Melissa Albert, known for her YA novels, turns to adult fiction with The Children, a story exploring the dark side of writers who fictionalise their children's lives. The novel's protagonist, Guinevere Sharpe, is trapped by her childhood as the basis for her mother Edith's bestselling Ninth City series, a set of portal fantasies reminiscent of JK Rowling and Enid Blyton.
In the present day, Guin manages her mother's literary legacy and releases a ghostwritten memoir about her rural upbringing. However, the truth is darker, revealed through a triple time scheme. Her father Llewellyn, a former actor, had an affair with the young Edith, and the family moved to Vermont in the late 1990s. Their marriage turned toxic, with Edith remote and Llewellyn ill, while the children were left to themselves in a spooky house with occult artefacts.
In the present, Edith and Llewellyn died in a fire that destroyed the house, and Guin and her brother Ennis have been estranged for 20 years. Ennis, a conceptual artist, announces a new show called Mother, forcing a confrontation. A third timeline fills in Guin's experiences after her parents' death.
The Ninth City series features a vampiric figure called the Architect who steals children's dreams, casting an ominous shadow over the story. Albert seems to comment on the creative process and its costs. The novel blends psychological drama, haunted house story, and dark fairytale, with many mysteries: why Guin didn't write her own memoir, how the fire started, and what happened to Edith's finger.
While very readable, the abundance of plot threads sometimes dissipates the story's force, and Edith never fully comes into focus. Nonetheless, The Children is an intriguing exploration of creativity's dangers.
