The Elemental Detectives: the first book in a cracking adventure series

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Overall this is a really interesting and deep MG read, and I think it deserves more hype than it got! A gorgeous tactile book cover is dashed about with gold and the end pages have been sprayed with pure dragon fire breath! The revenge-fuelled Shepherdess, who moves between the everyday and the supernatural London worlds, is the perfect weapon. I wish the book would have focused on EITHER the elemental beasts OR the Ether OR the Shepherdess instead of putting it all in one book and seeing what sticks. The Elementals, however, have become increasingly displeased from the years of pollution and lack of care from the ‘Solids’ (humans who live in this world).

Iconic monuments take on unexpected shape: Hyde Park gives up ghosts; the Serpentine really snaaaaaakes. Author of the well-loved YA novel Eight Pieces of Silva (2021, Hachette) and Children’s and YA Jhalak Prize winner Patrice Lawrence offers readers a new, middle grade fiction series published by Scholastic UK– The Elemental Detectives. Robert and Marisee were great main characters, and their journey trying to wake London from a Sleeping Beauty-esque curse by finding her missing Grandma was compelling. The different layers of history uncovered in this book are expertly handled and encourage the reader to think about what may have happened in an alternative universe or sphere if describing different causes for well-known historical events (such as the Great Fire of London). Lawrence is passionate about bringing people of colour back into the history narrative and she has done so with flair and authority in this lively middle grade novel.I will say that the book lost momentum in the final act, and the overall ending was a bit unsatisfying and sudden. The fantasy worldbuilding of this is wonderful; I love elemental magic and meeting the versions of that in this book as they’re all very distinctive, and I hope we learn more about the groups we didn’t see so much of in this installment which was largely focused on the water element Chads. A novel where the key characters aren't white, male and middle class and don't have to have special powers to be the heroes. Our young protagonists, Marisee and Robert, set off on a dangerous, magical mission to save London from a grim fate. An investigation into everyday objects and the elements from which they are composed would be an interesting side-line study to accompany this book.

Unfortunately, this book barely examined the idea of how this world is different from our own based on these elemental spirits. The Elemental Detectives is a rip roaring magical adventure… Patrice Lawrence has done a marvellous job of building an imaginative and creative mythology which lurks just under the city streets. The sleeping sickness affects poor people because they yearn for so much, yet rich people are not susceptible because they don’t face such struggles.I also enjoyed the exploration of the real world history of the time period through Robert’s experience as a slave, both on a plantation and as part of a London household; while I liked Marisee very much, I think Robert was particularly brilliantly written and I loved how transformative his journey in this book is. Their differing perspectives, where both are black but only one was a slave, made for some really interesting character dynamics and explained a lot about their different world views. Marisee and her Grandma are the only ones who really know about the Elementals, and she acts as a “chosen one” bridge between the two worlds.