Madame Augustina Pinchbeck, travels the country conjuring the spirits of dearly departed loved ones... for a price. Whilst her ability to contact ghosts is a game of smoke and mirrors, there is real magic behind her tricks too - if you know where to look.
Through a magical trade, she persuades children to part with precious objects, promising to use her powers to help them. But Pinchbeck is a deceiver, instead turning their items into enchanted Cabinets that bind the children to her and into which she can vanish and summon them at will.
When Pinchbeck captures orphan Leander, events are set into motion that see him and his new friends Charlotte and Felix, in a race against time to break Pinchbeck’s spell, before one of them vanishes forever…
The Vanishing Trick is spooky, historical and magical in equal parts. I'd seen this recommended on Twitter by many other book bloggers and it certainly lived up to my expectations.
Set in the Victorian era it follows the journey of Leander, an orphan and thief, trying to survive amongst the richest of the world. When he encounters the magical Madame Pinchbeck he is offered the chance of communicating with his dead mother, food and a sense of belonging and it takes very little for Leander to be persuaded into joining in return for his precious locket. However, Pinchbeck is not as as she seems and Leander soon realises that he is trapped inside his own locket and now at the beck and call of Pinchbeck who can summon and vanish him at will.
Leander soon realises he is not the only child Pinchbeck has trapped as he meets the moody, upper-class Charlotte and violin-playing Felix, they too, trapped by Pinchbeck's magic. Together they travel around the country, taking part in Pinchbeck's money-making seance schemes, but it doesn't take them long to discover that Pinchbeck is conjuring an even bigger trick which could risk them losing their lives.
The Vanishing Trick really gripped me from the start and I loved how Pinchbeck was portrayed - a classic villain who physically becomes weaker as the plot moves on. Watching Leander, Felix and Charlotte realise that their fate was unknown was a brilliant story arc and I felt a real sense of peril throughout - building particularly well in the final few chapters when there was so much action and reliance on outside characters. The concept of the cabinets in which the children could disappear to was novel and exciting and I could imagine it so vividly that I would love to see a film adaptation of this book - something I say so rarely!
The Vanishing Trick is a perfect UKS2 read, I know I'll be recommending it to our Year 5 teachers as a brilliant class novel alongside their Victorian topic. It's certainly a good choice for those tricky customers who love a thriller and a bit of mystery in their reading book.
A combination of trickery, magic and peril with a traditional villain that pounces through the pages.
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