SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: The Lost Child of Lychford by Paul Cornell

The Lost Child of Lychford by Paul Cornell (Witches of Lychford book #2)

The Lost Child of Lychford is the sequel to Paul Cornell's "Witches of Lychford" (reviewed on this blog here), and the second in what will soon be a four novella series.  The series features three women - a young vicar, a young skeptic once touched by magic, and an old woman experienceed in the craft - who have to come together to stop invasions of the supernatural in a quaint English town.

I enjoyed the first of these novellas quite a bit - it was short and not mind-blowing in any way, but its main characters were strong and had depth and the story, while somewhat predictable, was executed really well.  And The Lost Child of Lychford is similar, if a little stronger I think, in the way its plot continues the story of these three excellent women facing the supernatural in an incredibly creepy way, as this invasion features the mysterious enemy targeting the three of them deliberately and meticulously, which Cornell writes in fantastic fashion.

Again, I read this novella as an audiobook - and while the reader is good, for some reason the reader is not the same one as the reader from the first audiobook, which is a bit distracting.


Quick Plot Summary:  Christmas is coming to Lychford, and Lizzie, vicar of the local church, is already sick of it.  And then she sees something strange: an apparition of a small child in her church, apparently in great distress.  To investigate, she turns to her friends, magic shop owner Autumn and elderly crank - and secret witch - Judith, but they have no clear answers...other than the discovery that the protective barriers around the town seem to be weakening, and that the town may be under threat once again from supernatural forces.  Forces that this time will not make the mistake of underestimating the three of them, and seek to make this Christmas perhaps the last one that Lychford will ever see.....

Thoughts:  Like the first book, or perhaps even more than the first book, The Lost Child of Lychford is not a subtle book in its plotting: from the moment the antagonists show up in the novella, ostensibly for innocent aims, any reader will hear what they're asking and realize immediately that they're the bad guys, for example.  Similarly, when the main trio are all attacked in their own personal ways, the reader will realize what's happening far quicker than the characters.  A mystery, this story is not.

And yet, it is all so so well done, as to be impossible to put down for its short duration and to be a really strong mix of funny and chilling in how things play out.  The attacks on the main trio are personal in nature and work well to build up their characters, with only Autumn's maybe being a bit too silly...and even then it works overall in a charming sense in the end.  And what happens with Lizzie is truly chilling in how its written, with even a reader knowing how it can't possibly end the way things are going going to be holding their breath.

Again, the novella is short, and it's not even making as much of a statement with its contents as the first novella, but its a lot of fun and I really like these characters, so I'm definitely on board for the third one, and then the fourth which comes out later this year.