Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

    • UNLIMITED

    NPR

    'Curious Toys' Gets Itself Into Unnecessary Trouble

    Elizabeth Hand's new historical thriller has a compelling main character and vivid, carefully drawn settings — but its treatment of the story's murderous villain leaves an unpleasant aftertaste.
    by Arkady Martine Oct 20, 2019 3 minutes
    Source: Beth Novey

    Editor's note: This review contains major spoilers about the plot.

    Elizabeth Hand's historical thriller Curious Toys is chiefly compelling for its smart, streetwise, complicated protagonist, teenage Pin — and for the careful and vivid evocation of Pin's Chicago circa 1915, with all of its sordid glories: amusement parks, silent film studios, gangsters and the brutal poverty of the Brickworks district, where the bricks that rebuilt the city after the Great Fire were mass-produced in suffocating kiln-smoke.

    Pin's primary companion in solving the central mystery of the book, runs to 15 richly illustrated volumes — a sort of hallucinatory combination of L. Frank Baum and surrealist fable.

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from NPR

    NPR1 min read
    'Gather Me' And 'Subculture Vulture' Are Memoirs Told Through Books And Subcultures
    Memoirs from authors Glory Edim and Moshe Kasher narrate their lives through cultural objects: books and subcultures. First, Edim, the founder of the Well-Read Black Girl book club, grew up as the child of Nigerian immigrant parents searching for the
    NPR1 min read
    A Good Guy: 279 Hours
    Today, the first of a two-part investigation from NPR's Embedded.Sgt. Joshua Abate's career in the Marine Corps seemed to be taking off. He was about to start a top-clearance internship at the NSA. But first, he had to take a standard polygraph test.
    NPR1 min read
    How Useful, Really, Are The Steps You Can Take After A Data Breach?
    The dreaded data breach notification... It tells you your personal data's been compromised and suggests steps you can take to minimize the potential harm. On today's episode, Kenny Malone pulls out a data breach letter he received and goes over what

    Related Books & Audiobooks