In this YA fantasy debut, a teen learns that she is a changeling who must protect a magical, realm-spanning contraption from demonic forces.

Forced to spend a week with his grandmother in Austin, Texas, Perry breaks into her storage chest and uncovers an old book with a green cover. This volume tells of 13-year-old Lorenda “Maggie” Wells, who helps her mother run a hotel in Fort Richards, Texas, during the Depression. One day, a creepy woman arrives at the hotel, dressed in black and wearing sunglasses. She calls herself Vivienne but is also known as the Lady of the Lake (from Arthurian legend). She kidnaps Maggie and returns her to Avalon, revealing that the teen was switched at birth to live with human parents. Avalon is Vivienne’s realm, one of many “Otherworlds” connected by the Imaginaerium Engine—a fantabulous device hidden in the Fort Richards clocktower and threatened by primal forces of evil known as the Fomoire. At first, Maggie resolves to escape from Vivienne and her ethereal kin (the Tuatha Dé). But then the teen begins to manifest her own powers, including dream prophesy and an unpredictable affinity with water. When Vivienne is shot by a Fomoire agent, it falls to Maggie to return to Fort Richards with her teen Tuatha Dé relatives to safeguard the Imaginaerium Engine. Wayne, known for his short stories and plays, makes a smooth transition to the longer form, relating Maggie’s tale by way of an uncomplicated yet vivid, omniscient past-tense narrative. The dialogue rings true, reflecting both the era’s formal manners (Maggie addressing her mother as “Ma’am”) and, through the Tuatha Dé teens, a more relaxed, modern approach (“Wow, sorry about that. Didn’t mean to zap you”). In this series opener, Maggie is a relatable protagonist—proactive and determined yet conflicted in her reactions—and in depicting the normality of her human upbringing, the author captures a sense of place and time that contrasts effectively with her Tuatha Dé family’s otherworldliness. One qualm regarding the prose is that it doesn’t always successfully delineate moments of surprise or import (such as a railway bombing). Nonetheless, the narrative moves quickly and offers generous servings of novelty and excitement. Young readers will be carried along, eagerly anticipating further installments.

A lively and fantastical adventure through Arthurian legend and Depression-era Texas.