The Boneshaker

May 10, 2010
Set in 1913, Milford's debut is a sure-footed, slow-burning thriller. Feisty 13-year-old Natalie has grown up in a small Missouri town located near a mysterious crossroads, listening to the local myths about it that her mother shares. When Dr. Limberleg opens the Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show, the townspeople (afraid of catching the neighboring town's flu) take to his products and team, who promote phrenology, hydrotherapy, magnetism, and amber therapy. Mechanically minded Natalie, however, is determined to get through the smoke and mirrors, and she finds that Dr. Limberleg's cures come with strings attached. "Most people are much older when they discover their world isn't the place they thought it was," he warns. "By then... sometimes... it's too late." The tale is shrouded in mystery and explores themes of gaining confidence and recognizing evil, and Milford's detail-rich prose makes it all the more haunting ("In the gaslight and what morning sun that filtered through the heavy curtains, startling shapes began to resolve themselves into familiar objects. Seeing them clearly didn't make her like them any better"). Final art not seen by PW. Ages 10–up.

Starred review from May 15, 2010
Grades 5-8 *Starred Review* Not to be confused with Cherie Priests steampunk novel of the same name (though there is just the barest whiff of steampunk here), this historical fantasy uses the classic devil-at-the-crossroads motif as the foundation for an elaborate and intricate gearwork story set in the little town of Arcane, Missouri, in 1913. Milford weaves a lot of strands into this tale. The most prominent involves the towns resident ancient bluesman, who is said to have had a run-in with the devil ages ago, and 13-year-old heroine Natalie, whose latent powers as a sort of seer are awakened when Jake Limberlegs Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show arrives in town. She just knows that theres something more sinister at work than the typical hucksterism of snake-oil salesmen, and the plot soon encompasses everything from the original fall of Lucifer to the Jack tales of classic American folklore. This is not light reading, as readers will have to pay close attention to keep track of the large (but excellently drawn) cast of characters and detailed, but hardly belabored, descriptions of mechanical contraptions, bolstered by an array of fine-lined illustrations that enhance the already vivid and cinematic read. Both impressive and ambitious, Milfords first novel rarely overreaches as it lays out an eerie and atmospheric vision of early-twentieth-century Americana, electrified by supernatural traces and a generously complex look at good, evil, and the wide swath in between.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2010
Sinister Dr. Jake Limberleg arrives in Arcane, Missouri, in 1913 with strange tonics and stranger machines. Only thirteen-year-old Natalie can stop the evil he plans to unleash upon the town in this unpredictable tale of how a plucky girl comes to look the devil in the eye. Sketchlike pen-and-ink illustrations with captions and a spindly font add to the book's old-timey feel.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)