'Strangeworlds Travel Agency' Book Club: Chapters 20-30

By: Cori Reed Photo By: @lostinbookworld

 “The Strangeworlds Travel Agency doesn't send you to the seaside, or indeed to anywhere you can get by boat, train or air. We send you to other worlds” - L.D. Lapinski

 
Welcome back, friends, to Day 3 of our book club read-along for OwlCrate Jr's June 2021 book, Strangeworlds Travel Agency by L.D. Lapinski! What are our heroes getting up to today?

Just a reminder that this will be a SPOILER discussion for Chapters 20 - 30 of Strangeworlds Travel Agency, so make sure you read these chapters before continuing.

Discussion questions are listed below, and anyone who participates in the comments will be entered to win a free OwlCrate Jr box! We’ll be selecting four winners this time around, so make sure you join in for every discussion!


The Story Continues...

After being officially sworn in to the society, Jonathan takes Flick to The City of Five Lights to visit another of the Strangeworlds Society’s outposts - Quicksparks. Little do they know that a Thief is watching them and reporting their presence. The Thieves, Hid and Glean, make a plan to steal Flick and force Jonathan to trade the suitcase to get her back! Uh oh!

 Heading to find some lunch, Jonathan finds he has been pickpocketed! It’s okay in Five Lights though, Thieving is a respectable profession and the Thief, Nicc, left Jonathan a receipt for the thimble that was taken. Nicc decides to join them at lunch and reveals strange things have been happening in Five Lights - streets, buildings, and even people have started to just...disappear. Five Lights was the last place Jonathan’s dad visited before he too disappeared. This does not bode well!

After a magical (literally!) evening in Five Lights, the next morning our heroes go in search of Quicksparks, only to find the entire emporium has been stolen by the Thieves! In the empty building, a desolate Jonathan reveals that the real reason he took Flick to Five Lights is because he thought she would be able to help trace his father’s whereabouts. It turns out that Flick, and no one else since Elera Mercator, has the ability to truly see magic, including the schisms. And Jonathan lied to her about it because he was jealous.

 Needing some time to cool off, Flick leaves Jonathan in the empty shop. While wandering she runs into Nicc, and together they go back to the inn they stayed the night before. While discussing Flick’s current predicament two grown up Thieves come and kidnap Flick even though stealing people is forbidden.

 Jonathan, meanwhile, decides to go after Flick and head back to the inn, but instead he is accosted by a Thief, revealing they have taken Flick and will not give her back until he gives them a suitcase to another world. But why on earth (well, not earth) are they so desperate to leave Five Lights? Back with Flick, The Overseer of the Thieves tells her why she’s been captured, but doesn’t give any more information on why they are so desperate to leave Five Lights.

Jonathan goes back through the suitcase to the travel agency, mulling over if he should give a world to the Thieves for Flick’s return. Eventually he decides it’s too great of a sacrifice to give up an entire world for one human, but he is determined to get her back another way. Flick on the other hand wakes up to find herself in an actual Waiting Room, where she is to be stuck until someone, hopefully Jonathan, comes to get her.

 Jonathan decides he needs more help, an adultier-adult as he puts it, and goes in search of a suitcase to another outpost with a Custodian. He picks a suitcase labelled “Phaeton’s Trading Post”, which has a Custodian named Maskelyne. Unfortunately, when Jonathan opens the suitcase he accidentally falls straight in and ends up falling (ouch) onto a very cold and snowy mountainside. Even worse luck, an avalanche hits and just in the nick of time he is able to grab the suitcase and dive back through to the travel agency.

 

 Well at least Jonathan didn't get swept away by an avalanche! Good save!


Questions:

  1. Since Jonathan didn't have much luck finding help while attempting to get to Phaeton’s Trading Post, where do you think he's going to go next?
  2. What do you think is happening in Five Lights to make the Thieves so eager to leave?
  3. There is so much magic in Five Lights! If you could perform a magic trick with the bottled magic of the city, what would it be?
  4. Why do you think that Flick is the only person who can see magic and schisms since Elera Mercator?
  5. The next section of the book will take us to the end! Do you have any predictions about what will happen as the story wraps up?

See you again on Sunday as we discuss Chapters 31 - 41!

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