First published 2015
Billy Marvel clings to life after his ship goes down in 1766. The boy washes ashore and makes his way to a London theater, where he discovers his calling on the stage. His descendants carry on the Marvel name as celebrated performers for generations. Then disaster strikes in 1900 when young Leontes Marvel loses everything and gets cast out from the theater world. The story jumps forward nearly a hundred years to Joseph Jervis, a boy running from his old life. Joseph arrives at his uncle Albert Nightingale's London home, a place filled with strange portraits and unexplained sounds. The house pulls Joseph into its secrets. He starts digging into the connection between the Marvel family's rise and fall and his own uncle's mysterious past. Joseph must piece together how these two families became tangled across the centuries.
Genres: family, historical-fiction, 20th-century, adventure, 21st-century, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, secrets
Setting: London, Theater
Period: 1766, 1900, 20th-Century
674 pages · Kindle Edition · Scholastic Press