Flights and Chimes and Mysterious Times by Emma Trevayne (review)

The Lady of Londinium wants a new human son to coddle, spoil, and adore for a few years (until he gets too big), and when the Lady wants something, she gets it. The child in question this time is Jack, a bored British ten-year-old who willingly follows Lorcan, the Lady’s most dutiful assistant, into a parallel world, the Lady’s own painstakingly created version of London. Soon the novelty of clockwork dragons and a metal world that almost looks like his own wears off, though, and Jack begins to see that this town suffers under the rule of the (negligent at best, sadistic at worst) woman who insists he call her Mother and that he may never be able to escape back to his own real parents. Jack is interesting rather than likable—he is spoiled and demanding from the start, and he knowingly commits actions that lead to executions of the innocent—but his character adds edge to the folkloresque plot. Additionally, Trevayne surrounds Jack with deeply sympathetic characters on both sides of the good/evil spectrum, with even the reprehensible Lorcan, who has done horrific things for his beloved Lady, clearly motivated by desperate love. Steampunk novels for the young set are fairly uncommon, and this creaking, smoky, dangerous world fits the bill elegantly.