Nevermoor – The Trials of Morrigan Crow

Jessica Townsend's Nevermoor - The Trials of Morrigan Crow is a dark, funny fantasy for 9 year olds about a cursed girl who is supposed to die the day she turns eleven.

What happens

Morrigan Crow gets blamed for everything. Hailstorms. A broken hip. A spoiled batch of marmalade. Every month a caseworker reads out the list and Morrigan has to write apology letters (her drafts are brilliantly rude).

She's cursed, you see. Cursed children die at Eventide, the last night of the Age. Everyone thinks that's a year away. Then the sky clock over the town hall turns black, early, and Morrigan's time is almost up.

Her father is a politician who mostly worries about how her death will look in the papers. Her stepmother and grandmother aren't much warmer. So when a mysterious man called Jupiter North sends her a bid to join something called the Wundrous Society, it's the first time anyone has ever wanted her.

From there she's whisked off to the magical city of Nevermoor, chased by hounds made of smoke. To stay, she has to beat hundreds of other kids in a run of tough trials. The catch? Everyone else has an extraordinary talent. Morrigan is sure she doesn't have one.

Morrigan is great company. She's dry and prickly and funny, and you root for her from the very first page. The world is full of odd, clever details too, like the Skyfaced Clock with no hands.

Worth mentioning, though, that it opens darkly. The very first pages are her father talking to reporters about her death. On the next page the kitchen cat is found dead and Morrigan is blamed for that too. Her father says his hunting dogs are worth more than her education. It's written with lots of humour, but a child who's sensitive about death or unkind parents might find the start hard going.

If your reader loves big magical worlds and a heroine who's an outsider, this could easily become a favourite.

What to read next

For another girl nobody expected much of who gets a surprise invitation into a hidden magical world, try Amari and the Night Brothers. Amari is fighting to keep her school place when a summer spot at a secret Bureau turns up with her name on it.