A Peculiar Peril

The Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead

By: Jeff VanderMeer

Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill

A Peculiar Peril is a head-spinning epic about three friends on a quest to protect the world from a threat as unknowable as it is terrifying, from the Nebula Award-winning and New York Times best-selling author of Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer.

Jonathan Lambshead stands to inherit his deceased grandfather’s overstuffed mansion - a veritable cabinet of curiosities - once he and two schoolmates catalog its contents. But the three soon discover that the house is filled with far more than just oddities: It holds clues linking to an alt-Earth called Aurora, where the notorious English occultist Aleister Crowley has stormed back to life on a magic-fueled rampage across a surreal, through-the-looking-glass version of Europe replete with talking animals (and vegetables).

Swept into encounters with allies more unpredictable than enemies, Jonathan pieces together his destiny as a member of a secret society devoted to keeping our world separate from Aurora. But as the ground shifts and allegiances change with every step, he and his friends sink ever deeper into a deadly pursuit of the profound evil that is also chasing after them.

Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year - 2020

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

©2020 Jeff VanderMeer (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Very fun!

Such a wonderful book! I hadn’t expected it to be funny, but the humor made it really fun to read! The manner of humor reminded me of Douglas Adams, at times.

Only 4 stars on the narration because I didn’t feel that the narrator accurately captured how a teenage boy would express himself. Apart from that character, he was an ace narrator.

To the author: the quiz at the end was clever. : ) I’d answer e. All of the above. I look forward to the second book!!!

It felt almost there

I thought maybe I was distracted the first time I listened to it. That maybe I’d missed something that made the story comprehensible and cohesive. There are definitely parts of this book that I’m eager to hear continued. But there’s also like... pointless word vomit. The antagonist side of things is almost unbearable.

It's a teen fantasy adventure novel

Pretty good. Didn't have any moments that bored me. I didn't cringe to death.

Exhibition writing

This was quite the interesting read, coming from a 40 year old that reads a couple of books per week, ranging from nonfiction, biographies, scifi, fantasy and lots of YA and kids book since I like to keep up with my 9 and 12 yo children.
I originally read this hoping to find a book to suggest to my 12 year old but soon realized this was not it, I struggled finishing this book, it was very long which would be fine since we do series all the time, but unfortunately I never cared much for any of the characters or the story, you spend little time with any of the characters and even when you do, you never connect with them, the story would jump around plenty.
The imaginative nonsensical, almost funny but not really. I am curious about the author since the scenarios and the characters, a combination of creatures, animals and objects, were really wild and this is why I feel like this was a professional writer pushing to see how far he could go, no editing and just practicing to see how crazy things could get, again I'm not the target audience and if you are a fan of this author I'm sure you would love his book, however for my introduction to his writing I was not impressed, I will try a different book and see how it goes.

FAB!

Seriously loving this book by Jeff VanderMeer​! It is like Animal Farm and Harry Potter had a baby while watching Locke and Key in Hill House! I highly recommend! The reader was also a perfect choice.