The Children

By Melissa Albert
** Publication Date 2 June 2026 **
​5 stars


As kids we love make-believe. Pretending to live out in the forest with no parental supervision. Fighting off dragons. Can you even imagine, though, if you really were a feral child? Raising yourself in a home where occasionally the parental units might remember they had children? Welcome to The Children.


Ennis and Guinevere are the children of once promising actor Llewellyn and children’s author Edith Sharpe. Edith was a child herself when she married Llewellyn and had Ennis and Guin. They lived an artist’s itinerant lifestyle, first in New York City and later in Italy. Then one day they are on a plane across the Atlantic, in the car driving for hours, to a strange land with a magical house. 


It is here that the children will become feral creatures. With an orchard and strange artistic types coming and going from the giant home. It is here that their mother will finally become the author she wants to be, writing fantastic novels about The Ninth City. 


Guinevere is all grown now, the keeper of her mother’s legacy, and recent ‘author’ of her memoir. She travels to book events and panels sharing what it was like to be one of two primary characters in her mother’s books. Guin is almost rootless. Engaged, somewhat employed, but emotionally walled off from the rest of the world. Because of Ennis. Ennis who left Guin to fend for herself. Ennis who has been missing from Guin’s life for more than a decade. Guin is emotionally rootless.


I feel like I’ve been so blessed to read so many great novels lately. This novel is captivating, flipping back and forth between adult Guin and child Guin. Sharing her life story past and present with us. The strange story of growing up with neglectful parentage. Such a beautifully written novel of loss and love and extreme sibling codependence. There is nothing to not love about this book. In ways it is mysterious and fantastical. Sometimes sad. But a captivating novel worth reading.


Definitely recommend.