Fin and the Memory Curse
In Victorian London, Fin is a foundling who was discovered on a doorstep as a baby wrapped in newspaper. She now lives in a garret under the strict rule of Ma Stump with friends Snot and George, and they have a hard life. Fin wonders how she got on the doorstep but has a warm memory of her mother, whoever she is, or was. She also has other memories of things that Snot and George reckon she can’t possibly know. But memory, and the curse of it, is something very important on this magical adventure for our plucky heroine and her trusty dog, Small.
Ma Stump gives Fin a cold and muddy job digging up live blood-sucking leeches on Hackney Marshes and taking them to Mr Canary, an apothecary. While delivering them she meets Lady Worth and discovers to her shock that they are related. Fin is whisked off to a wealthy new life at nearby Castle Kaminski, but is it as wonderful as it seems? Her pale and weak cousin Emily is bled regularly, and her Polish cousin Eric tells her unbelievable tales of strzyga, undead ghouls who live off memories.
The novel is a wonderful mixture of hallucinations and horrors ideal to thrill and chill the nine- to twelve-year-olds it is recommended for. Fin is a heroine we root for, along with her clever dog, as they head through a series of adventures, culminating in the big one – can she save her family from a curse?
This enchanted adventure has family, love, loss and belonging at its very big heart. A thrilling, if sometimes scary, story that evocatively brings to life the filth and dirt of Dickensian London where characters live – and die – by their wits. Ideal for readers of Peter Bunzl and Sophie Anderson.
