The Secrets of the Stormforest

L. D. Lapinski's The Secrets of the Stormforest is a multiverse adventure for 9 year olds, and the final trip through the magic suitcases of Strangeworlds.

What happens

It opens in a travel agency in November 1873. A young woman with two suitcases and a portfolio of beautiful maps begs to sleep upstairs for one night. Then two very tall strangers with too-bright eyes and thin, papery skin come asking for her. Brr!

After that we're back with Flick and Jonathan, reeling from a discovery that turns everything they thought they knew about magic upside down. There's a group called the Seren who drain whole worlds of magic and move on when there's nothing left. Now they're hunting again.

Worse, there's a rumour of one suitcase that could end the entire multiverse. So Flick and Jonathan need to find it before the Seren do, and bring every suitcase scattered across the worlds safely home. Meanwhile Jonathan's dad is still missing somewhere out there.

It's a big, twisty story, but it never loses the cosy feel of the shop. There's the fire, the ticking clocks and the wall of suitcases. And there's Jonathan in a plum frock coat and cherry-red Doc Martens, who puts the kettle on the second anything gets emotional (Flick knows him very well by now).

The everyday bits are lovely too. Flick walks home from school in the sleet, grateful it's a Monday. That's one of the days she doesn't have to push her toddler brother home while he wails "help" at strangers!

Is it one to start with? Probably not. It opens in the middle of a huge revelation, and there are lots of names and worlds from before. For a reader who already loves Flick and Jonathan, though, it's a proper page-turner of a finale.

What to read next

If your reader hasn't met them yet, begin with The Strangeworlds Travel Agency. It's where the dusty little shop full of suitcases first opens its doors, with Jonathan reading at the desk with his feet up.