Curiosity House: The Shrunken Head by Lauren Oliver and H. C. Chester, 368 pp, RL 4
I first encountered the work of Lauren Oliver around 2010 when I read her phenomenal dystopian YA novel Delirium, hot on the heels of The Hunger Games and just as dystopian novels were beginning to take over vampire novels on the shelves of the teen section. In the America of Oliver's novel, love has been outlawed, being deemed a threatening source of all discord. Shortly after she finished the Delirium trilogy (as well as several other YA stand-alones) Oliver tried her hand at middle grade novels with Liesl & Po and Spindlers. Oliver is a talented writer and, while all of her novels seem to have elements of fantasy or the supernatural, she is diverse in her stories and settings. This proves especially true with her newest trilogy, Curiosity House, which she has "co-written" with the reclusive H.C. Chester, a "collector of unusual relics" and author of The Complete Collector's Guide to Early American Pencil Sharpeners.

Of course a dime museum in 1930s New York City is going to make for an interesting setting and offer up a raft of compelling characters, but I think that Oliver put it in a very relevant and fascinating context in her interview with Chester, saying
I think it's difficult for a modern person to grasp the way in which curiosity about the natural world, its endless varieties and strangeness, was entwined with the entertainment of the time. I suppose in some ways dime museums were the precursor to the kind of reality TV shows that make you goggle over the fact that people exist who look, speak and behave the way they do on TV. Dime museums were all about celebrating the strange and unexplained phenomena of the scientific and natural world - since, of course, so much that we now treat, cure, or can explain remained at the time a mystery.
As much as I loath (and am enthralled by certain) reality TV, Oliver makes a great point, it's human nature to be fascinated by the other, and what is more other than the oddities at a dime museum? The most checked out book in my library? Any form of Ripley's, a show I loved as a kid and a museum I dreamed of visiting, along with Madame Tussaud's.

The children find lead after lead and clue after clue, even going toe to toe with Bill Evans, the reporter who seems to be enjoying the deaths of those coming in to contact with the cursed head a bit too much. One refreshing aspect of Curiosity House is the fact that there are actual deaths of adults in this mystery for kids, which is rare, and Oliver handles it well as they are neither gruesome or gratuitous.
As you might anticipate from the title and setting, Oliver packs her book with details, illustrations by French artist Benjamin Lacombe bringing her words to life with a slightly creepy, ominous edge. Oliver also fills her story with red herrings, although I had a suspicion early on about one seemingly very minor character. There is a revelation at the of the first book that sets up the rest of the trilogy for what promises to be a climactic ending.
Books 2 & 3 in the Curiosity House Trilogy
(The Fearsome Firebird comes out April, 2017)
Source: Purchased Audio Book
My reviews of a few other books by
Lauren Oliver: