Jonathan Stroud is the author of the first two Lockwood & Co. books, The Screaming Staircase and The Whispering Skull; the internationally bestselling Bartimaeus books: The Amulet of Samarkan, The Golem's Eye, Ptolemy's Gate, and The Ring of Solomon; as well as the novels Heroes of the Valley, The Leap, The Last Siege, and Buried Fire. He lives in England with his wife and three children. You can find Stroud at www.jonathanstroud.com. You can find more of my reviews of Stroud's works here.
A massive outbreak of supernatural Visitors is baffling Scotland Yard and causing protests throughout London. There are reports of many new hauntings, including a house where bloody footprints are appearing, and a department store full of strange sounds and shadowy figures. Lockwood & Co. continues to demonstrate their effectiveness in exterminating spirits, so it comes as a great shock to Lucy when Lockwood and George introduce her to an annoying perky and hyper-efficient new assistant, Holly Munro. Can the team get past their personal issues to save the day on all fronts, or will bad feelings attract yet more trouble? Danger abounds, tensions escalate, and new loyalties form in this third delightfully terrifying adventure in the critically acclaimed Lockwood & Co. series.
Despite the series being named after him, there is a lot we don't know about Anthony Lockwood, something that keeps Lucy creeping slowly up the stairs each night. But finally, after the end of The Whispering Skull, we get a clue: Lockwood has a sister. Or had a sister. Lockwood's opening up about his past is cleverly timed with the more visibly developing crush Lucy has on Lockwood. Once we start to understand Lockwood's motivations, readers can fall more easily into belief about Lockwood's and Lucy's potential compatibility. There's definitely more that he's not telling his team about his sister and his history, something that still weighs on Lucy despite getting a small glimpse into his past. Because his sister only explains part of his motivations—his goal is to keep everyone on the team safe. But why is he so obsessed with getting big publicity breaks for the company? Because once he loses his Talent in a few years, what will he do with a big agency he can no longer be a field agent for? There is a lot of tension between Lockwood and Lucy surrounding Lucy's unanswered questions, tension that is written perfectly by Stroud, especially during dialogue between the two characters. It leaves readers wondering how they're going to get through the ending of The Hollow Boy, and if they will ever reveal their secrets to one another.
Lockwood isn't the only one with multiple motivations, even if we can't fully understand him yet. Lucy, finally having come into her own with her developing Talent, is starting to wonder why agents get rid of ghosts the fastest way they know how, without understanding why the ghosts are here, or that maybe their goal is not to cause harm and destruction. She is curious that the ghosts have come back for the purpose of closure, but without the room to develop this theory, Lucy is frustrated and tied down to a practice she no longer fully believes in. Similarly, curiosity drives George, as far as his wanting to know why the Problem exists in the first place. While Lucy is curious about the ghosts as individuals, George wants to develop a theory about the Problem as a whole. Because we are finally getting a fuller picture of each of these characters' motivations and curiosities, they are starting to feel like fully developed characters—not that they hadn't before, but their pictures in our minds are clearer now than ever before. This also means that their dynamic is one that we can also understand more fully—once you understand someone's drive, you can see why they would react the way they do in certain situations, or make the comments they do. Knowing more deeply about Lockwood, Lucy, and George is rewarding in the big moments during battles, and in the small moments when they're just poking fun at each other.
There are a lot of instances during this book where I found myself cracking up with laughter. Lucy clearly has a terrible crush on Lockwood, that she either isn't acknowledging to herself or is absolutely refusing to acknowledge to readers, making some of her actions and inner thoughts completely hilarious and relatable. Lucy's confidante relationship with the whispering skull also leads to some funny comments, and sticky situations for Lucy that it's hard not to smile at. The bonds and dynamics between Lucy, Lockwood, and George is clearly so important to Lucy, and is part of why she loves working with Lockwood and George. The moments between the three of them are part of what makes this book so special and hilarious and fun . . . until something strives to potentially change all of that.
The only character we don't know so well yet is Lockwood & Co.'s newest addition, Holly Munro. When I saw that there was going to be an additional female character that was going to shake things up at our favorite agency, I had a few hopes about how it wouldn't go down. I really hoped that the jealousy or anger Lucy would have towards Holly wasn't going to be superficial, or shallow. Lucy is a better character than that, and Stroud understood that. Of course it is natural for one to be jealous of someone they think as prettier and more accomplished than them—Lucy felt that Holly was pretty, prim, and good at making anyone happy. But there were other less shallow reasons Lucy disliked Holly—Lucy felt that Holly's lack of recent agent training made her a liability in the field, and Holly butted in on conversations in ways that went against the unspoken Lockwood & Co. protocol. In the end, I appreciated how the drama between Lucy and Holly wasn't the main focus of the story the entire time—Lockwood & Co. was definitely still deep into solving more than one mystery over the course of the novel (the reveals of which will be sure to shock you!). In the end, it was quite brilliant that Lucy feared having her newfound home torn away from her by the change that Holly brought—only for Lucy to have to tear herself away from her new home because her strengthening abilities were putting everyone at risk.
After an ending that will just not do, Stroud has a tall order for his next Lockwood & Co. series book, The Creeping Shadow. And let's not forget, something is definitely up with this Orpheus Society, which hopefully will be explored in The Creeping Shadow. Stay tuned for my review!
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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