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Church of Marvels by Leslie Parry

Historical fiction

Church of Marvels

Debut

We love supporting debut authors. Congrats, Leslie Parry, on your first book!

by Leslie Parry

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Volume 0
Volume 0

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Quick take

Fantastic and absorbing, filled with macabre details, hair-raising twists and heartbreaking turns, and a showdown so unexpected and wonderful that I had to read it twice.

Why I love it

Church of Marvels is a Coney Island ride of a book, providing nonstop thrills and a finish that left me gasping. The novel bursts with imagination and daring as it depicts the rough and tumble world of turn-of-the-century New York City. But the fantastic, fantabulous plot is not just there to entertain us. Leslie Parry also gives us keen insight into what it takes to live by your wits and tackle the challenges of life lived on the periphery.

The book begins as distinct stories told by three poor, young inhabitants of 1895 New York City. Sylvan is a scrappy survivor who works as a privy cleaner and earns extra bucks as a bare-knuckle boxer; Odile is the twisted twin of a missing sister; and Alphie is a vulnerable waif who earns a living fixing up the faces of late night partiers. Each character is hiding some important aspect of their identity as they narrate their stories but when we look closer, all we see are mysteries spiraling out in a multitude of directions.

Those mysteries begin to come together when Sylvan discovers a baby in the privy he is cleaning. His quest to find the baby's mother sets in motion a Dickens-worthy plot of intrigue and deception, fear and heroism, love and forgiveness. Populated with fascinating and endearing secondary characters, the resulting adventure is fantastic and absorbing, filled with macabre details, hair-raising twists and heartbreaking turns, and a showdown so unexpected and wonderful that I had to read it twice.

Church of Marvels is a book of marvels, offering as main attraction a fantastic story of lost souls and found loves, along with plenty of wondrous side shows involving unforgettable characters and eerie landscapes, and delivering a powerful and exciting conclusion. Parry's readers are left satisfied and even more, enriched, by her profound observations on the eternal questions of identity, fate, and self-determination.

Member ratings (99)

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Historical fiction
View all
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
The Women
The Lion Women of Tehran
Husbands & Lovers
Shelterwood
A Thousand Times Before
All We Were Promised
Spitting Gold
The Seventh Veil of Salome
The Mayor of Maxwell Street
The Great Divide
The Storm We Made
The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard
Lessons in Chemistry
The Frozen River
What We Kept to Ourselves
Take My Hand
The Last Russian Doll
The First Ladies
The House Is On Fire
River Sing Me Home
The Attic Child
Malibu Rising
The Book of Longings
Hester
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
The Nightingale
Daisy Jones & The Six
The Lincoln Highway
The Secret Book of Flora Lea
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
The Circus Train
Peach Blossom Spring
Hang the Moon
Booth
The Good Left Undone
The Perishing
The Family
Things We Lost to the Water
The Spectacular
Still Life
Send for Me
The Magnolia Palace
The Bookbinder
China Room
This Tender Land
Atomic Love
All the Light We Cannot See
The Vanishing Half
Outlawed
The Four Winds
Independence
The Fountains of Silence
Libertie
Queen of Thieves
The Great Believers
The Clockmaker's Daughter
A Gentleman in Moscow
The Great Alone
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Rules of Civility
Circling the Sun
The Moor's Account
Jacqueline in Paris
Don't Cry for Me
The Christie Affair
Bloomsbury Girls
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle
Bronze Drum