The Society Of Unknowable Objects by Gareth Brown (book review).
The bad news, reader, is that you cannot join the Society of Unknowable Objects. Membership is inherited, passed down from father to son or mother to daughter, in the case of our heroine. Magda Sparks becomes a member following her mother’s death on a hiking trail in Nevada, USA. Imelda Sparks was tracking down unknowable objects using a special map and encountered a villain named Lukas. He plays a big part in the book.
Magda has known old Frank Simpson all her life but only as the proprietor of Bell Street Books in Marleybone, London. It was a surprise when he told her about the society, founded by their forebears, and showed her the Clockwork Cabinet in the basement where unknowable objects, things with magic powers, are stored. The society meets twice a year to affirm that all the objects are safe and have a cup of tea with biscuits. The other members are Will Pinn, a quiet, introverted watchmaker, and Henrietta Wiseman, a playful older woman who doesn’t always come to meetings. Their ancestors, the story goes, were crusty bastions of the British Empire who discovered the magical objects in foreign lands and brought them back to Blighty to keep humanity safe. A fine moral tale of righteous chaps doing good. It’s like a ripped yarn by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Frank sends Magda on a mission to Hong Kong to retrieve a newly discovered magical object, which leads to a shift in events and the revelation of dark secrets. She meets a handsome bank executive named James Wei who takes her to a secure place to fetch it. They are interrupted by a trained assassin, one Owen Maddox, an ex-paratrooper who used to work for the British Secret Service but has gone freelance and somehow knows about the objects. Magda escapes from Owen Maddox by using the magic that she has kept secret. You’ll believe a girl can fly!
The magical objects are powerful. Apart from a pendant that lets you fly, there’s a ring that makes the bearer invisible and able to walk through walls, a chess piece that gives you control over other people and a crucifix that restores the dead to life. Some scenes in this light fantasy almost change into horror when the bad guys do their utmost.
In general, though, the plot is a clean, decent adventure story, probably suitable for a YA audience but perfectly acceptable to adults. A page-turner. I really enjoyed it. There are a variety of interesting characters, especially the villains. Owen Maddox has a suitably terrible backstory; Lukas even more so. I also liked Will Pinn, the quiet, decent watchmaker who tried to live a sedate, well-organised life. Oddly enough, the least intriguing character is the heroine, Magda, a rather straight, proper, suburban girl. She is jolly nice, salt of the earth, but a bit boring. It’s often that way in fiction. The minor characters are the favourites, like in Babylon 5. The society’s ancestors, who collected the unknowable objects, are rogues who could make for an interesting prequel, especially if more secrets are revealed.
Author Gareth Brown deftly uses the modern thriller technique of short chapters, point of view switches at cliffhanger moments and surprising plot twists to keep you reading. He writes decent prose, too, with a scattering of similes that lift it above potboiler hack work. This is his second novel, and I must check out his first, ‘The Book Of Doors’. ‘The Society Of Unknowable Objects’ is an engaging tale that is worth your time. Enjoy.
Eamonn Murphy
July 2025
(pub: William Morrow/HarperCollins, 2025. 337 page hardback. Price: $30.00 (US), $37.00 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-332403-9. ebook price: £ 8.99 (UK)).
check out websites: www.hc.com and www.penguin.co.uk/books/456440/the-society-of-unknowable-objects-by-brown-gareth/9781787637269
