Sadly I never got the chance to read the Bedlam Stacks, however, it looks like a great story. You get the feeling there's an Indiana Jones and Wizard of Oz thing going on and for me, that's plenty to dive right in.

While my usual reading preferences lean more towards YA, romance and dystopian fiction, I will occasionally pick up a classic, or a book that's way outside my comfort zone. Sometimes I regret it bitterly, and sometimes, it's a book I never want to let go of, and that slips into my favourite novels. The Bedlam Stacks is definitely the latter. I requested it after briefly reading over the summary on Netgalley; it had a nice cover and sounded interesting enough. I would have never known that this book would become one of my favourite books ever.

The first thing I need to mention is that this book contains a slower paced story. It's not one that you will pick up and finish within 24 hours, and that's quite okay with me. It's a book that you enjoy over several days or weeks, one chapter at a time. Its ending will leave you mesmerized from the complex beauty you experienced through the pages, and you will finish this book completely satisfied with the time you spent reading it... a bit like reading lengthy masterpieces like The Lord of the Rings.

The Bedlam Stacks contains a magical, wonderful story, as the blurb predicts. The narrator is just unreliable enough to keep you guessing about what is really happening; some is even left to the reader's imagination. Just when you begin to settle comfortably in your knowledge of the plot or of the characters, the author twists the story and you're left scrambling to understand what happened and what you could have missed. There's a bit of a Jules Verne feel during some chapters -- a delightful mix of suspense and adventure with a twinge of the mysterious. Yes, I am ranking The Bedlam Stacks right up there with Journey to the Centre of the Earth, one of my favourite classics. Add just a touch of spooky supernatural, and you've got a good idea of what The Bedlam Stacks is about.

I'd like to thank Bloomsbury USA for the free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This title is due to be published early next month, so keep an eye out for it, and enjoy reading Merrick's story. I cannot recommend this book enough!

When I got an advanced copy of ‘The Bedlam Stacks,’ it seemed like a story that would be right up my alley: East India Company operatives in Peru, perhaps with elements of Magical Realism, and cover art featuring gears (Steampunk in Peru?)? An era I enjoy reading about, in an exotic locale, in a style and genre I love… homerun, right? This book started on track for a solid four stars, but unfortunately lost a few along the way.


My major complaint with this book is the Magical Realism elements. I love the idea of a book set in South America, the land of Marquez and Borges, riffing off their most famous literary export, but it turns out Magical Realism is a fine needle to thread and this author missed the mark. In my mind Magical Realism isn’t just about the magic (that would be fantasy) and obviously isn’t just about the realism – it’s creating a world in which the fantastic seems commonplace and the commonplace can seem fantastic. Here the author went over the top with the magic, introducing luminescent pollen, exploding ducks, things that float in air that normally wouldn’t, glass roads… I could go on, and not even give any spoilers, because it seems there is a new fantastical element on every page. The author tries to explain these elements, which ultimately cheapens them (as a medical professional, I find myself saying ‘that wouldn’t make a duck explode,’ rather than, ‘that seems legit’). I get that Peru is supposed to be a down-the-rabbit-hole experience for the main character, but he would likely be aware of the crazy stuff going on down there since it is set in colonial times, his family had previously been there, and things this bizarre and out of the ordinary would likely at least be curiosities to educated circles. In short, I wish there was less, or at least more subtle, magical elements, and more focus on the very interesting plot of East India men sneaking trees out of Peru to break a quinine monopoly.


What I really liked about this book was Rafael, the Peruvian priest, and his mysterious history. I liked the references to ancient Incan culture and civilization, either historical or fabricated. For all my whining about the magical stuff, some of it made for some evocative scenes and I was disappointed that I got burnt out on it. The inexplicable winter-in-summer atmosphere, the glowing pollen leaving trails through the forest, the mysteriously sentient stone statues would’ve been just enough (exploding ducks can apply elsewhere, thank you).

Pulley's second novel, after The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, is more of the delightful same, though this one is more interested in South American/Incan folklore and the British East India Company. It centers on a young man, injured in his work for said company, recuperating in an unwelcoming home, when he is talked into going to the deep forests of Peru to obtain quinine treee samples. Honestly, this all could have been very boring, but I was so interested in the protagonist's relationship with his guide, and all the things they uncover. I really liked the collision of fantasy and nature here. And the end was great. A-.

This is an adventure story set mostly in Peru, with elements of magic, fantasy and historical fiction seamlessly blended into a marvelous tale. Once I stopped trying to figure out where it was going, and what kind of book this really was, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. There are many twists and turns along the way, more depth than I expected, interesting and moving characters, and very unique world building - just a great story that unfolds at it's own pace. The ending left some questions unanswered for me - what happened to the statue in Merrick's garden back home?? - but I really liked this book anyway, and will look for more by Natasha Pulley. Many thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the ARC. 4.5 stars!

“We are…wanted to steal a plant whose exact location nobody knows, in territory now defended by quinine barons under the protection of the government, and inhabited by tribal Indians who also hate foreigners and have killed everyone who’s got close in the last ten years.”

The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley opens with Merrick Tremayne puttering around his family estate in Cornwall, busying himself with horticulture to keep his mind occupied following a serious injury to his leg that occurred during his most recent smuggling adventure. Resigned to a life of semi-retirement, Merrick wrestles with his failing body which exists in drastic contrast to his effervescent spirit. A sudden accident on the estate ignites the latent curiosity within Merrick.

There was a moment of quiet in which things seemed to settle and there was no sound but pine needles falling and the hissing of the remaining fires in the rain. But then, inside the house, something exploded.

A tree that was ordered to be removed by Merrick’s brother, Charles, catches fire and explodes. The discovery of the combustible tree is only one of the many eccentricities found in the estate garden. Merrick swears he has seen the statue that resides there move into different positions and even different locations. This brush with death illuminates Merrick’s current situation and allows him to contemplate a recent offer from the East India Trading Company to return to the field- to Peru, specifically, which holds much intrigue for Merrick as his grandfather and father both spent time there. However, he is also battling with the possibility that he is losing his mental acuity along with his physical prowess.

After a while, I went out to the statue. It had used to hold a candle when I was small and, having lit it, you had to make a wish. I took a candle from inside one of the greenhouse lamps and balanced it in the statue’s open palm. I hoped more than wished not to go mad, and not to be seeing things, and that it had been the gardeners after all, or even Charles doing his best to convince me to get my out of the house and save his pride before he had to fold and say we couldn’t afford to stay. The statue closed its hand around the candle. It didn’t otherwise move and I’d stood still for a long time, trying to tell if the motion was something I imagined after the fact, or if I had seen it.

When his long-time partner and friend, Clem, arrives with his wife to plead with Merrick to join an exhibition to Peru in search of quinine from the cinchona trees, Merrick is unsure at first if they truly exist. Still uncertain, Merrick gleans from Clem the gist of what this smuggling mission would entail- a treacherous ocean crossing, miles of hiking through unknown forest inhabited by all sorts: local tribes, competing smuggling groups and quinine barons vehemently opposed to reconnaissance missions, and the subsequent negotiation with these groups. The danger alone may have been enough to deter Merrick, his injured leg notwithstanding. However, he plays into Clem’s fantasy that he could hold his own and he agrees, mostly in an attempt to find proof that his isn’t losing his mind or his worth. What follows is an epic adventure that is equal portions danger and fantasy.

I had never really wanted to come to Peru, never been excited about it. There had been too much to worry about: walking, the journey, Clem, the altitude, and all the hundreds of stupid thing that could had killed us before we even began. I’d thought that something was gone in me and I would never be uncircumspectly pleased with anything again. But all at once it came back. The place where my father had stood and my grandfather, a place that was in my bones and stories and home but had been as lost to me as Byzantium for year- here it was. I felt like I’d drawn a door on the wall at home in chalk and gone through into an imaginary place where the river was a dragon and somewhere in the forest was something stranger than elves.

Merrick and Clem are brought to New Bethlehem by their guide Raphael, a somber, imposing figure that proves to be as full of surprises as this Peruvian village. Lanterns made from old clocks filled with the bioluminescent pollen that floats freely through the atmosphere, volcanic glass infrastructure, and silent, mobile effigies are just the surface of the fantastical elements Merrick and Clem are introduced to. Rapheal serves not only to lead them to this locale but also to instruct them on the proper etiquette demanded of the village. The reverence for the statues borders on religious idolatry and foreigners cannot be accepted into the village until they observe the proper ceremonial actions.

“Have you met the markayuq?” Inti said, as if she were talking about local landowners whose unofficial permission I’d need in order to say. “Yes, yesterday. They’re fantastic. I’ve never seen statues like them.” She laughed. “They’re not statues. Nobody could make anything like that. They’re people who turned into stone. Didn’t your father tell you anything?”

Here, Merrick begins to unearth his family history and forms a deep friendship with the people of the Bedlam stacks which complicates things for him. The mission not forgotten, the two must work together to accomplish their task within the constraints of the locally imposed security system which proves to be more difficult than they would imagine. Can Merrick betray his employer to uphold the belief of this village or can he betray the legacy of his ancestors knowing the benefit quinine holds for the health of the world?

The Bedlam Stacks is the perfect combination of adventure and folklore. Pulley writes with an impressive imagination and produces a tale brimming with heart, excitement and dedication that challenges our ideas of what is real.

The Bedlam Stacks is an imaginative story of magical realism that leads readers on a quest to find the cure for malaria in the forests of Peru. It is not a fast-paced story, but one full of descriptive narrative that begs readers to stop and picture the scene as if you were actually there.

Merrick Tremayne, the main character, is a smuggler who is recuperating from a serious leg injury at his ancestral home, when he notices some strange things happening with a tree and a statue on the property. Soon after, Tremayne gets recruited to go on the mission for quinine in Peru. Even though he feels as if he is not healthy enough, he agrees to go anyway.

As Tremayne makes his journey, he discovers much about his family history and the reasons for the strange happenings with the statue and the tree that were at his ancestral home. The story is one that dips back into the past in order to clarify what is happening in the present. I loved how Merrick returned home and later discovered a wonderful surprise hidden in the office of his home.

I’m not normally a big reader of magical realism, but I enjoyed this journey to Peru through reading. Bedlam Stacks is a great choice for readers that are seeking a whimsical, but adventurous story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for allowing me to read an advance copy and offer an honest review.

Picture it, Sicily... but not really. Really it's South America - Peru in fact, circa 1859, the home of some very important trees that are the source of quinine, a treatment for malaria.

The Bedlam Stacks opens in a run down estate in Great Britain. Merrick and his dog are wandering the grounds. He thinks he sees one of the statues move. A tree explodes. His brother questions Merrick's sanity.

Merrick is approached to go on an expedition to Peru to get some cuttings of trees that produce quinine by the India Office. India is in the throes of a major malaria epidemic. Faced with the decision to stay in England and work as a man of the cloth or have one last adventure, Merrick chooses adventure. He and a close friend ship off to Peru in search of the trees they need. It's awkward and dangerous because of his injured leg, his friend's altitude sickness, and the fact that often expeditions in search of the cinchona trees end up dead or missing.

The characters are well-developed and flawed. No one is perfect reflecting the real world. Merrick has physical flaws and some mental ones that are revealed as the story goes on. His friend Clem makes me think of the phrase "ugly American" even though he is quite British. Raphael is multilayered. He comes across at first as only a bit of a scoundrel. Only later is he revealed for what he truly is. I also liked the minor character of Inti. She was a take charge kind of woman and accomplished in spite of being physically handicapped.

The story has elements of magical realism. There are, for example, statues that move, lamps that are powered by glowing pollen and bits of clockwork, and exploding trees among other things.

The plot jumps around a little in place and time. The sections are clearly labeled though, so it's not hard to follow. The story of how Merrick's leg got hurt is interesting. And it goes to further characterize him as well. All the parts ultimately blend together. Everything is useful and not as extraneous as it might seem at first.

The way the community of Bedlam functions is interesting as well. There is a salt and bone border between the community and the jungle. Merrick and Clem are told that no one passes over the boundary from the community without risking certain death.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. Overall it's well written both plot wise and character wise. It's a good book for people who enjoy a bit of an adventure story with some fantastical elements.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions herein are my own and freely given.

The Bedlam Stacks is the second novel by Natasha Pulley. Her first book,The Watchmaker of Filigree is a dark and atmospheric book that sends you around in circles like the intricacies of the clockwork it features. In some ways, The Bedlam Stacks is similar. In other ways, the comparison between the two books flat, and this book fails to live up to the expectations set by the first.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2017/07/the-bedlam-stacks.html

Reviewed for NetGalley

Let me tell you right now: I was really excited to read this novel. There is this historical aspect mixed with magical realism and so much adventure ... I was looking forward to going on an amazing journey. 

When I first started to read, I was a little bored. I wondered where exactly the story was going and what the personality of the narrator, Merrick, would be like. Within the first couple chapters, the magical elements started surfacing and I began to pay interest. I started putting the pieces together and making sense of all of the different characters being introduced. 

However, there were quite a few things that made me feel ... off. For one thing, Merrick is described as a young-ish man, around 30 years old. However, he talks like someone much older than his age. It was very hard at times to put these two things together and imagine a realistic character. He was very good at describing the things that were happening, and I really must say that the author did a fabulous job with her depictions of Peru... but I didn't feel like Merrick really had a voice or personality. Merrick reminds me of the narrator from The Great Gatsby; an observer who is along for the ride but who really doesn't have much input. I was much more intrigued by Raphael's character and that of Merrick's friend. However, I would have liked to have been invested in the main character, as he is the one who is supposed to pull the reader into the story.

The magical realism in this novel is really done quite well. There were loads of interesting facts, mixed with incidents of magical/supernatural happenings that kept me interested in the story. In fact, had those elements not been there, I would probably have given up on this novel a while ago. To be fair, at times it felt like there really wasn't a plot. Many things were brought up and the timeline was constantly shifting as the author went backwards and forwards into the lives of the different characters. There were many occasions during which I wondered where exactly the author was going, and it made me feel a little disappointed with the story.

Truth is, I really wanted to like this novel but I didn't feel like it led to anything significant in terms of plot or theme. It was really well-written, with beautiful descriptions and tons of supernatural/magical elements. However, the plot wasn't focused and the characters lacked that spark to make me care about them. For those reasons, I'm giving this book a 2.5/5 stars rounded to 3.

Well written, takes a while to ge5 into it. Interesting book, would recommend it

It is 1859 and Merrick Tremayne is our MC who was an adventurer, but now due to an injury which made him lame, is stuck in his crumbling family home. He is given the opportunity to go to Peru and thrown into a small Inca village where he starts to discover their spiritual beliefs, and things that don't seem quite right.
I enjoyed this book, I think even more than Watchmaker of Filigree Street, but found it a touch slow and I never really connected with Merrick. I did think that the character of Raphael (priest in Bedlam) was very well done and that kept the story engaging.
For those who enjoy magical realism with a dash of old school history, this book is for you!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved The Watchmaker of Filligre Street, so when I saw the author had another book out I was immediately excited to read it! And I wasn't disappointed! Though I didn't think it was quite as good as Watchmaker, the plot was compelling, the characters were well-developed, and I was caught off guard by the genre-bending nature of the story.

Per usual with Natasha Pulley, the reader is pulled into a whimsical story where they can't quite categorize what they are reading...there are fantastical elements that feel very real like she will pull aside the curtain at the end and reveal that this story could happen today. Pulley's readers will be excited that there is a reemergence from a familiar character from The Watchmaker at Filigree Street! I really enjoyed this story and the world that Pulley created. I ended up in a place I never thought I'd be at when I was done and one that I think is completely unique. I absolutely loved the setting in Peru and the characters of Raphael and Merrick. Pulley writes male friendships so beautifully. This book has cemented Pulley as an instant read for me.

I had downloaded THE BEDLAM STACKS, but left it as a "treat" to enjoy closer to its publication date. Unfortunately, I waited too long and can no longer access the digital file. I am disappointed because I was really looking forward to this fun fantasy from Natasha Pulley (author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street). THE BEDLAM STACKS received a starred review from Kirkus and should be available to everyone in early August.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this ARC available to me. I didn’t realize it was set in the same universe as <i>The Watchmaker of Filigree Street</i> so the cameos went over my head (and it isn’t necessary to have read that to understand this). I feel a little bit bad that I didn’t enjoy this as much as the other ARC reviewers. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good book but it had to do more with busted expectations. I read the blurb about a disabled man going to Peru to steal cinchona trees in a place with living rocks and mythical things happening and I expected something more Indiana Jones meets urban fantasy and I got slow as molasses in winter magic realism which really isn’t my genre. That is my main problem with this. It was incredibly slow. Was it still interesting yes but at the same time it took forever to have anything much happen, lots of sitting and talking.

So Merrick Tremayne was a procurer of goods for the East India Trading Company (i.e. smuggler) but he nearly lost his leg in an accident who has been living back at the manor house with his polio-stricken brother who wants him gone and is basically arranging to sell him off to be a vicar which Merrick doesn’t want. When his friend, Sir Clements “Clem” (they’re referred to as Em and Clem through much of this) approaches him to go to Peru with Clem and his wife, he does so reluctantly. His grandfather and father have ties there (which is why Clem wants him) and Merrick is a master gardener which suits Clem and East India (and Merrick’s old boss, Sing) because they’re trying to steal cinchona trees.

This is a brilliant piece of historical fact worked into this. Cinchona tree’s bark is where we get quinine which is used to treat malaria which can be a killer especially in India and China where the company does business. Peru has the market sown up tight and those with the trees kill anyone who try to steal a tree. Merrick with his crippled leg feels himself a poor choice but death in Peru seems preferable to slow death from boredom as a vicar.

Clem and Merrick are joined by Raphael, an Indian priest who leads them to the titular town of Bedlam and we spend nearly all the rest of the novel there. The whitewood forest (trees that burst into flames) and the constant rain of pollen outside the town of people with deformities surround the living statues. Oh Clem and Em think their clockwork automatons but Raphael, straddling both the old Incan and new Spanish cultures knows better.

Soon Merrick grows more curious about the gruff Raphael who can’t feel the temperature and has cataleptic fits who the villagers say Raphael was asleep for 70 years and that he knew Merrick’s grandfather. Curiosity leads to friendship as they chill in this town knowing only that if they cross the salt border into the whitewood forest of the living statues, they’ll die. I don’t want to say more than that because it’ll spoil the crux of the novel which isn’t about getting Cinchona trees; it’s as about the friendship between the two men which is about as interesting to me as watching grass grow. Heck the actual acquiring of the trees happens so fast I had to page back to see it because I read past it so that was a let down.

Was it a good read? Yes, well written but honestly the motives needed to be stronger. I felt like we were floundering in Bedlam or how this friendship got so strong. I think it’s a good book but I was the wrong audience for it. One thing not included in the review as it’s not the author’s fault, but the protected pdf netgalley supplied was miserable on my reader, miniscule text so I had to go in and out of zoom every page. This took forever to read as a result.

A fantasy novel, though one that starts out in perfectly non-magical 1850s England and only gradually introduces its fantastical elements. Merrick Tremayne is a former employee of the East India Company, now back home and facing a life of boredom and genteel poverty due to a leg injury that never quite healed and which makes it difficult for him to walk. His old friend Clem convinces him to make one last trip, to Peru, where they will attempt to smuggle out a Cinchona tree – the world's only source of quinine and therefore its only treatment for malaria. England has tired of paying Peru's monopoly for quinine and wants to set up its own cinchona plantations, but Peru is perfectly happy to kill to protect its only source of wealth. Clem and Merrick pick up the novel's third main character shortly after arriving in Peru: Raphael, a local man with a mysterious past who serves as their guide and/or potential spy to prevent any cinchona smuggling.

There are wonderful things about this book. Pulley creates several absolutely magical set pieces, including the "Bedlam Stacks" of the title: a village built on a series towering obsidian columns above a river, where the bedrock is glass and anything going in or out has to be hauled up by a series of pulleys and levers. I do admire her imagination, and the novel's take on the rapicious greed of 19th century capitalism, from the East India Company to the Opium Wars to England's realpolitik threatening of Peru, is all great.

Unfortunately I didn't love the book. The middle section is extremely slow, to the point where I almost put down the book several times because nothing was happening and I was getting bored. In addition, Merrick (who is the narrator) persists on insisting nothing magical is going on long long past the point of reason. And I suppose that's realistic enough, but a fantasy novel where the characters refuse to notice anything fantastic is happening is kind of missing the point of the genre. Besides, any time the reader figures out a plot development hundreds of pages before the narrator, it's a problem. It's just annoying to wait for the characters to catch up to what you've already realized. Anyway. My final problem with The Bedlam Stacks is that the central love story didn't work for me. I really wanted it to! I loved the idea of it! But Merrick spends 3/4ths of the book needlessly suspicious and afraid of the other character (who is of course harmless, another time the narrator took forever to catch on to what was incredibly obvious, at least to this reader), and then abruptly switches to making a lifelong commitment, with seemingly no transition from one state to the other. I just wanted to dwell on growing love and trust, but it happened so quickly I missed it.

