" 'Oh, you stupid girl,' she had said after a gaping silence."

I had not heard of The Animals of Lockwood Manor until I saw it on Bookish First. It sounds like a great plot, an assistant with an unhappy past and no friends or family to speak of, who discovers her true self and worth when she's called upon to protect something or someone during the war. The writing is very good, and I enjoyed the narrator's voice immensely. From what I could tell, should be an intriguing book. "The proctor turned off the lights in the museum with a chorus
of clicks and pings but it did not scare me; I had never been
frightened of the dark."