Sometimes, ARC reading a debut novel(la) is a risk as a reviewer, because it can take a lot of time I don’t have. Copper Lies was undeniably a risk worth taking. This short steam-punk novella moves at the speed of sound. Right away, I was drawn into the characters and their relationships.
Lillian, adopted and insecure, comes face to face with her insecurities when Professor Booker leaves her to a woman who wants to crush Lillian’s dreams of creating a birthday present that will earn her place in Professor Booker’s life. Her drive to create and aptitude push Mrs. Witherstine to layer more and more chains on top of Lillian—after all, women don’t belong in something so masculine as a gearhead’s shop.
Join Lillian as she tries to escape the clutches of her physical and mental captivity with the time ticking until Professor Booker returns.
How can I suggest a book to 12-year-olds that has a Romance Score of 6? First, you don’t have to agree with me—that’s what the content meters are for. I want you to make a well-informed decision before you read or gift a book. Second, I stand by my judgment on this one. Copper Lies sets out to make a statement about what love is and is not. It does that with contrast. It contrasts Lillian’s paranoia and idea that she needs to earn love with Professor Booker’s unconditional love. It also uses her mother’s profession as a prostitute to highlight the wrongness of those actions and the risk it puts others (especially children) in while keeping any graphic details from the page. I believe this is a masterfully-executed statement and one worth reading at 12 or 13.
Now, for the content of the book.
Lillian is a mechanical genius, left at home with Professor Booker’s apprentice and a note requesting she play nice with Mrs. Witherstine, who is as enjoyable as a soggy sandwich and I imagine her looking somewhat akin to that as well.
Mrs. Witherstine snags Lillian after the girl flees a prim and proper tea party. She forces Lillian to live with her for the week to help plan Professor Booker’s birthday party, but it’s all just a game to make Lillian feel inadequate while proving to the professor that she did the best a good lady could with something as rotten at the illegitimate child of a seductress.
Lillian, understandably, runs away and, before she knows it, the gemstones Professor Booker specifically asked her not to touch get knocked off the shelf and shatter, bringing her mechanical dragon to life.
She tries to cover it up and hopes it will be a brilliant discovery that Professor Booker will adore. The more she hides it and entertains the biting thoughts that she’s worthless and unsafe, the more she pushes James away, and the bigger the dragon grows until it’s too big to handle and traps her in the tower of failed projects.
Professor Booker returns and the dragon sees him as a threat because Lillian sees him as a threat. He could break her heart without a single word. That’s when she realizes the magic has connected her to the dragon. Seeing the danger her fears have put her friends and loved ones in, she tries to fight thought for thought. The problem is, she has a lot more practice speaking down to herself and the dragon overpowers her.
Professor Booker blasts into the dragon and scares it off. Lillian racks her brain and finally realizes what she has to do.
She runs to the town speaker and announces her greatest secret and fear. She is Professor Booker’s illegitimate daughter.
James and Professor Booker surround her with love and reassurance. She is vulnerable, but she is loved, and that’s worth it.