On the whole I liked it more than I didn't, but oh! It was so close to being something I might love, and didn't quite make it there.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2039236059

I’ve been anxiously awaiting Natasha Pulley’s second novel, whatever it happened to be. I’m happy to report that The Bedlam Stacks is another strange, fantastical tale of male friendship that lives up to the standard set by The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. Keita even makes a cameo appearance in The Bedlam Stacks, though the book is chiefly about Merrick Tremayne and a very mysterious man named Raphael.

Merrick is, ostensibly, on a mission from the India Office (successor to the notorious East India Company) to secure cuttings of the cinchona tree. The Office is tired off paying through the nose for the only reliable remedy for malaria and they want to start their own cinchona plantations. Merrick is reluctant to take on this mission, and not just because he’s been told that the forests of Peru are full of armed men protecting the cinchona trees and the monopoly on quinine, but because he is still recovering from a serious injury when he was blown off a boat in Canton. He can hardly ride a horse let alone hike all over to hell and gone. His old friend, Sir Clements Markham (who in our history really did lead a successful mission to steal cinchona plants from Peru), manages to twist his arm hard enough that Merrick signs on.

In Peru, Merrick lands smack in the middle of a old family mystery. Merrick’s grandfather and father had traveled back and forth from the ancestral home at Heligan*, Cornwall (also a real place with a few fictional additions) to a small village called New Bethlehem, Peru (called Bedlam as a dark joke). No one knew why, not even Merrick or his brother. Like Merrick, we slowly learn that the world in The Bedlam Stacks is a lot weirder than we might have dreamt of. Merrick’s guide and friend, Raphael, later points out repeatedly that Merrick couldn’t have believed him if he’d told the truth. Merrick—and we readers—had to see Bedlam and its forests to believe.

I was interested in The Bedlam Stacks because it is based on real history, though I didn’t know much about the story of cinchona and quinine. But I was amazed at the tale Pulley wove out of history and her delightful imagination. As Raphael and Merrick head deeper into the Peruvian forest, all kinds of magical things are revealed—though the story gets harrowing a time or two as various entities chase the pair of them all over the place. I hate to say anything more than these vague details because its so much fun to puzzle out what’s going on. I’m glad I hadn’t come across any spoilers before I read this book because I felt a kind of wonder through most of it.

The Bedlam Stacks is more melancholy and less whimsical than The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. Readers who didn’t like the tweeness of Watchmaker have nothing to worry about here. Still, if I had to choose, I’m not sure I could chose a favorite. I loved both books.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration. It will be released 1 August 2017.

* The lost gardens of Heligan are now on my European bucket list.

Original, well-written, and what a tale. And the rhythm of the language [once I got into it], wonderful.

"In 1859, ex-East India Company smuggler Merrick Tremayne is trapped at home in Cornwall after sustaining an injury that almost cost him his leg and something is wrong; a statue moves, his grandfather’s pines explode, and his brother accuses him of madness... [recruited by the India Office] for an expedition to fetch quinine—essential for the treatment of malaria—from deep within Peru, he knows it’s a terrible idea... [but] sets off, against his better judgment, for a tiny mission colony on the edge of the Amazon where a salt line on the ground separates town from forest...
Surrounded by local stories of lost time, cursed woods, and living rock, Merrick must separate truth from fairytale and find out ... what is happening to Raphael, the young priest who seems to have known Merrick’s grandfather, who visited Peru many decades before."

Confusing? Absolutely. But, persevere. There is much mystery and magic. And going back and forth in time--and waiting. Glass roads? Statues that move? Pollen trails? Waxed knots/strings. All this and more. Certainly a prodigious amount of research went into this book.

There is beautifully descriptive language--everything from people to scenery to animals [Gulliver, a dog].

A story of native peoples, folktales, indigenous culture, threats, and so much more. The beautiful friendship between Merrick and Raphael, a priest. And Inti--loved her.

So hard to explain. Just read it--give it time, it will capture and captivate you.

My first impression of this book was that it was slow, almost like walking through mud, but it quickly turned around. Natasha Pulley pulls you into a into an old world full of adventure and wonder. I loved how Peru became so real to me. Absolutely loved it.

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.