Jessica Townsend's Silverborn sees fantasy meet cosy crime in her latest book of the bestselling YA Nevermoor series

Australia Broadcast Center

08-05-2025

Jessica Townsend remembers exactly where she was the moment she learned she was a New York Times-bestselling author.
It was 2017. She had just published Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow and she was in LA on the US leg of her book tour to meet with film executives.
The Sunshine Coast local decided to visit Disneyland on her day off when her agent called with the news.
"I was like … 'This is so silly' — you don't find out you've hit the New York Times bestseller list when you're walking down Main Street in Disneyland," Townsend tells ABC Arts.
"The absurdity of the whole situation just really got to me. But it was a nice, magical way to find out that this totally ridiculous, very unexpected career milestone had happened."
To the world, Townsend — then in her early 30s — appeared to be an overnight success.
But the publication of her debut novel was the culmination of years of work.
"It took me about 10 years to write the first Nevermoor book and, at the time, that was a great source of frustration for me," she says.
"But in hindsight, it's the best possible thing that could have happened."
The "long incubation process", as Townsend describes it, allowed her to build out the imaginary world of Nevermoor, a sprawling metropolis filled with magicians, fantastical creatures and enchanted architecture.
"The challenge for me is not trying to come up with [ideas]. The challenge is how to switch off the tap," she says.
That tap has poured forth enough material for Townsend to loosely plot out nine books.
A musical film adaptation — currently in development with Drew Goddard (The Martian) as writer and producer, and Australian Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) as director — is another addition to the ever-expanding Nevermoor universe.
And now Townsend has published its much-anticipated fourth novel, Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow.
The first three books — Nevermoor (2017), Wundersmith (2018) and Hollowpox (2020) — follow the fortunes of Morrigan Crow, a 10-year-old girl from the Wintersea Republic.
Born under a curse, Morrigan is destined to die on Eventide (the last day of an age) until the mysterious Jupiter North turns up to save her from her unloving family and tragic fate.
He spirits her away to the magical city of Nevermoor, home to the Wundrous Society, where Morrigan learns that she is a magician who can control a powerful substance called Wunder.
The only problem is that such magicians have a bad reputation in Nevermoor, thanks to the last one, Ezra Squall, who used his gift to carry out a massacre of innocent civilians.
Silverborn, a 660-page doorstopper, combines fantasy with "cosy crime" as Morrigan and her friends investigate a murder.
Townsend introduces a raft of new characters and takes readers to previously unexplored corners of Nevermoor, including the wealthy Silver District, home to the privileged Darling family.
While the book is still pitched to middle-grade readers, Townsend says a "slight tonal shift" sees Silverborn tackling darker and more grown-up themes.
The novel explores the fraught territory between childhood and adolescence as Morrigan, now 13, and her patron, Jupiter, clash over boundaries.
It also considers what constitutes home and family.
"The whole series is about family, in a way," Townsend reflects.
Woven through the Nevermoor series are references to Townsend's favourite books and films.
In an early scene in the first book, Jupiter presents Morrigan with an umbrella on Morningtide so she can partake in a Nevermoor tradition celebrating the start of a new age: jumping off the roof of the Hotel Deucalion and floating 13 storeys to the ground.
"That was a hat tip to two things: to Mary Poppins, which I've always loved, and also to my favourite movie, Practical Magic," Townsend says.
She also drew inspiration from Gregory McGuire's 1995 novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the basis for the musical and 2024 film.
"It took this whimsical, absurd, silly children's story … and then treated it very, very seriously, and brought out the things about it that were sinister. That's what I love — having things side by side that are very silly and very sinister, and having them turn on a dime."
She also acknowledges the influence of the Harry Potter series, which she describes as "a cultural touchstone".
"It changed the landscape of children's publishing forever," she says.
"For a lot of people, even for a lot of adults, it is often not just the only children's book they've ever read, it is the only book they've ever read … and so it holds this mythical place in the collective consciousness."
But Townsend thinks it's time for the culture to move on.
"I would love to think that we could de-centre the conversation in general in children's books from Harry Potter," she says.
"I have no interest in thinking or talking about JK Rowling and her creations because as a queer woman, as a trans ally, I am just so gutted and so disappointed [by her anti-trans activism]."
As a young reader, Townsend loved books like The Baby-Sitters Club, John Marsden's Tomorrow When the War Began series and Little Women.
These stories exerted such a strong force on the author that when it came to writing her own books, she was naturally drawn to the world of children's literature.
"Those are the stories that we hold tight … [and] stick with us in a real, emotional way," she says.
Stories with that kind of power can reach readers of all ages — not just children.
"I'm deliberately writing books that I hope are being enjoyed by children and adults," Townsend says.
"I love the communal experience of adults and kids reading together, and it not being a total drag for the adult, so that they are enjoying it and getting something out of it themselves … on a slightly different level, like a Pixar film."
Part of the thrill comes from becoming immersed in a timeless world removed from reality.
"I love the idea of creating a place that people can come back to, that they can find in childhood and that they can come back to when they are teenagers and when they are adults, and that it will still have that nostalgic, joyful feeling for them."
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