SOLVED. Illegal fairies? in steampunk city, main kid & sister r both such. older sib must work for food in disguise despite danger. young sister hides in house in a hatch in wall/floor. main kid sees old lady step thru a magic portal & follows. [s]

[Temple]

read this sometime from 2009-2012. it was a pretty hefty book, but i was pretty young so i'll say a range of 250-500 pages. i only read the beginning of this book, then became disinterested or something like that. it was about a pair of siblings who lived in a city where elves/fairies/something along those lines were either illegal or just very very targeted by society. the older sister/brother, the narrator, disguises themselves as a non-elf/fairy to work, i think (that detail im not so sure about). the younger sibling, a fairy/elf as well, stays inside pretty much constantly and has a secret hatch to stay in the room behind in case theres a surprise guest or inspection. one day, an old lady (the new neighbor?) teleports and the main character sees her do it. he/she follows the old lady through the door where she teleported and teleports as well. this is all i remember.

PS: i am remembering a cover, possibly, but i might be accidentally confusing this with another book. a name, too, but once again this might be a second book, which is why i separated these details. ok so the cover had a steampunk, brass bird with wires and gears sticking out. black feathers fall over an aerial view of a steampunk city. the sky is blue, the back of the book and the borders were gold or tan, maybe. the name im remembering is bartholomew. that's all i got.

[Becca]

The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann

[Temple]

Becca wrote: "The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann"

That's it! thanks.

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Evie. Link for Becca's find - The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann