โMixing a trauma reckoning with dark, apocalyptic fantasy,โ a psychological thriller about a teen who faces down demons in an alternate universe (Booklist, starred review).
Sixteen-year-old Jack gets drunk and is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is kidnapped. He escapes, narrowly. The only person he tells is his best friend, Conner. When they arrive in London as planned for summer break, a stranger hands Jack a pair of glasses. Through the lenses, he sees another world called Marbury.
There is war in Marbury. It is a desolate and murderous place where Jack is responsible for the survival of two younger boys. Conner is there, too. But heโs trying to kill them.
Meanwhile, Jack is falling in love with an English girl, and afraid heโs losing his mind.
Andrew Smith has written his most beautiful and personal novel yet, as he explores the nightmarish outer limits of what trauma can do to our bodies and our minds.
โAn engrossing horror/fantasy hybrid . . . Nightmarish imagery is chillingly effective, and the pacing superbly builds suspense.โ โKirkus Reviews
โ[The Marbury Lens] will keep readers enthralled with its well-developed characters and unique plot.โ โSchool Library Journal
โThis bloody and genuinely upsetting book packs an enormous emotional punch.โ โPublishers Weekly, starred review
โThe Marbury Lens crawls inside your head and wonโt leave. Scary, creepy, awful and awesome. What a cool book!โ โMichael Grant, New York Timesโbestselling author of Gone and Hunger
โSmith keeps the tension between Marbury and the present-day worlds as taut as the tightrope Jack walks. . . . Just try to put this book down.โ โShelf Awareness