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One of, if not my all time, my most favorite books in the world, and I'm a pretty prolific reader. I think one of N. Christopher's biggest strengths is building a scene. I cannot stress enough how much I love how clever his writing is. I LOVE how he weaves things, how you'll read something, and chalk it up to just casual scene building, only to find a nod to it later on, and then again later again. How none of his works have become films is beyond me, this just screams to be a film.

Veronica is more than a book - it's an experience! It is quite evident that Mr Christopher is a poet - this is one of the most visual books I have ever read. I "saw" this book in glorious technicolor! From the moment Leo meets Veronica by accident (or IS it by accident?) at the spot where Waverly Place intersects with Waverly Place in Manhattan, as she is looking for the keys she dropped in the snow, I was hooked - and you will be too! Leo's openness and sense of adventure make him the ideal person to help Veronica to get her father back. Dad is a famous magician who disappeared during a magic trick due to dastardly sabotage by a rival magician. I loved the feel of this quiet, empty New York, in parallel with the "real" noisy, crowded one! I found the feel of this book to be palpable. I inhabited the story while it was happening. There are things in it which will stay with me - for instance, the image, both visual and olfactory, of black tea seasoned with butter and salt. Such an exotic concept - for me, though probably not for a Tibetan! I tried it myself and found it to be quite tolerable, not at all the ghastly taste I was expecting! I loved the fact that Leo drinks endless cups of it during the time he has lost Veronica. Mr Christopher makes everything to do with Veronica seem cool, as viewed through Leo's eyes - the jazz combo she performs with, the clove cigarettes she smokes, the dress with "black holes" in it that she wears. The scenes with Keko are wonderful and the symbolism of the Empire State Building is perfect - what a great choice for "The Big Battle" between good and evil. Then there are the Elizabethan scenes, complete with tulpas with "eyeless eyes" and golden wings. (What a brilliant concept: that in a parallel world the "people" would be blurred and their voices muffled.) There are photographs that come to life and tricks that are not illusion but are on the level! Then there is the Tibetan connecti! on, including upside down triangular mirrors which reflect rooms other than the room one is in! I could go on and on (and have!!!) If you are looking for a book that will change your life (or, at least, the way you look at it) this may be the one! I also recommend highly Mr Christopher's poetry - 5 Degrees and Other Poems and In the Year of the Comet are both dazzling and mind-expanding!

... and the commonplace unfathomable" ~~ The New Yorker.
Couldn't have said it better. This is one of those books that I could not put down. "gmesa" (another reviewer) commented that it left them "feeling oddly cold despite the wonder". I can easily understand that reaction. Read on ...
Every chapter in this book left me feeling as though I was remembering a dream, (which can leave one feeling oddly detached, as though standing outside of one's self and watching) and left me trying to recall all the details and understand the meaning of what it was I had just seen. I suppose that's what happens when you get a novel by a poet. I like it. Alot.
This is one of those books where you are quite happy to suspend disbelief as you find yourself at the unlikely spot in Manhattan "... where Waverly Place intersects Waverly Place ..." and go along for the ride.
If you're so inclined, there is an extensive bibliography that makes for some very "curious" late night reading, if you can find all of the titles. Under the general heading of "Wayne-san's Trivia", the term Feng Shui entered my vocabulary when I read this book. I don't recall what, if any, Feng Shui title is in the bibliography, but a must-have title is "Feng-Shui: The Ancient Wisdom of Harmonious Living for Modern Times" by Eva Wong. (ISBN: 1570621004). You'll find no author with better credentials in the art (but if you do, e-mail me), and her accounts of apprenticing to her uncle will give you some insight that there is more to Feng Shui then deciding where to put the sofa. Pay attention to "Veronica", and you'll understand why I mention this ...
I've read, re-read, and given this as a gift. That's the best recommendation I can give any book. Enjoy.

This is, without a doubt, one of my very favorite books ever. I have read and reread it several times. You do have to "suspend disbelief" and just go with it. This is an incredibly beautifully-written story with mystery, romance, intrigue, and magic all interwoven into a magnificent tapestry that seems to unfold into infinity. I didn't want this story to end! It made me want to go find where Waverly Place intersects Waverly Place some snowy night and see if something magical happens.