The Society of Unknowable Objects

By Gareth Brown

Book Overview

From the author of the internationally bestselling The Book of Doors, another fantastical, stand-alone novel in which a trio of seemingly everyday people are members of a secret society tasked with finding and protecting hidden magical objects--ordinary items with extraordinary properties.

The world of unknowable objects--magical items that most people have no idea possess powers--has been quiet for decades, but the three current members of a secret society have remained watchful, meeting every six months in the basement of a bookshop in London. They are pledged to protect their archive of magical items hidden away, safe from the outside world--and the world safe from them. But when Frank Simpson, the longest-standing member of the Society of Unknowable Objects, hears of a new artifact coming to light in Hong Kong, he sends Magda Sparks--author by day and newest member--to investigate.

Within hours of arriving in Hong Kong, Magda is facing death and danger, confronted by a professional killer who seems to know all about unknowable objects, specifically one that was stolen from him a decade before. Magda is forced to flee, using an artifact that not even the rest of the Society knows about.

Returning to London, Magda learns hers is not the only secret being kept from the other two members. And that the most pernicious secret is about the nature of the Society's mission. Her discoveries will lead her on a perilous journey, across the Atlantic to the deep south of the United States, now in pursuit of not an unknowable object, but an unknowable person: the professional killer she first faced in Hong Kong. In doing so, Magda begins to understand that there are even more in the world who are chasing these magical items, and that her own family's legacy is tied up in keeping all these secrets under wraps.

Magic has always been too powerful to reveal to the world. But Magda will learn there might be something even more powerful:

The truth.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0063324032
• ISBN13: 9780063324039
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Magic and its dangers

I absolutely loved The Book of Doors and so I was super excited about this book! Set in the same world (with a little connection to the Book of Doors) but can be read as standalone, though I do highly recommend reading both to get the full experience and be ready, hopefully, for a third book?!! This was a rich world, full of wonders (and sadly horrors) due to special objects that at first seem normal but have a special weight and power that can be used for good or evil, depending on who finds it. They cannot be destroyed. Enter the Society of Unknowable Objects, tasked with finding those objects before they can be used in a bad way. I liked the characters a lot (though maybe not Owen or Lukas), who are mostly good, though flawed, and holding secrets of their own. Magda is cool and optimistic, an author, and ready to finally go on a search of her own for a new object that has popped up. And that is when it all blows up! So many secrets and lies and a journey for the truth about the society and the objects (I would love to have Henry's ring!) and a hard choice to make that fixes a mistake made so many years ago. This was an enthralling tale and though I would love to have an object of my own, it definitely is a good message about human behavior and who has the right to hold the power and use it.