The Journal of Curious Letters

In a small post office in Macadamia, Alaska, a postal worker named Norbert Johnson encounters two bizarre visitors. The first is a fussy Englishman who calls himself Master George. He drops off hundreds of yellowed envelopes addressed around the world, pays generously, and leaves. Minutes later, a bald woman dressed entirely in yellow enters, calls herself Mistress Jane, and demands to know if Master George has been there. Sensing danger, Norbert lies. Jane threatens him, then vanishes into thin air. Norbert sends the letters out that night.

One letter reaches 13-year-old Atticus "Tick" Higginbottom, a smart but socially isolated seventh-grader in Deer Park, Washington, who endures daily bullying. The letter, signed "M.G.," warns that dangerous events are unfolding and promises 12 clues. If Tick burns the letter, everything stops. If it survives one week, the clues will begin. Tick hides the letter's true contents from his family.

The first clue arrives from Japan: a time-calculation riddle. Tick determines the critical date is May sixth. Soon after, a device labeled "Gnat Rat, Manufactured by Chu Industries" appears in his closet and releases mechanical stinging insects that attack him so viciously he ends up in the hospital. His father, Edgar Higginbottom, rescues him, and the device vanishes.

While walking through town, Tick encounters a Tingle Wraith, a swirling cloud of smoke that forms into a face and emits a terrifying sound called the Death Siren, which can incapacitate anyone who hears it too long. He then meets Mothball, one of Master George's allies, an eight-foot-tall woman from "the Fifth," one of several alternate Realities, or parallel universes, that branch from the original world. Mothball delivers the second clue, which instructs Tick to say certain "magic words" with his eyes closed; the first letter from M.G. contains the key. She mentions forbidden topics: the Barrier Wand, a device for traveling between Realities; Chi'karda, a force connected to conviction and choice; and "Kyoopy," later revealed as shorthand for quantum physics.

Shaken by the attacks, Tick nearly burns the letter but thinks of his little sister Kayla and imagines her life depending on someone else's bravery. He commits to continuing. Far away, Master George's equipment registers three powerful "Picks," or surges of overwhelming conviction, almost simultaneously.

Tick begins exchanging e-mails with Sofia Pacini, a 12-year-old from a wealthy Italian family who has also received M.G.'s letters. She becomes his first real friend. He also meets Rutger, Mothball's best friend and another of Master George's allies, a short, round man from "the Eleventh" Reality. Through the clues, Tick determines he must go to a cemetery on the appointed day.

After surviving a Tingle Wraith at school, Tick confides in his father, who believes him completely. On Christmas Day, a fifth clue from M.G. arrives but offers little new information. Edgar proposes they investigate Macadamia, Alaska. There they find Norbert, now a recluse terrified of Mistress Jane, who gives Tick the sixth clue that Mothball left with him. On the drive back, Frazier Gunn, a spy for Mistress Jane, seizes control of their rental car using technology from Chu Industries. Sofia and her butler Frupey, also in Alaska seeking the clue, help rescue Tick and Edgar seconds before the car crashes and explodes.

Three months pass with no clues. In April, Mothball and Rutger deliver clues seven through 10, explaining the silence was a deliberate test of patience. A new recipient, Paul Rogers, a 14-year-old from Florida, contacts Tick and Sofia. Paul has solved the magic words but cannot share the answer, as each person must solve them independently.

Tick's science teacher, Mr. Chu, explains quantum physics to him. Tick is disturbed to learn Mr. Chu's first name is Reginald, the same name as the founder of Chu Industries. Sofia also solves the magic words, deepening Tick's frustration. The 12th and final clue tells him to stop struggling and simply read "them." This triggers an epiphany: "the first letter" means the first letter of each clue. Writing them down, Tick spells MASTER GEORGE.

His elation is short-lived. Kayla finds the journal and burns the original letter. Devastated, Tick runs into the forest and screams that he did not burn it, channeling an unfamiliar surge of warmth from deep within. When he returns, Kayla remembers nothing, and the letter sits intact in the journal.

On the evening of May sixth, Tick says goodbye to Edgar and performs the ritual in the Deer Park cemetery: Eyes closed, he says "Master George" and stomps the ground with his right foot 10 times, hands in pockets. Nothing seems to happen, but when he heads home, the town is dark and lifeless, and a stranger occupies his house. Returning to the cemetery, he finds a tombstone bearing his own name. Mothball appears and explains this is a fragmented, dying alternate Reality. They are then winked, or transported instantaneously, to a massive structure in the Bermuda Triangle.

Inside, Tick reunites with Sofia, meets Paul in person, and encounters Sato, another of Master George's selected recruits, a distrustful 14-year-old from Japan. Master George explains that Reality Prime is the original universe, and 12 alternate Realities branched from it through Chi'karda fluctuations. Mistress Jane, a former Realitant (a member of the organization studying the Realities), controls the Thirteenth Reality, which harbors a mutated, dark Chi'karda resembling magic. She plans to destroy all other Realities and remake the universe. The recruits must steal Jane's Barrier Wand to trap her. Master George admits he sent the Gnat Rat and Tingle Wraiths as tests of courage.

When headquarters comes under attack, Master George instructs Tick to memorize the dial settings on his own Barrier Wand, then sends the group to the Thirteenth Reality with Mothball. They fly Windbikes, wheel-less flying motorcycles, to meet Annika, a Realitant spy inside Jane's fortress. But Jane has discovered the betrayal, removed the Chi'karda Drive from her own Wand to render it useless, and positioned an army of fangen, monstrous creatures bred from mutated Chi'karda, to ambush them. Annika escapes with the Wand but is overwhelmed and killed, throwing the Wand to Mothball in her final act.

A chaotic battle follows. Tick rescues the captured Sato and regroups everyone inside the fortress. As fangen break through the doors, Tick adjusts the stolen Wand's dials to the settings he memorized and pushes the button. Nothing happens: The Chi'karda Drive is missing. In desperation, Tick channels the same internal energy he felt in the forest and pushes the button again. It works.

They materialize at a satellite station overlooking the Grand Canyon. Master George arrives, examines the hollow Wand, and is astonished: Tick controlled Chi'karda through sheer conviction, making the device function without its core component. He declares Tick a walking enigma. Jane is now trapped in the Thirteenth Reality. Master George inducts all four recruits as official Realitants. Sato, who has no family to return to, stays at headquarters. Master George winks Tick home.

The Higginbottom family reunites joyfully. That night, Tick stands alone in the yard, clutching his Realitant pendant, contemplating the two miraculous events he cannot explain and what lies ahead. In the Epilogue, Reginald Chu, founder of Chu Industries in the Fourth Reality, waits for a meeting Mistress Jane requested but can no longer attend. Frustrated, he leaves, returning to his own plans already in motion.