Evie Thomas, a high school senior, is so distressed by her father's cheating on her mother, and their subsequent divorce and his pending remarriage toEvie Thomas, a high school senior, is so distressed by her father's cheating on her mother, and their subsequent divorce and his pending remarriage to his affair partner, that she's soured on the whole idea of love. She even empties her bookshelves of all her very favorite romances, giving them away to the library and a Little Free Library box.
But the old woman who owns the Little Free Library gives her the gift of another book, called Instructions for Dancing, that leads Evie to a dance studio and, possibly, a chance at love. Frankly, she's not even looking for love, but the dance studio really wants her to join this amateur competition coming up.
And Evie has also suddenly developed a magical ability (not really a spoiler since this is in book's blurb and in the first 20 pages) to see a vision of a couple's most important past and future moments when she sees them kiss. The problem is, this magical ability is causing Evie more distress rather than less. It seems like every vision she sees shows the relationship ending sadly, even with heartbreak. It just confirms everything she thinks her dad's betrayal of her family has taught her.
This YA contemporary romance, set in our world with a dash of Zoltar-type fantasy (the characters even talk about the movie Big), has some surprising depth and heart, and some important things to say about love. But don’t go into it expecting all sweetness and light. Tears were shed, I’m just saying.
Nicola Yoon has a really delightful style of writing, with some quirky in-between chapters that give us insights into Evie's mind. The author's afterword also gives you some fascinating but painful insights into what was going on in Yoon's life that helped inspire this book. Diversity representation here: The main characters are black, and two of Evie's best friends are gay.
Minus points for giving Evie’s cheating father and the other woman too much of a pass in the end. I’m not saying she shouldn’t forgive him, I’m saying, don’t justify cheating. It’s a non-starter for me.
There’s another boarding school for wayward children: one where those in charge are determined to make them deny the portal worlds that they once callThere’s another boarding school for wayward children: one where those in charge are determined to make them deny the portal worlds that they once called home. By any means possible.
But Cora is suffering severe trauma from her adventure in the Moors in Come Tumbling Down and decides that the only way to save herself is to transfer to the Whitethorn Institute. Even though Eleanor West advises her earnestly against it…
This new Wayward Children book opens up this series in some interesting ways, and I’m here for it, but it does leave us with some unresolved questions.
Full review to come! Thanks so much to Tor for the ARC!
Initial post: Look what landed on my doorstep today!! And I immediately started reading it, because I have no self-control at all where this series is concerned....more
I've been a fan of Shannon Hale for years, ever since reading The Goose Girl and Princess Academy, not to mention the romantic comedy Austenland, so II've been a fan of Shannon Hale for years, ever since reading The Goose Girl and Princess Academy, not to mention the romantic comedy Austenland, so I try to check out almost everything she writes. But I had some trouble getting into this one at first and set it aside for about a year. It's different - low fantasy rather than high - and the main character is very lost at first. Once I finally decided to just read it, though, I thought it was excellent!
Josie is a high school senior, an excellent singer who dropped out of school to pursue her big dream of being on Broadway. It didn't work out. She ended up staying in New York several months to try to make it work, going deep into credit card debt and ashamed of where she's ended up. Now she's a nanny for a 4 or 5 year old girl in Missoula, Montana, whose divorced mom travels most of the time, and trying to pay back her debt without her mother finding out.
An intriguing bookseller loans Josie a few books and she ends up getting lost in these stories ... literally: sinking into a dream world where she's the main character. It's more fun and fulfilling than her real life. And then there's Josie's struggles to figure out where her relationships are at with her high school boyfriend and her queer best friend. What to do?
Josie's angst and poor choices were a little much for me at first (the reason I set this book aside for months) but once the plot gets rolling it's fascinating, an unusual low fantasy novel with some really great insights into life and friendship. Recommended for people who like YA coming-of-age novels with a touch of fantasy.
Full review to come! Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC....more
A warmhearted fable of love, acceptance and found family for our time. Review first posted on www.FantasyLiterature.com:
You’re a second-class citizen,A warmhearted fable of love, acceptance and found family for our time. Review first posted on www.FantasyLiterature.com:
You’re a second-class citizen, viewed with suspicion if you have magical powers in TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea. Magical children are confined to orphanages that are overseen by the rigid bureaucracy of the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY). One of DICOMY’s most diligent, rule-abiding caseworkers is 40-year-old Linus Baker, a pudgy and — though he barely admits it to himself — deeply unhappy gay caseworker who lives in a lonely apartment in a city where it’s always raining and overcast.
One day Linus receives a special, top secret assignment from DICOMY’s Extremely Upper Management: travel to an island orphanage for a month to investigate an orphanage of six children who are particularly uncommon in their magical aspects, as well as the orphanage’s master, Arthur Parnassus, who is viewed as problematic by Extremely Upper Management for reasons they are (at least at first) unwilling to share with Linus. And they want detailed, thorough weekly reports from Linus while he’s there.
