A new client has hired Lockwood & Co. to be present at the exhumation of Edmund Bickerstaff, a Victorian doctor who purportedly tried to communicate with the dead. The coffin needs to be sealed with silver to prevent any supernatural trouble. All goes well—until George's curiosity attracts a horrible phantom. All sorts of chaos follows the phantom's release. Inspector Barnes at DEPRAC informs Lockwood that the coffin has been raided and a strange glass object has been stolen. The relic is highly dangerous, and he wants it found. Meanwhile, Lucy is distracted by urgent whispers coming from the skull in the ghost jar . . . The author of the blockbuster Bartimaeus series delivers another amusing, chilling, and ingeniously plotted entry in the critically acclaimed Lockwood & Co. series.
Lucy's arc of gaining confidence in herself and in her abilities in The Screaming Staircase sets the stage for her newest adventure with Lockwood & Co. in The Whispering Skull. Not only has Lucy's confidence been boosted, but so have her Talents—because now, she can communicate with Type Three ghosts, a rare ability, where the only person who could have boasted the same is now seventy years old. But it is not Lucy's arc that is most exciting in The Whispering Skull, but rather the dynamics between the three Lockwood & Co. agents that make for wonderful statements about friendship and encouragement. Lucy is the narrator of the novel, and the main character; George is the academic, the one who would gladly spend the day down in the Archives and uncovering relevant knowledge that would be useful for their cases; and Lockwood is the fearless, if a little secretive, leader. Already Stroud has made an excellent choice telling the story from Lucy's eyes, because it means he can make really smart commentary on friendship group tropes: Lucy is the "sidekick," Lockwood is the "leader," and George is the "smart one," if we want to sum it up quickly like that. But people don't really work like that, and don't fall so easily into those categorizations. Such is what we learn through George's misadventures, which all culminates to a moment where he needs to be rescued by his team. George has been considered the "weak link" or "just the academic" by both Lucy and Lockwood, both of whom have either said so to his face or implied it through their actions. Devastated, and facing a lack of confidence because of it, George takes his curiosity on his own adventure. He goes down dark paths because the more dominant or leader-like characters don't give him the confidence or assurance that he needs about the importance of his worth and work. Like Lucy, George struggles with confidence here, suffers the same type of insecurity as Lucy, and can only overcome it when he can believe in his own brilliance to get him out of tight spots—and when his friends finally come around and realize how awful they've been. This type of character arc (one that involves multiple people) is magnificent in middle grade novels, because it has that group component: the only way all the characters can develop is if they all recognize they can grow. For Lockwood and Lucy, that means supporting George and ceasing the mean teasing about his abilities, and for George that means believing in himself and his self-worth, and knowing that Lockwood and Lucy can't define that for him.
Readers fell in love with Lucy's voice and the fun world of an alternate contemporary London in the first novel of the Lockwood & Co. series, The Screaming Staircase. Now, Stroud has the opportunity to expand on the world, and engage in world building that will be crucial to our understanding of the last three novels of the series. Stroud takes the time to mention other ghost-busting devices, hinting that ghosts, hauntings, and agents are now so deeply ingrained in the contemporary culture that there's probably a specific agent section at every market in town. We also get introduced to a whole new host of ghosts during Lockwood & Co.'s adventures this time around—relic-men, Cold Maidens, and Type Three ghosts are all included in this journey, and advance our understanding of how complicated the Problem actually is. In addition to seeing the ghosts, we get a more in-depth understanding of the politics between the agencies, the institutions tasked with eradicating the Visitors that haunt England's living. There are parties, there is pride, and most of all, there is the fear of death lingering over every agent whom Lockwood & Co. interact with. Agents die young, and agents are proud, something that gets Lockwood & Co. into some sticky situations. Getting a better understanding of all of these things means that Stroud creates a better developed world, one in which we want to dive back into again.
Stroud is an expert at plotting novels, a talent that has become quite clear after the brilliant plots of The Screaming Staircase and The Whispering Skull have consumed me for the past three days. I have been unable to put his books down, and always wondering what Lucy, George, and Lockwood are going to face next when I pick the book back up. Not only are his plots clever, but also nuanced—he is somehow able to incorporate multiple mysteries in the space of one novel, while also leaving just enough breadcrumbs to draw out our curiosity about the entire series. In just The Whispering Skull we had the balanced mysteries of the Visitor Edmund Bickerstaff, Lockwood's personal secrets, who would win the bet between Kipps's team and Lockwood's, and also the mystery of the whispering skull itself. And just when you think there might be resolution at the end of the novel, Stroud throws in a few plot twists that would keep any reader on their toes. All of that ties into an ending that is both satisfying while also making readers crave more.
While a mastermind at crafting plots for individual novels, it is also very clear that Stroud has his head in the long game. He has left behind breadcrumbs in both novels so far that suggest just where the series is going to lead. The first breadcrumb is Lockwood's secrecy—Lucy is already wary of Lockwood's tendency to hide important details, a fear that is confirmed by the whispering skull's statements that he is deceiving the team. Forgotten for a bit underneath the main mysteries of the plot, Lockwood comes around to reveal one of his biggest secrets at the end, making for a major cliffhanger. We also are still wondering about how the Problem originated. Stroud's extra focus on world building in his second novel only leads for more questions, and hints that maybe Lucy has the key to uncovering how it all began. Lastly, Lucy makes a quick and potentially devastating connection between Fairfax's recovered goggles at the end of The Screaming Staircase and the box Penelope Fittes has near the end of The Whispering Skull. They both have the same harp insignia or logo—what could that mean, Lucy wonders? A bigger storm is definitely brewing over the heads of these three protagonists as the series just starts to get deeper and darker.
The plot has certainly thickened, and it's only by diving deep into the next three books of the Lockwood & Co. series that we can find any answers or hope for a good ending for our protagonists. The Hollow Boy is up next, so stay tuned for my review!
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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