Polly Shulman

A much quieter book than the previous two in the trilogy, The Poe Estate echoes the melancholy mystery of the gothic fiction it engages at the New-York Circulating Material Repository. The story is much more concerned with addressing how Sukie copes with the loss of her sister than defeating a nefarious villain, and as such, the adventuring is more recreational than urgent, and while we meet Sukie's family and new friends (and some ghosts, of course), they are held at a distance as Sukie takes her first steps toward connecting with the world without her sister as intermediary.

I can understand why some readers would find this the least engaging book in the series, but as someone who loves Shulman's New-York Circulating Material Repository—and gothic literature, to be honest—I found it a gentle, poignant visit with a much-missed world. I appreciated seeing Andre, Leo, and Dr. Rust again, and thought it fitting to close the series by meeting Elizabeth all grown up...and doing a fantastic job as an acquisitions repositorian. I'll miss the Repository, but I'm comforted to imagine it going on with its adventures without me just as all the best fictional places do.… (more)