So Linus packs up his cantankerous cat Calliope, farewells his nosy neighbor, and travels by train from the gloomy city to the sunny seashore, and then to Marsyas Island. At first he’s overwhelmed by the extremely unusual and even dangerous children in the orphanage on the island. They include six-year-old Lucifer (“Lucy”) whose father is the devil himself, an intelligent wyvern, a grumpy and bearded young female gnome, a painfully shy shapeshifting boy, a winged forest sprite, and an amorphous green blob with black teeth named Chauncey. They’re overseen by their mysterious but charming guardian Arthur, to whom Linus finds himself reluctantly attracted.
Linus tries hard to stick with his objectivity and his hefty book of rules and regulations, but it’s difficult when he realizes that Lucy has a good heart despite his inherited affinity for evil, and the gnome Talia adores gardening and has a soft core under her extremely crusty exterior, and Chauncey’s earnest goal in life is to be the best bellhop ever (somewhat difficult for a blob, but he manages to practice on Linus). And when Arthur is so charming. But there are still things that Arthur and DICOMY haven’t told Linus yet.
The House in the Cerulean Sea is a sweet, heartwarming story that focuses on diversity, acceptance and love. It’s marketed as adult fantasy, and the main character and his love interest are both middle-aged. But it’s written on a middle-grade level: simplistic and straightforward writing, obvious symbolism, no adult/R-rated language or content, and overt moralizing.
Hate is loud, but I think you’ll learn it’s because it’s only a few people shouting, desperate to be heard. You might not ever be able to change their minds, but so long as you remember you’re not alone, you will overcome.
Affirmative messages in literature are nice, but I enjoy them a lot more when they’re subtle. The House in the Cerulean Sea is the fantasy counterpart to the SF novel The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet: short on plot tension and complexity (especially considering it’s an adult novel); long on positive feelings and inclusiveness. But the characters are charming and the children have an engaging quirkiness. Lucy in particular is an interesting character; he wants to be loved, adores old-fashioned records, and struggles with terrible nightmares, but has a penchant for terrifying people and saying truly awful things. It’s amusing when the hippie employee of the record store in the Marsyas village treats Lucy with equanimity.
“Who’s the square?” J-Bone whispered.
“Mr. Baker,” Lucy whispered back. “He’s here to make sure I don’t burn anyone alive with the power of my mind and then consume their souls from their smoking carcass.”
“Rock on, little dude,” J-Bone said, offering a high five which Lucy gladly accepted. “I mean, I hope that doesn’t happen to me, but you do you.”
Seeing Arthur’s dedication to helping Lucy find and accept the good in himself, and to creating a family with all of these difficult and unusual children — and with Linus as well, if he’ll let go of some of his rigid ideas — is at the heart of The House in the Cerulean Sea. It’s a warmhearted, straightforward fable of love, acceptance and found family for our time....more
On sale now! I can't even say how much I loved this book ... okay, maybe except for the jaw-dropping ending. But STILL! If you've read the first book,On sale now! I can't even say how much I loved this book ... okay, maybe except for the jaw-dropping ending. But STILL! If you've read the first book, definitely read this one, even if you weren't so excited by A Deadly Education. If you haven't, read both!! Here's my full review, first posted on FantasyLiterature.com:
The Last Graduate completely sucked me in from start to finish! Galadriel has managed to survive three years at her deadly magical school, the Scholomance, with her junior year capped by an epic battle against a fearsome assembly of maleficaria (magical creatures that feast on wizards, especially youthful ones), as related in the first book in this fantasy series, A Deadly Education. Now El is in her last year at the Scholomance and has achieved her goal of becoming part of an alliance of fellow students (albeit a very small, less powerful one) who will protect each other when they run the gauntlet of ravenous mals that line the hallway leading to the graduation exit. And Orion Lake, the best mal-killer in the school, has progressed from mere annoyance to occasionally still aggravating but valued friend. Which makes it difficult when El’s clairvoyant mother sends her an urgent message to keep far away from Orion.
Even more upsetting for El is that now the Scholomance seems to have her personally in its cross-hairs. Instead of working toward graduation, she’s spending most of her time fighting mals that all seem to be focused exclusively on eating her, and perhaps the group of brand-new, hapless freshmen that the school has inexplicably thrown El in with in one of her classes.
I opened the door expecting to find something really horrible inside, and I did: eight freshmen, all of whom turned and stared at me like a herd of small and especially pitiful deer about to be mown down by a massive lorry. There wasn’t so much as a sophomore among the lot. “You’ve got to be joking,” I said with revulsion …
El is in a constant battle against her innate affinity for massively destructive and violent spells, and the Scholomance seems to be pushing her to make selfish choices, saving her mana or magical power for her own needs instead of helping random freshmen who mean nothing to her. But as El battles the mals and her own dark nature in order to save herself and her friends and yes, random freshmen, the scope of her concern for others starts to grow, leading to changes that are unprecedented in Scholomance history.
