Middle-Grade Review: Once There Was by Kiyash Monsef

Fifteen-year-old Marjan is struggling after her Iranian American father’s murder, but knows she has to somehow manage to continue to go to school, keep her father’s veterinary practice going, and take care of herself with the occasional help of her next door neighbor and guardian. When she gets a strange visitor who demands she go to England, she decides to go on the spur of the moment. Once there, she finds out that her father was not only a veterinarian for household pets, but also for magical creatures. She meets Simon and Sebastian’s family griffin, who is ailing, and finds she is able to diagnose him. She and Sebastian really connect, and text each other even after she returns home to California. She learns even more when she visits the palatial but oddly barricaded home of Horatio Prendergast to help heal his incontinent gnome. Horatio actually has dozens of magical creatures locked up, claiming that he is trying to keep them safe because the world no longer will care for them properly. His on site vet has botched the declawing of a manticore (who is NOT happy about it), and Marjan tells them what they need to do to fix it. Something’s not right. Her father’s murder still hasn’t been solved, the vet practice isn’t doing well despite the help from her father’s accountant and long time friend, David Ginn, and Marjan uncovers some clues with the help of Horatio’s detective, Ezra. Soon, she is reaching out to Sebastian for a plane ticket to Ithaca, where she feels something is going on. Sebastian meets her there, which is a good thing, since he can drive and she can’t. They uncover a very important magical creature that is the key to many things, but which also puts them in contact with the Fells, long time brokers of magical creatures. Are they good? Are they evil? How are they and Horatio connected? Marjan tries to go home and return to school, but her friends Grace and Carrie are concerned about her frequent absences and lack of communication.