by fulfilling a youthful promise to solve a mystery surrounding his favorite series—the Tremendous Trio.
Guided by twelve tattered books and an unidentified but tantalizing fragment of a story, Robert journeys into the history of the books that changed his life, hoping they can help him once again. His odyssey takes him to 1906 Manhattan, a time of steamboats, boot blacks, and Fifth Avenue mansions, but every discovery he makes only leads to more questions.
Robert’s quest intertwines with the stories of three young people trying to define their places in the world at the dawn of a new and exciting century. Magda, Gene, and Tom not only write the children’s books that Robert will one day love, together they explore the vibrant city on their doorstep, from the Polo Grounds to Coney Island’s Dreamland, drawing the reader into the Gilded Age as their own friendships deepen.
The connections between the authors, their creations, and Robert’s redemptive journey make for a beautifully crafted novel that is an ode to the children’s series books of our past, to New York City, and above all, to the power of love and friendship.
My Thoughts
“Nothing left to do but cash the checks and start planning the next books in the series,” said Magda. “Tomorrow’s Saturday,” said Gene. “I think we should celebrate.” “How?” said Magda. “It’s the last weekend of the season at Coney Island,” said Tom. “Let’s go to Dreamland.”
Charlie Lovett certainly tackles interesting topics in his books and once again he shines a light into an array of fascinating topics with his latest offering. Everything from the New York of bygone days, to significant historical events, to the publishing of children’s literature - all interwoven and told through some interesting character stories.
Told in two timelines, Charlie investigates who were the Tremendous Trio and why they stopped writing children’s literature at the turn of the 20th century. The modern day tale is harder to get into, the main character being rather depressed but determined in his search to discover answers. However, the stories of Magda, Tom and Gene prove far more interesting from the early 1900s. While the characters are fictitious, the settings and events were factual and definitely provide the lure for reading this book. Their lives and relationships form the backdrop to very real settings that were remarkably portrayed.
“It’s so lovely to have a day that is just about today. No worries from the past, no thoughts of the future. Just today.”
Herein is what I found to be the highlight of this book. The General Slocum disaster of 1904 that forever changed Magda’s life; the San Francisco earthquake that haunted Tom and the ever alluring and magical Coney Island’s Dreamland (pre and post fire) to name but a few. If you are at all interested in some of these key historical events (the first one I had never heard of and it was horrific upon Googling!) then you will appreciate Charlie immersing you in some rich New York city history.
‘If the summer of 1911 had proved anything it was that, no matter how much everyone had forgiven everyone else, they could never really escape Dreamland.’
At times the book does go slow and although modern day Robert’s anxiety is draining, the cause and in fact, all the revelations for the leads in the concluding pages make complete and satisfying sense. The revelations of much loved children’s series such as Hardy Boys etc will have lovers of these antiquated books in reading heaven. The publishing history is very enlightening.
Overall, the relationships of the three historical leads as they begin writing series books and their shared adventures is most entertaining. Combine that with Charlie narrating so many key historic events and it makes for some very interesting reading.
‘... the circus felt like a fantastical version of New York itself - everything happening at once, with never a moment to catch one’s breath.’
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.
