The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

Morrigan Crow, Nevermoor's feisty heroine, is a cursed child born to die on her 12th birthday, but rescued from her grim fate by a stranger, the dashing Captain Jupiter North.

Townsend wrote the book over 10 years, starting it the year she left high school, and had begun selling souvenir T-shirts and squeezy crocodiles at Australia Zoo, graduating to co-editor of the zoo's children's wildlife magazine. Nevermoor is the first in a magical series for children aged between eight and 12. My agent will even now email me good news and I don't know how to respond to it, because everything is way beyond what I could have imagined.'

'In all honesty I hit shock very early on and I've kind of stayed there ever since. Credit: Frankfurter Buchmesse/Alexander Heimann Spoiler alert: In the end, while Morrigan seemingly has no outward talent, it turns out that she is one of the mysterious Wundersmiths, with the ability to control wunder, a magical force-and that the antagonist of the novel, Ezra Squall, means to use her for his own evil.Īvailable Octofrom Hachette Audio as a digital download, and in Hardcover and Ebook from Little Brown Young Readers.No fewer than eight major publishing houses were vying for rights to Townsend's first Nevermoor book at last year's Frankfurt Book Fair, pictured. To stay in the safety of Nevermoor for good, Morrigan will need to find a way to pass the tests-or she'll have to leave the city to confront her deadly fate. In order to join, she must compete in four difficult and dangerous trials against hundreds of other children, each boasting an extraordinary talent that sets them apart-an extraordinary talent that Morrigan insists she does not have. It's then that Morrigan discovers Jupiter has chosen her to contend for a place in the city's most prestigious organization: the Wundrous Society. Chased by black-smoke hounds and shadowy hunters on horseback, he whisks her away into the safety of a secret, magical city called Nevermoor.

Having been born on Eventide, the unluckiest day for any child to be born, she's blamed for all local misfortunes, from hailstorms to heart attacks-and, worst of all, the curse means that Morrigan is doomed to die at midnight on her eleventh birthday.īut as Morrigan awaits her fate, a strange and remarkable man named Jupiter North appears. Read by Gemma Whelan whose prominent roles include that of Yara on Game of Thrones. A breathtaking, enchanting new series by debut author Jessica Townsend, about a cursed girl who escapes death and finds herself in a magical world-but is then tested beyond her wildest imagination.

The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend