There are stories and then there are stories – tales that come as close to replicating the giddy feeling of falling in love as is possible – and in this read, I have found a new love. As close to perfection as any middle grade fantasy I’ve read, this held me captivated as I turned its pages and left me aching for more when I finished. Full of mystery and magic and with a fabulous heroine that readers will adore, this is without a shadow of a doubt going to be one of my favourite books of 2025 and is one to which I know I won’t be alone in needing not just one sequel but an entire series.

Set mostly in New London, a city that will seem both comfortingly familiar and yet intriguingly new at the same time, this is quite simply a brilliant piece of fiction – one that is hugely imaginative, richly described and one that has those moments within it that make you gasp and set your mind racing as you try – and fail utterly – to guess what is coming next. Ideal for confident readers in Year 4 upwards who are fans of Jessica Townsend’s Nevermoor series or B. B. Alston’s Amari books, this is a title that has been on my radar for some time and that I wholeheartedly recommend.

Our story opens in the British capital, on an underground train heading to Darkwell – a station that Metty, who considers herself to be a bit of an expert on London’s tube system, has never heard of. Reaching their destination, she and her father – the captain – alight and make their way to the appointment where Metty will discover her fate, as is usual for children on their 10th birthdays, which will be revealed to her in the form of a tattoo on the back of her hand. When the time comes to be marked, Metty is shocked by the resulting image – an ink-black skull, held by a hand wearing a violet glove – a sign that she is destined to become a murderer – and is told by her father that it will need to be kept hidden from now on.

A year later, Metty has become more used to the idea of being a murderer and now spends much of her time absorbed in thoughts of whom she is likely to kill – something that has not made her popular with the staff at the Welsh home to which the captain has moved them following the acquisition of her tattoo. With the memories of her 10th birthday still fresh in her mind, she is hoping that turning 11 will prove to be less eventful but is deeply hurt when her father tells her that he must leave immediately, before she has had a chance to celebrate with him, promising that he will contact her later that day.

When he fails to do so, Metty is hurt but quickly realises that he has not willingly broken his promise to her but has, in fact, disappeared. Deciding to take matters into her own hands, Metty hatches a plan to find him but before she gets very far, her Aunt Magnificent arrives unexpectedly, announcing that Metty is in danger in Wales and takes her to her home in New London – a floating city above the ancient metropolis. Here, Metty sets about tracking down the captain but before long becomes aware that all is not as it should be in her new surroundings and that an underground group known as the Black Moths is behind a series of events that threaten the stability of New London. As she searches the city and becomes increasingly aware of the Black Moths’ activities, Metty begins to wonder if they are connected to her unique fate. But when she finally discovers the shocking truth, it is beyond anything she could possibly have imagined…

Metty is a fierce protagonist who has a burning curiosity to get to the bottom of things, even before she receives her fate. Once she discovers that she is destined to become a murderer, she applies this curiosity to various aspects of what she sees as her inescapable future and develops an emboldened attitude towards life that makes her refuse to take no for an answer and leads her into all sorts of scrapes after her father disappears. Transported from the quiet of the Welsh countryside to the hustle and bustle of her aunt’s home city, she is eager to drink in everything that it offers and is filled with a drive to uncover the truth about her father’s disappearance and its possible connection to the sinister Black Moths.

As we accompany her on her adventure, we scarcely have time to draw breath. The narrative is fast-paced and filled with a glorious assortment of colourful characters and magical objects and settings that are exquisitely described as we encounter them, with some pretty big points in the plot reliant on tiny details that have been carefully woven into the earlier chapters. Not only does this ensure that, once started, the book is sure to be finished but it also leaves the reader with that feeling of desperately wanting to reread the story – something that doesn’t happen that frequently in my experience.

With the book ending quite neatly but with questions unanswered, I am so very much hoping that it is the start of a series – the author’s website indicates that it is but I have been unable to find out any more about a Book 2. I guess I will just need to be very patient and, when it comes, greet the news of a sequel with the excitement that it surely deserves.

I am, of course, enormously indebted to publisher HarperCollins Children’s Books and to NetGalley for my virtual, advance read. Inkbound: Meticulous Jones and the Skull Tattoo publishes in hardback on January 30th and in paperback on September 25th.