Spoonbenders

This gloriously imaginative novel featuring a family of somewhat reluctant psychics has a nifty trick up its sleeve - as whimsical and eccentric as the Telemachus family is, their hopes and desires perfectly mirror our own. Spoonbenders is hilarious, heartfelt and brimming with humanity.

Spoonbenders is brilliant. With the Telemachus clan, Daryl Gregory has created a family that is part J.D. Salinger and part David Foster Wallace. But the most impressive trick in the novel isn't how they read minds. Gregory's real gift is how he uses them to show the depths of the human heart.

Did you spend a childhood convinced that you were *this close* to developing telekinetic powers? Me too! The supernatural may elude us still, but there is real magic in Daryl Gregory's gleeful story of the Amazing Telemachus Family. Spoonbenders is also about the power of belief and whether we can ever escape our tangled family legacies - and why we might not want to.

A joyfully weird book about psychics and con artists, and the marvels that result from the intermarriage of the two.

Imagine amazing powers - but do so with uncommon creativity, rigor, and humor. You might, if you're lucky, arrive at the delicious drama of the girl who can smell lies; the all-at-once-ness of the boy who can't not see the future; the great dilemma of the psychic pressed into service as a spy. Daryl Gregory's novel traces the line where gift balances against curse and by the end, we realize he isn't only talking about amazing powers after all. Spoonbenders is X-Files meets The Sopranos with a real, roaring heart.

A big generational family story of longing, nostalgia and humor. The writing is so deftly charming and yet deeply felt. Spoonbenders is entertaining and moving - a perfect summer read.

Cleverly plotted and swiftly paced . . . Gregory's novel deploys a cast of odd, damaged, enormously likable characters . . . Readers will emerge from the fray sure they know each Telemachus down to the smudges on their hearts. - Kirkus