Twelve Nights

By: Andrew Zurcher

Narrated by: Liz Pearce

A magical tale of imagination, adventure, and the power of storytelling, perfect for fans of The Golden Compass and A Wrinkle in Time.

Kay's father has gone missing on Christmas Eve! And when Kay and her sister Ell go to his office, everyone he works with claims never to have heard of him. So later that evening, when Kay wakes up to find two mysterious strangers outside her bedroom window, talking about her father and looking for the last remnants of his existence, she demands to know what's happened to her dad.

The two strangers, Flip and Will, are wraiths, on a mission to bring Kay and Ell's father to their world - the world of woven stories and grand imagination that their father has spent his career studying. Only things in that world have gone very wrong, and the Bride of Bithynia, the only being who can set things right, is nowhere to be found. Can Kay and Ell find their father and join Flip and Will in a centuries-old battle to save the world?

Debut author Andrew Zurcher has created a world as captivating as Lyra's Oxford and Alice's Wonderland in this spellbinding quest of a novel.

©2021 Andrew Zurcher (P)2021 Recorded Books Inc.

Part one failed to engage me

The narration was stellar but the story didn’t hook me. Partly it was the scarcity of action and the minimal cast, limited to Kay, her sister and two wraiths sporadically running into one an occasional character. Partly it was the scarcity of picture painting, leaving me starved for descriptions of the fantastical world or its creatures. Partly it was the confusing world building, which remains cryptic throughout, except for some info dumps that say a lot, yet explain little.

I was very frustrated to get to the end and find out that nothing was resolved. In particular, Kay’s father is still missing. Book 2 isn’t in Audible, but given that the summary for book 3 indicates her father is still missing, I get the feeling that I’d be even more frustrated with book 2. As much as I loved the narration, and even with book 3 being free, I just can’t summon the curiosity to move on.