Sunderworld, Volume I

Starred review from July 8, 2024
Riggs departs the Miss Peregrine universe to launch a fresh fantasy adventure grounded in contemporary Los Angeles. After his mother’s death five years ago, Leopold Berry’s grief-fueled obsession with the kitschy fantasy TV show Sunderworld began inducing “escapist dissociative episodes.” Now 17 and “perfectly average,” Leopold and his best friend Emmett learn that these seeming hallucinations are glimpses into an actual, magical Sunderworld that desperately seeks a powerful channeler to vanquish monsters and reverse magic shortages. Upon the duo’s arrival to Sunderworld, Leopold must participate in a televised spellcasting test if he wants to become a channeler. But when he fails, he and Emmett are banished, and their memories magically wiped with spells that backfire. While Leopold’s memories remain intact, Emmett develops troubling neurological symptoms, prompting Leopold to defy exile and search Sunderworld for a cure. What he finds instead is a deeper mystery involving an enigmatic girl, an enchanted map, and a charmed object that only he can activate. Riggs’s incandescent storytelling, exquisite worldbuilding, and vivid characterization kick off a propulsive series starter that subverts the chosen-one trope via a self-made antihero who learns to choose himself. If Leopold finds more questions than answers, readers will be heartened by the promise of more adventure and intrigue following this whirlwind opener. Leopold is white; secondary characters are racially diverse. Ages 14–up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.

August 1, 2024
Seventeen-year-old Leopold Berry discovers that the realm of Sunder from his favorite TV series, Max's Adventures in Sunderworld, is in fact a real place with very real stakes. When Leopold starts having bizarre visions, such as of a raccoon with its tail on fire and a speeding red trolley in the middle of busy Los Angeles traffic, he suspects he's getting glimpses of the extraordinary place called Sunder, a fantasy world from his beloved show. He confesses his visions to his best friend, Emmet Worthington, and the pair wind up using a special token to take the trolley, Angels Flight, into Sunder. There, they discover that the complex world of sparks--people with magical abilities--includes connections to Leopold's mother, who died when he was 12. At the heart of it all, Leopold is trying to figure out why he's been pulled into this world and whether there's more to him than his deep fear of being "average and insignificant" and dealing with his father's frustrated rages. Riggs' writing is tight and well paced. Some incredible action scenes leap off the pages, and Sunder is a blur of dangerous situations, well-drawn characters, and magical devices. The ending will make readers wish they could immediately reach for the second volume. Leopold, like most of the cast, is cued white; Emmet is Black. A fully imagined fantastical world with compelling characters and a nail-biting cliffhanger.(Fantasy. 13-17)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 19, 2024

Gr 8 Up-Leopold Berry lost his mother to cancer when he was 12, and the subsequent five years with an overbearing and aggressive father have done nothing to assuage his grief. Leopold also experiences strange visions, things that seem more at home in his beloved 1990s fantasy series Max's Adventures in Sunderworld than modern Los Angeles. Leopold discovered it in a box of his mom's old VHS tapes, and his obsession with watching and rewatching the show, coupled with producing new scenes with his best friend, Emmet, serve to create a bond to her memory. So when he and Emmet actually find Sunder after a ride on a broken-down railway trolley, he is ready to experience all the promises of Max's adventures despite the perils that lie within. Riggs generates interest both through Leopold's exploration of the mysterious connection his mother had with Sunder, as well as the consequences of Leopold and Emmet's initial visit there. He also pokes fun at the "chosen one" motif when Leopold embarrasses himself in front of the Sunder community on a channeler test, becoming memed into "Lunchtray Larry." But less successful is the magic of Sunder, which, when coupled with Leopold's initial visions, presents as gritty and occasionally bizarre. Clearly intended as a multi-book series, a cliff-hanger mystery sets the focus for the sequel. VERDICT An easy sell to any fan of Riggs's "Peculiar Children" series, though its quirks limit the appeal to a broader fantasy audience. A general purchase.-Michael Van Wambeke

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2024
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* This first installment in the new YA urban fantasy series from worldwide best-seller Riggs (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series) delivers strange happenings, self-determination, and spontaneous combustion in a coming-of-age tale that begs the question, what if you were granted access to the magical world you'd always dreamed of--but only from the cheap seats? The only exceptional things about aggressively average 17-year-old Leopold Berry are his dissociative episodes: visions about Sunderworld, a magical realm parallel to ours and the setting of his favorite '90s TV show. Turns out, Sunder is real, and Leopold is a magic-wielding "spark," capable of traveling between realms and casting spells. He's just not a particularly good one. Following a haphazard initiation into Sunder, Leopold fails his magical aptitude test and is banned from Sunder forever. Banished, alone, and now a fugitive in both worlds, Leopold evades the LAPD and Sunder authorities while following clues left by his late mother, which lead him to new allies and to the realization that he might be more powerful than he knew--magical or not. Leopold's battle for selfhood balances hope, disillusionment, and perseverance in the face of a topsy-turvy reality and an emotionally unavailable father. Like the bittersweet Los Angeles it occupies, Leopold's offbeat Sunderworld is a little grimy and a little broken, but the magic is real and will stick with you.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2024
Leopold Berry lives in Los Angeles in a world like our own, but since his mother's death when he was twelve, he has experienced dissociative episodes in which he sees unbelievable things, such as a winged parking attendant or a rain cloud chasing a fruit vendor. He thinks of these moments as "Seeing into Sunder" after the short-lived TV show Max's Adventures in Sunderworld, on whose VHS tapes he fixates. Now seventeen, Leopold is adrift, a constant disappointment to his emotionally abusive father, until a raccoon hands him a token for a decommissioned Angels Flight Railway tram that takes him and his best friend to the not-so-imaginary land of Sunder Hill. There Leopold leaps at the chance to prove he's a channeler, the "most powerful magical being on the planet," but things go horribly, publicly awry. Just when everything seems lost, a note from Leopold's late mother sends him on a treasure hunt through his childhood memories, leading to a discovery that changes everything. Fast-paced and inventive, this gateway fantasy has the grubby, off-kilter realism of a Chuck E. Cheese and a satirical nod to reality TV, with first-rate characters that will hook and charm readers. The treasure hunt celebrates L.A. landmarks, and constant new developments keep readers on the edges of their seats, hoping for Leopold's vindication -- and waiting for the next episode in this projected new series. Anita L. Burkam

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2024
Leopold Berry lives in Los Angeles in a world like our own, but since his mother's death when he was twelve, he has experienced dissociative episodes in which he sees unbelievable things, such as a winged parking attendant or a rain cloud chasing a fruit vendor. He thinks of these moments as "Seeing into Sunder" after the short-lived TV show Max's Adventures in Sunderworld, on whose VHS tapes he fixates. Now seventeen, Leopold is adrift, a constant disappointment to his emotionally abusive father, until a raccoon hands him a token for a decommissioned Angels Flight Railway tram that takes him and his best friend to the not-so-imaginary land of Sunder Hill. There Leopold leaps at the chance to prove he's a channeler, the "most powerful magical being on the planet," but things go horribly, publicly awry. Just when everything seems lost, a note from Leopold's late mother sends him on a treasure hunt through his childhood memories, leading to a discovery that changes everything. Fast-paced and inventive, this gateway fantasy has the grubby, off-kilter realism of a Chuck E. Cheese and a satirical nod to reality TV, with first-rate characters that will hook and charm readers. The treasure hunt celebrates L.A. landmarks, and constant new developments keep readers on the edges of their seats, hoping for Leopold's vindication -- and waiting for the next episode in this projected new series.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)