The Strangeworlds Travel Agency by L.D. Lapinski

The Strangeworlds Travel Agency by L.D. Lapinski is a stunning novel about a twelve-year-old girl called Flick Hudson. When Flick moves into a new town in the countryside, she finds a small store, called The Strangeworlds Travel Agency, filled with suitcases; suitcases filled with things called “schisms”, portals to another world. The store manager, a lonely eighteen-year-old boy named Jonathan, runs the establishment on his own after the death of his mother and the mysterious disappearance of his father, both caused by the bizarre schisms. At first, Flick has no interest in things such as this, but when Jonathan tells Flick that she’s “magically gifted” and shows her around the worlds, she is drawn into the experience of traveling and seeing new sights and decides to join Jonathan at the Strangeworlds Travel Agency. Unexpectedly, their adventures become much more dangerous than Jonathan ever could have thought.

Their adventures begin as fun little expeditions, exploring worlds with a carefree demeanor, but then, Jonathan starts to notice little changes in the behavior of people in the worlds, especially in one of the places they visit, a city called Five Lights. The people there seem on edge, fearing something, and whole streets and neighborhoods are disappearing. They don’t realize the seriousness of the cataclysmic event until one day Flick is taken hostage by the thieves in Five Lights in return for a suitcase out of their world.

With panic in the air, Jonathan realizes he must be the one to save Flick and fix this catastrophe before it’s too late. However, this may not be as hard as Jonathan thinks, as Flick has just found out about an amazing ability that no one has possessed for many, many, years.

(I know I’ve said this a lot over the past few weeks, but I do mean it every time) This book is now one of my favorite books. However, the one thing that really didn’t satisfy me is the ending. Lapinski doesn’t completely give away what happened and I despise that gnawing feeling I get when this happens, it’s like a cliffhanger, but not quite. Everything else though was absolutely magnificent, and I truly loved the originality of the plot.