Skip to content
Responsive image
Vendor
Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories

THE WHISPERING WARS

Jaclyn Moriarty

From the award-winning Jaclyn Moriarty comes a spellbinding tale of unlikely friendship, unexpected magic and competitive athletics.
The town of Spindrift is frequented by all kinds of Shadow Mages and charlatans.

It's also home to the Orphanage School, where Finlay lives with Glim, Taya, and Eli. Just outside town is the painfully posh Brathelthwaite Boarding School, home to Honey Bee, Hamish, and Victor, Duke of Ainsley. When the two schools compete at the Spindrift Tournament, the stakes are high, tensions are higher, and some people are out to win at any cost. Before long, the orphans and the boarding school kids are at each other's throats.

And then the Whispering Wars break out, and Spindrift is thrust onto the front lines. Children are being stolen; witches, sirens, and a deadly magical flu invade the town; and all attempts to fight back are met with defeat.

Finlay, Honey Bee, and their friends must join forces to outwit the encroaching forces of darkness, rescue the stolen children, and turn the tide of the war. But how can one bickering troupe outwit the insidious power of the Whisperers?

Jaclyn Moriarty is the award-winning author of A Corner of White, The Cracks in the Kingdom, A Tangle of Gold, The Year of Secret Assignments, The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie, The Ghosts of Ashbury High, and The Spell Book of Listen Taylor. A former media and entertainment lawyer, Jaclyn grew up in Sydney, Australia, lived in the United States, Canada, and UK, and now lives in Sydney again. She is very fond of chocolate, blueberries, and sleep.
Read more
Available products
Book

Published 2019-10-01 by Arthur A. Levine Books

Book

Published 2019-10-01 by Arthur A. Levine Books

Comments

This jam-packed, imaginative adventure is magically immersive and entertaining.

This stand-alone tale of whimsy and irony is a pure delight, and a solid read perfect for voracious readers. Highly recommended.

Translation rights for THE WHISPERING WARS have sold in Czech (Mlada Fronta). And rights for BRONTE METTLESTONE have sold in the following languages: Chinese - Simplified (Yutian), Hebrew (Armchair), Polish (Zielona Sowa), Portuguese - Portugal (ASA), Spanish (Planeta). The UK publisher is Guppy Books.

Moriarty works wonders with this form, weaving it seamlessly into the narrative without sacrificing excitement, and the two protagonists put on a true show with their playful back-and-forth. It's a wickedly clever book - anchored by rich worldbuilding and several vibrant, quirky, sympathetic characters - and while touching lightly on the injustices of war and social class, it manages to be sheer fun without sacrificing emotional weight. This novel stands perfectly alone, but readers won't be able to resist the call to return to such a wonderfully magical world.

Moriarty's novel is bursting at the seams with quirk and self-awareness of the genre, and foreshadowing of major plot points will have readers flipping back to previous pages to uncover mysteries of their own. This fantastical treat offers engaging narrators that additionally illuminate class difference (particularly between the orphans and boarding school students) in a satirical manner and offers deeper political ramifications in the community's shunning its magical members.

THE WHISPERING WARS was a 2018 Aurealis Award Finalist for Best Children's Book

The many twists and turns of the plot will keep readers turning pages till the triumphant end.

THE WHISPERING WARS has won the 2019 Queensland Literary Award for children's books! Read more...

The real joy of this book though is the sincerity of Honey Bee and Finlay, from their inside jokes and teasing of each other's writing, to sharing their deepest secrets and fears with each other. They also talk directly to the reader, including them in the narrative in a way that will make them want to read until the last page.