The Incredible Talking Machine by Jenni Spangler

Roll up! Roll up! Spangler’s literary spectacle chills and delights!

It’s 1848 and the cotton mills of Manchester clatter and cough. A new show has come to the Theatre Royale, for those who can afford the ticket. Inside, up in the flies, stagehand Tig Rabbit glimpses a ghost while lighting the lamps and accidentally drops her light-stick - damaging the star equipment of the new act: Faber’s fabulous talking machine.

As fast as the light-stick drops, Tig falls into trouble.

There are lots of marvellous cogs and keys here: a ghost, clockwork machines, inventions, illusions, predictions, greed and betrayal, and the great question: can you change your fate? Should you even try?

Jenni Spangler does a terrific job setting up the suspense and I was gripped from the moment we saw the ‘ugly spiderweb’ ruining the talking machine’s blue eye. And what an exciting finale!

At the centre of it all is Tig Rabbit. Heart-on-her sleeve, hair in a mess, spanner in hand. Tig is curious, brave, and selfless - and that’s saying something for a meddling mite who sleeps on the floor, downtrodden by those supposed to care for her. Can she change her destiny?

Published in 2021, The Incredible Talking Machine is Jenni Spangler’s second novel and is aimed at middlegrade readers.

Many thanks to Jenni Spangler, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for my advanced reading copy. I loved it!

What to Read Next?

Jenni Spangler’s debut novel The Vanishing Trick is one of my favourite reads of the year. It’s a novel of tarot cards and cons, seances and tricks, sleights of hand and showmanship. Madame Pinchbeck is a wonderful villain: charming and creepy and increasingly sinister. Loved it!

For grownups, Elizabeth Gaskell’s classic North and South is a fantastic portrayal of Manchester life and the cotton mills.