The Uninvited

An astonishing magical adventure story from the award-winning Ross MacKenzie - exploring themes of immigration, colonisation and freedom.

When the Faerie folk flee their world and come to ours, running from the nightmare of war, nobody in the everyday knows what to do. So they are locked away.

Thirteen-year-old Samm Wolfback lives in Glass Forest, a sprawling Faerae refugee camp in England. Life in Glass Forest is hard, poisoned by disease and crime and poverty. But Samm has a unique gift that lines his pockets – he can find lost things.

When Samm is thrust into the centre of a plot to escape Glass Forest and return home, he must use his gifts to unearth two treasures lost in the everyday: A relic that will end the war back in Faerae; and the only person with the power to reopen the door between worlds – The Locksmith. The task will take Samm to dark places filled with danger, from a grimly enchanted circus of nightmares to a museum housing a murderous exhibit, and he will have to use all of his skills to stay alive.

Meanwhile, in the human world, a kidnapped boy with a dark secret begins to realise that he might hold the key to the Faerae folks’ fate. Before all is said and done, destiny’s web will entangle him with Samm and send them spinning towards a showdown with the great evil that lurks in the world beyond the door.

About the Author

Ross MacKenzie has been writing stories since he was seven years old, when he created an illustrated short story about a hungry crocodile named Crunchy Colin in a smuggled school jotter. His novel The Nowhere Emporium won the Blue Peter Best Story Award and the Scottish Children’s Book Award. He is also the winner of the Scottish Teenage Book Prize 2021. He now splits his time between writing, his day job as a graphic designer and his wife, daughters and cocker spaniel, with whom he lives near Glasgow.