penmage | Book Log: The Cabinet of Wonders

The Cabinet of Wonders by Marie Rutkoski

Petra Kronos lives an unusual life, but a happy one. She lives in a small Czech village with her father, an artisan who can move metal with his mind and works with invisible tools. When her father is commissioned by the prince to build a marvelous clock, he goes off to Prague—and comes back blinded. The prince has stolen his eyes. Even worse, the prince now has control of a clock that has the power to control the weather.

Petra doesn’t know a lot about the world, but she knows this: she will go to Prague and somehow steal back her father’s eyes. It’s a tall task, but she won’t be alone—she has the companionship of Astrophil, her tin pet spider, and the help of Neel, a Roma boy with fingers that extend into invisible ghosts that can pick locks.

What I like about this book: pretty much everything. Petra is a wonderful character—spunky, determined, immensely likeable, and often entirely naïve about the way the world works. What’s wonderful about this book is that people call her on it—when she plans to do something ridiculous, like, say, sneak into the prince’s castle and steal back her father’s eyes, that doesn’t get to be something that makes sense. She’s young and sheltered, and sometimes that’s why she succeeds—even when odds are against her.

I also love how sometimes this book nods at clichéd plot points and then moves past them. Like when Petra first goes to Prague, she cuts off her hair, to blend in as a boy—a classic spunky heroine move—and then discovers that no one is really fooled, and life would have been somewhat easier if she had just kept her hair and called herself a girl from the start.

The flavor of Marie Rutkoski’s Czechoslovakia is also delicious, and unlike anything else I’ve ever read. A changing Europe with a dangerous prince who courts danger and foments unrest among his people. The commonplace feel of magical talents—and the nature of those talents is fantastic. Invisible ghost fingers that can pick locks. The ability to move metal with your mind.

Marie Rutkoski has a gorgeously creative imagination, and this is a beautiful book. It’s the sort of novel that feels solidly based on a history only slightly different from our own—it feels like it might have been true in some parallel universe. It’s lush with detail—even the little things—and feels like a full literary meal.

Cabinet of Wonders has a solid ending and stands comfortably alone, but is clearly the first in a trilogy (says so right on the cover) and I am eager and hungry for more from Marie Rutkoski.