Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Elsa's homeland can't be located on a map: Veldana and its people exist as a result of scriptology, a craft whose practitioners can scribe new lands into existence. Veldana is the creation of a white Frenchman, but Elsa's mother, a Veldanese master scriptologist, advocated for her people's autonomy and is now the fabricated world's caretaker. (Among other colonialist acts, the creator scribed pregnancies against the brown-skinned Veldanese women's will.) The dark-skinned, green-eyed, 16-year-old Elsa, also a brilliant scriptologist, will one day proudly inherit the responsibility. When her mother is abducted, Elsa leaves Veldana for Earth—the real world—to find help. Events lead her to a yet-to-be-unified Italy, where she finds herself a resident of the Casa della Pazzia ("House of the Madness"), a sentient residence for orphan pazzerellone, or "mad scientists." Each student possesses one of three "madnesses": alchemy, mechanics, or scriptology. There, the fiercely independent Elsa reluctantly finds allies: olive-skinned Italians Leo and Porzia and brown-skinned Tunisian Faraz. As the four get closer to finding Elsa's mother and learning the reason for her capture, they discover an enemy who will stop at nothing to use scriptology as a weapon to "edit" the Earth. This debut novel is fully realized steampunk-fantasy, offering an alternate history that deftly and creatively adopts the politics of 19th-century Italy to create a compellingly unique world. Although the book uses the language of mental illness to describe its characters' specific magical talents, in this world "mad" seems to carry none of the baggage it does in ours.Exciting and original. (Fantasy. 12-adult)

ALA Booklist (Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2017)

Elsa's home world of Veldana was written into existence by her mother, Jumi. Jumi is a scriptologist, capable of creating new worlds through words alone. When Jumi is kidnapped, Elsa must put her own scriptology skills to work, traveling to a steampunk-style version of Victorian Italy, where she meets a group of pazzerellone, young people with an aptitude for one of three disciplines: mechanics, alchemy, or scriptology. Elsa, a rare polymath skilled in all three, tries to keep a low profile as she searches for her mother. Despite herself, however, she's drawn into friendship with three pazzerellones, including Leo, a mechanic who has a tragic family past of his own. Elsa and Leo are linked in more ways than they know, and the mystery of Jumi's disappearance is more tangled than Elsa ever would have guessed. Clare's debut is built upon an intriguing premise, and a measured beginning soon gives way to a more action-packed second half. A solid series starter featuring a competent, flawed heroine that's built for sf fans.

Horn Book

Elsa leaves Veldana--a world written into existence through "scriptology"--to find her abducted mother; she ends up in an alternate nineteenth-century Italy, where scriptologists, mechanists, and alchemists wield great power. Elsa's own polymath powers make her a political target, but a society of young scientists, including charming mechanist Leo, may be able to help. Lush steampunk world-building and plenty of action characterize this alternate-history fantasy.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Elsa's homeland can't be located on a map: Veldana and its people exist as a result of scriptology, a craft whose practitioners can scribe new lands into existence. Veldana is the creation of a white Frenchman, but Elsa's mother, a Veldanese master scriptologist, advocated for her people's autonomy and is now the fabricated world's caretaker. (Among other colonialist acts, the creator scribed pregnancies against the brown-skinned Veldanese women's will.) The dark-skinned, green-eyed, 16-year-old Elsa, also a brilliant scriptologist, will one day proudly inherit the responsibility. When her mother is abducted, Elsa leaves Veldana for Earth—the real world—to find help. Events lead her to a yet-to-be-unified Italy, where she finds herself a resident of the Casa della Pazzia ("House of the Madness"), a sentient residence for orphan pazzerellone, or "mad scientists." Each student possesses one of three "madnesses": alchemy, mechanics, or scriptology. There, the fiercely independent Elsa reluctantly finds allies: olive-skinned Italians Leo and Porzia and brown-skinned Tunisian Faraz. As the four get closer to finding Elsa's mother and learning the reason for her capture, they discover an enemy who will stop at nothing to use scriptology as a weapon to "edit" the Earth. This debut novel is fully realized steampunk-fantasy, offering an alternate history that deftly and creatively adopts the politics of 19th-century Italy to create a compellingly unique world. Although the book uses the language of mental illness to describe its characters' specific magical talents, in this world "mad" seems to carry none of the baggage it does in ours.Exciting and original. (Fantasy. 12-adult)