Fiction/Reality

The Unwritten #2

Tom Taylor is the son of the vanished Wilson Taylor, who wrote the highly popular Tommy Taylor novels, about a boy wizard’s adventures. Usedta be, everyone thought Wilson Taylor just used his son’s name as a laugh — but now, a lot of people think Tom is the real Tommy Taylor. Tom isn’t happy about this — he liked being able to make money on his close relationship to the novels, but having a lot of crazies who think he’s a messiah isn’t a lot of fun. So he sets out to find out if he’s really Wilson Taylor’s son or if he’s the son of Romanian parents who gave him to Wilson Taylor to use as a prop.

But Tom is definitely down the rabbit hole now. He’s being stalked by a hitman who has the ability to reduce anything to liquified words. He questions his father’s ex-mistress, who gives him a short and very unnerving lesson in magic and the nature of truth and the universe. And a trip to his old family home in Switzerland reveals some very unpleasant memories and an unusual tattoo he’s gotten on his hand. Is Tom Taylor being victimized by a powerful conspiracy? Or is he really a grown-up boy wizard from a fictional universe?

Verdict: Thumbs up. This is developing into an excellent mystery. Tom, with his funny obsession with literary geography, makes an entertaining sleuth, even if he keeps missing the really interesting clues that happen after he’s done questioning someone. The Harry Potter-esque story that goes on in the background of the story is also a lot of fun. And yes, I’m very glad I’m reading this one — it promises a lot of good stuff down the road.