Becky B's Reviews > The Lost Property Office

Jack thinks he, his mother, and his sister are in England to recover his father's body after an incident. But when he and his sister accidentally stumble into The Lost Property Office, a hidden world is opened up to them. A world where his father was really part of a secret British Ministry, and had skills Jack shares. Skills that allow him to track things and people. And if there's one person who needs Jack to use those skills, it's his father who isn't quite as dead as thought and is being held by a man demanding Jack bring him something called the Ember by midnight. With a young clerk named Gwen he meets at The Lost Property Office, Jack is soon off across London using his newly discovered skills to solve a centuries old mystery relating to the Great Fire with the Ember somehow at the end.

After reading just a few chapters I was completely and utterly sucked into this story. Jack is a synesthete (it never actually labels him this in the book, but the author's bio does, as Mr. Hannibal himself has synesthesia), someone who sees sounds as colors and such. Most synesthetes just have a few senses linked, but Jack has all of them linked and that gives him almost supernatural abilities to observe things. It's almost like he's a superhero who can slow down time. In his world, touching anything mineral-based will let him recover past observances of that mineral. As if that weren't cool enough, the Ministry Jack's father is a part of has some pretty nifty secret transportation methods and archives and hideouts. (I now want this made into a movie just so I can see the archive...a huge cylindrical library accessed by hot air balloons that take you up or down to the volume you want). World building was definitely the strong point of this, as was the weaving of the plot. The characters were the weak point. Some of them are a bit flat and stereotypical, and I never thought I'd say this - as Anne Shirley made me love freckles - but I was completely sick of Gwen's freckles by the end. (Seriously, she never flounces her hair or does anything else??? But I lost track of the number of times she gave Jack a "freckle bounce" whatever that was supposed to mean...I can't tell you what color her hair is or eyes are, just that she emotes with her freckles. Sorry, just had to get that out. I'm good now.) Freckles aside, I did tear through the book and I'm eager for the next volume. I can't wait to find out more about Jack's world and his next adventure. Definitely a winner for anyone who loves imaginative worlds and high octane adventures.

Notes on content: No language issues. No sexual content. Deaths in the Great Fire are mentioned, and Jack's father has been injured as well as another man. Jack and Gwen get into some tense situations but make it out with just some light burns and bruises. The bad guy loses his hand to a sword. Jack may or may not be able to see spirits (it's hard for him to figure out if their memories of the past or current wraiths...they are not super spooky and mostly urge him on his quest).