The Unwritten Girl

The Unwritten Girl is a young adult book written by Canadian author James Bow. It was published by Boardwalk Books, an imprint of the Dundurn Group, in 2006 and received modest attention as the debut novel of an author from a respected medium-sized Canadian press.

The novel concerns Rosemary Watson. a girl who lives in the fictional town of Clarksbury. She has endured a lot of teasing throughout her school years ever since her brother Theo suffered from a nervous breakdown. Now in junior high, Rosemary often tries to hide in the world of books, away from the suffering in the world and to a great extent, away from any suffering that a book may portray. She often will start a book and then stop abruptly as soon as a character is in some sort of pain. But when an angry-looking girl that mysteriously appears in the library attempts to pull Rosemary into a book, weird events begin to occur around her.

She later realizes that this fear she cannot confront has led to an uprising in the Land of Fiction. They have captured her brother Theo. With her new friend Peter and her guide, faerie shape-shifter Puck, Rosemary must enter the Land of Fiction and confront the new perils that have shaped the characters of the books she has read in the past and present. Some want to help her while others seek to capture and torment her. Ultimately, Rosemary must face the challenges that the Land of Fiction will impose on her as she seeks to rescue her brother and learn to accept that life is full of both happy and sad moments.