Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 12/01/2024 Dishing up a Gothic caper with a twist of Lemony Snicket, celebrity author McKinnon—writing as “Dr. G. Edwina Candlestank,” an omniscient narrator much given to arch side comments and footnotes—pits three young orphans against both a secret society of evildoers and a set of disdainful caregivers eager to ship the trio off to a sinister finishing school in Austria. Fortunately, Gertrude, Eugenia, and Dee-Dee Porch bring redoubtable individual spirits and abilities to the fray. They also acquire a sturdy, if scatterbrained, ally in Millicent Quibb, a mysterious schoolmistress who introduces them to numerous life-changing wonders, including pizza. She kicks off their tutelage in mad science by leading desperate and, at best, only partially successful efforts to prevent a kyrgalops (a giant, dog-eating worm) from consuming all the bichon frises in town and the nefarious Krenetics Research Association from resurrecting its archfiend former head, Talon Sharktuth. Caceres sprinkles the generously spaced pages with Tim Burtonesque spot art and glimpses of the sisters and various monsters. A “Silly Sally,” as one character puts it, from end to end. - Copyright 2024 Booklist.