The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a children and juvenile mystery novel written by John Bellairs. The book follows Lewis and his journey of becoming a young man and magician. It is a “coming of age” novel with the extra plot twist of magic. The book has a refreshing splash of charmed and enchanted elements, while still confronting important and relevant themes in an honest and serious way.
Readers young and old alike will be able to relate to Lewis’ low self-esteem, and even condescending way of acting. He gets bullied and feels like an outsider, the same way every other non-magical creature, like the readers, might have felt as well. Even though John Bellairs never challenges or explains a way to get over low self-esteem, he concludes in a good way which is with his protagonist realizing he is good enough the way he is.
John Bellairs also shortly approaches the feeling of helplessness and rebuilding broken lives. Lewis, the young boy we follow throughout the book, loses both his parents. He loses everything and everyone he knows as he has to move in with a new guardian in a new city at the young age of 10. But he doesn’t give up and he manages to build new connections in New Zebedee. In one of the last scenes, Lewis, John and Florence all stand strong and united in trust in order to save the world which shows that he has a new, strong family, who all loves him dearly.
