Sunderworld, Vol. I: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry
by Ransom Riggs
High School    Dutton    336 pp.
8/24    9780593530931    $21.99
e-book ed.  9780593530955    $10.99

Leopold Berry lives in Los Angeles in a world like our own, but since his mother’s death when he was twelve, he has experienced dissociative episodes in which he sees unbelievable things, such as a winged parking attendant or a rain cloud chasing a fruit vendor. He thinks of these moments as “Seeing into Sunder” after the short-lived TV show Max’s Adventures in Sunderworld, on whose VHS tapes he fixates. Now seventeen, Leopold is adrift, a constant disappointment to his emotionally abusive father, until a raccoon hands him a token for a decommissioned Angels Flight Railway tram that takes him and his best friend to the not-so-imaginary land of Sunder Hill. There Leopold leaps at the chance to prove he’s a channeler, the “most powerful magical being on the planet,” but things go horribly, ­publicly awry. Just when everything seems lost, a note from Leopold’s late mother sends him on a treasure hunt through his childhood memories, leading to a discovery that changes everything. Fast-paced and inventive, this gateway fantasy has the grubby, off-kilter realism of a Chuck E. Cheese and a satirical nod to reality TV, with first-rate characters that will hook and charm readers. The treasure hunt celebrates L.A. ­landmarks, and constant new developments keep readers on the edges of their seats, hoping for ­Leopold’s vindication—and waiting for the next episode in this projected new series.

From the ">September/October 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.