Gargantis
by Thomas Taylor
Candlewick Press, 2019
335 pages
Middle-Grade
Herbie Lemon and Violet are on another compass and cobblestone adventure! During a storm that has lasted days… weeks even, a man with a deep hooded oilcloth slicker shows up at the Grand Nautilus Hotel’s Lost and Foundery carrying a large chest, and leaving behind a gleaming but deadly clockwork conch shell.
During the storm, Mrs. Fossil discovers a bottle while beachcombing; a green, fish-shaped bottle bearing mysterious ancient symbols called Eerie Script, a coded language from a thousand years ago when the town was founded. The bottle has a light glowing inside.
Saint Dismal, the first fisherman and a heroic symbol to all the fishing folks of Eerie-on-Sea, is known for using the Gargantic-light to lure away the great sky kaiju Gargantis, thereby preventing the destruction of the town. When everyone tries to claim the bottle, it is given to the skills of the Lost-and-Founder to decide on the rightful owner.
The mystery pulls you in, but the characters are really great. The man who runs the local history museum is in constant conflict with the mudlarking woman who runs the bric-a-brac antique store. Boudicea is the queen of the pirates, and she and Deep Hood have the whole wharf out to get Herbie and the bottle!
Blaze Westerley, now captain of his uncle Squint’s ship, the Jornty Spark, (the only electric motor in the town fleet,) tells the tale of how old Squint took the stranger in the deep hood for a sail into The Vortiss a few years back and neither returned… until now. Is Blaze’s uncle still alive somewhere? Who is Deep Hood? Blaze plans to brave the deadly maelstrom and ring of sharp rocks called The Vortiss to find out!
It is revealed that Herbie was once recommended a book by Eerie-on-Sea’s resident prescient mechanical mermonkey, a choice that has overshadowed his life, The Cold, Dark Bottom of The Sea. It’s the reason Herbie has never been out on a boat since. It’s also why he’s never asked for another book. When Vi tricks him into doing so, he ends up with one titled Set Course for The Storm. Herbie’s doom seems inevitable as this adventure repeatedly lands him square in the middle of the sea, but early on I wondered if Herbie was making the wrong assumptions about the danger of walking along the sandy bottom.
This is the most fun I’ve had in years! The action is incredible! A battle between a weathered and vengeful old sea salt and a giant sky angler-fish that brings with it a tempest that is weeks across! Angry townsfolk! Deadly whirlpools! The camera obscura is damaged in an attack upon Lady Kraken! This sequel is as well written as the first in the series, Malamander. Though longer than the last book, Taylor’s short chapters and excitement make it fly by. I can’t wait to get back to the she-shanty ambience, immersive geography, and cobblestone village atmosphere of Eerie-on-Sea and the creatures it hides in the dark caverns and endless skies!
