by A. S. King
First published 2024
Jane lives in a Victorian mansion with her younger brother Henry, their controlling father, and manipulative aunt. Her mother, an artist who tours constantly to support the family, faces an impossible situation when she returns home. The father and aunt have created a bizarre system of pneumatic tubes that confines Jane's mother whenever she's present in the house. Jane watches her family's toxic dynamics play out while her mother remains trapped in this strange mechanical prison. Determined to reconnect with her mother and escape her father's control, Jane turns to two unlikely sources of power: punk rock and opera. She embarks on a strange journey to pick the lock that keeps her family trapped in cycles of manipulation and control. Through music, Jane searches for a way to free her mother and forge a real connection between them.
Genres: fiction, abuse, 20th-century, 21st-century, gothic, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Victorian Mansion
Period: 20th Century, 21st Century
383 pages · Hardcover · Dutton Books for Young Readers
Content warnings: abuse, emotional-abuse, gaslighting, toxic-relationship