A charming, deeply imaginative debut novel about a young girl who is immortalized in her father’s illustrated books containing clues to their family secrets.
Romilly Kemp and her eccentric painter father have happy but sheltered lives in a ramshackle mansion in the English countryside. When her father finds fame with a series of children’s books starring Romilly as the main character, everything changes: exotic foods appear on the table, her father appears on TV and strangers appear at their door, convinced the books will lead them to a precious prize.
But as time passes, Romilly’s father becomes increasingly suspicious of the outside world until, before her eyes, he begins to disappear within himself. She returns to his illustrations, looking for a way to connect with her ailing father, and finds a series of clues he’s left just for her. This treasure hunt doesn’t lead her to gold or jewels, but something worth far more—a shocking secret that is crucial to understanding her family.
Written with tremendous heart and charisma, The Book of Hidden Wonders is an unforgettable story about growing up, facing mortality and discovering the hidden wonders that make us who we are.
The Book of Hidden Wonders
By pollycrosby
Overall, an enjoyable story – the plot was interesting and the pacing was good – but there was a mystery surrounding one character that remained unresolved at the end.
I’ve been trying to think about why this book is so special, why I couldn’t wait to keep reading it late at night when it was finally ‘my time’ to relax.
Yes, there’s a magical quality about this story – in the sense that there’s a childish wonder that breathes of familiarity. There’s also the father/daughter relationship that pulls at your heartstrings along with the questioning of the disturbance between the mother/daughter relationship.
Maybe it was the hidden story, the one threaded all throughout, the clues, the rifts, the questions that hovered, just out of reach that had me wanting to read this story each night.
Whatever the reason, I’m so glad that I read this story, that I’m now one of the ‘treasure hunters’ and that the gold I found at the end is priceless.
Not an easy book to read, but worth it. It is a complicated book, with layers of emotion. It is very unpredictable.
Haunting, shimmering, gothic, heartbreaking. A glorious gripping read.
This book started off so fantastic! I fell in love with Romilly and her father early on. The magic of the house was just wonderful and the gothic feel and dark family secrets just fell right into place for this one!! I loved the pacing and how looney Romilly’s dad was. I will say that I think that how this book portrayed mental illness and dementia wasn’t done with as much sensitivity as it could have been done. But overall the story was very good.
Go Into This One Knowing: child abuse, child neglect, animal abuse, mental illness, dementia
This was a book with extremely well-developed characters and a very complicated plot. The book starts with Romilly Kemp and her father Tobias moving into a house in the English countryside. Romilly seems lonely and at times neglected as her father concentrates on writing and illustrating a book about her and her cat Monty. She is homeschooled so her only socialization comes when a girl named Stacey shows up. But Stacey doesn’t come daily; she comes whenever she wants. In the days between, Romilly is left alone to talk to Monty and to try to engage her father. Tobias means well but he is slowly leaving the world, first with his mind that is more and more unaware of reality. The fact that his published book garnered much attention and enough sales to support him and Romilly should have had Tobias celebrating. Instead, as strangers begin to show up on their small estate looking for some kind of hidden treasure hinted at in the book, Tobias withdraws more and more into himself. This is the part of the book that got very hard for me to read since I felt so bad for Romilly. Her mother is not present, her father is disappearing slowly before her eyes, so she is left to care for herself. Although there is kind of a magical quality about how resourceful and independent Romilly becomes, I found it very dark and sad. The father and daughter had a deep and loving relationship that was slowly dissipating as I read the book. Tobias doesn’t really stop loving Romilly; he just isn’t really aware any longer that she exists. His mental illness is a main theme of the book as is her growing up and facing her father’s inevitable death. I kept reading the book because I wanted to find out what happened to little Romilly, forced to take care of herself when she should have been enjoying a happy childhood. The question remains about whether her childhood was actually happy as she seems to be fine with everything, if a little puzzled at times about what her next thing to do should be. There is a hidden story, a treasure hidden within the main plot, and woven throughout that is the treasure that Romilly needs to survive, to encourage her to keep going. I found the story to be dark with hidden gems but very sensitive topics that the author dealt with in an imaginative and different way. Since this is a debut novel, I expect to hear more from Polly Crosby in the future as she hones her craft of weaving a fairy tale within a tale with a truly adult theme.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”