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  • Published: 28 July 2026
  • ISBN: 9781760146030
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

Little Spark




Richly imagined and marvellously unnerving, Little Spark is a full-bodied gothic Victorian-era tale of sublime invention.

'Kidd has imagination to die for.' The Guardian

A secret cannot stay locked away forever
Bodkin Bell, orphan, pickpocket and survivor, doesn't know where she came from, but she knows she’s different. Gaslights flare as she walks past. Cutlery spins. Shocks fly from her fingertips.
For years, she was ‘Little Spark’, the star of an electrifying sideshow – until the act went too far and she ended up in a London gaol.
Now she’s been offered a way out. A chance to serve at Point Mote, a vast, desolate house marooned on the misty Kent marshes. There, she will assist a reclusive family of cunning inventors in the creation of automata: miraculous, lifelike machines for which gentlemen collectors will pay handsomely.
But this house of wonders hides mysteries too. As Bodkin starts to question why she is really there, she unearths secrets that have been buried bone-deep for years – and a truth beyond all imagining. One that was never meant to be found.

  • Published: 28 July 2026
  • ISBN: 9781760146030
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

About the author

Jess Kidd

Jess Kidd was brought up in London as part of a large family from County Mayo. She is the author of several acclaimed novels for adults including Himself, The Hoarder, Things in Jars, The Night Ship, Murder at Gulls Nest and a book for children, Everyday Magic. In 2017, Kidd won the Costa Short Story Award and in 2020 she was picked by The Times as one of the best emerging Irish writers. @JessKiddHerself | jesskidd.com

Also by Jess Kidd

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Praise for Little Spark

Weird, wonderful and utterly immersive; a sumptuous Gothic mystery full of unexpected shocks! Dare to enter Bodkin Bell's world, where the writing is delicious, the twists are plentiful, and the shadowy secrets of a stately home can and will be unlocked by sheer neurodivergent determination.

Nat Reeve, author of Nettleblack

What a wonderful story. Little Spark has everything I love – twisted secrets, dark deeds, a huge creepy house in the middle of nowhere and an extraordinary protagonist with dangerous powers and a heart like no other – literally. I love Jess’s writing and I was completely hooked from the first page. Little Spark is deliciously dark and twisty and keeps the reader guessing until the final pages.

Ruth Hogan, author of The Keeper of Lost Things