I initially had trouble getting into the first book, A Deadly Education. At first El was very prickly and sulky, a difficult main character to like, and there was a lot of info-dumping as Naomi Novik introduced us to the unique world and culture of the Scholomance. But by the end of that book I was fully on board with her character and anxious to see what happened next. And it didn’t disappoint, at all, in fact, The Last Graduate was far more than I expected.
Everything that gave me hesitation about the first book has been resolved. Novik is fantastic when she’s on (Spinning Silver is still one of my favorite fantasies ever), and she definitely is here. There are game-changers afoot in the pages of The Last Graduate. El and her classmates are led step by excruciating step toward a greater purpose than simply surviving and getting out of the Scholomance alive. I don’t think inspiring is too strong of a word.
The Scholomance has always had an international student body, and Novik better fleshes out the diversity in this second novel, with students from different cultures and races playing more significant roles. She also delves more deeply into themes of (often unexamined) privilege and how that affects choices and options. Along the way there are also some great moments of friendship, as El (still sensitive and snappish) grows closer to her classmates, especially the members of her alliance, and gradually learns that it’s okay to rely on others.
“Stop it!” she said. “I think that’s like the third time you’ve asked to be ditched. You’re like one of those puffer fish, the second anyone touches you a little wrong you go all bwoomp,” she illustrated with her hands, “trying to make them let go. We’ll let you know, how’s that?”
There are also some intriguing new characters, like Liesel, the abrasive, ruthless and utterly brilliant class valedictorian (“If you’re wondering how Liesel came into our discussions, so were the rest of us, but she was both impervious to hints that she wasn’t wanted, and also hideously smart, so we hadn’t actually been able to chase her from the planning”).
I’ll admit to a few qualms about the efficacy of the plan El and her class came up with in the end; it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out in the upcoming conclusion of this trilogy. And THAT ENDING. I hate to complain when the rest of the book was SO good, but really it is one of the most jaw-dropping cliffhangers I’ve ever seen. I would suggest that if you’re strongly averse to cliffhangers, you could wait to read this book until the next one comes out … but I wouldn’t want anyone to delay the sheer excitement and fun of The Last Graduate. It has been one of 2021’s reading highlights for me: one of the most exhilarating, delightful and moving books I’ve read this year. Every page was truly a pleasure. Well, except maybe the last one. :)
Previous update: So my daughter (hi, Emily! *waves*) found out I had the NetGalley ARC of this book a few days ago. She loved the first book, A Deadly Education, even more than I did, so she came home from college for a couple of days, mostly I think to borrow my iPad so she could read this ARC. I told her (a) I loved it, and (b) it has a killer cliffhanger ending. Last night I was on my laptop and she was in the same room reading this, and all of a sudden around midnight I hear this "AAAARRGH!!!" from the other side of the couch. *Cue evil laughter from me*
She loved it. And the ending kills. And that's all we need to say for now, except you DEFINITELY should read this series if you have any interest in something sort of Harry Potterish, except with way more carnivorous monsters.
I received an advance copy of this book for review. SO MANY THANKS to the publisher!
Content notes: Gruesome carnivorous monsters, scattered F-bombs and a mildly explicit sex scene....more
4.5 stars! Final review, first posted on FantasyLiterature.com: “Juice Like Wounds” is the story of a portentous event that takes place in what is pro4.5 stars! Final review, first posted on FantasyLiterature.com: “Juice Like Wounds” is the story of a portentous event that takes place in what is probably my favorite book in Seanan McGuire’s WAYWARD CHILDREN series, In an Absent Dream. In the novella this event takes place offstage; in this shorter work we get the full story of this adventure.
Lundy is a young girl who has found her way from our mundane world through a magical portal to the Goblin Market — a wonderful, weird, and remarkable place that’s also rule-bound, based on the immutable concept of “fair value” in trade, and generally unforgiving of mistakes. Lundy and her two best friends, Moon and Mockery, enchanted by the idea of being heroes and taking back a place that has been wrongfully taken over by a person (literally) turned monster, and hopefully also getting some valuable pomegranates in the process to trade in the market, decide to try to reclaim a pomegranate grove from its monstrous possessor, despite the Archivist’s warnings to Lundy:
“They are the makers of monsters, and their workshops are their own hearts. Given time enough, they become terrible things, takers of children and stealers of dreams. But they never don the feathers they so feared, and they sometimes grow enough in strength to steal things that were never meant to belong to them, and so they feel themselves acquitted.” The sorrow on the Archivist’s face was painful to behold. “Good children should not sport with monsters. There are always costs.”
It’s Seanan McGuire’s insightful narration that raises this story far above the norm. She sees right into the hearts of these characters, illuminating their flaws and foibles as well as their admirable qualities. Read it free online here at Tor.com....more
Apparently the market for breathless YA romances with sexy vampires isn't fully saturated yet, becausFinal review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Apparently the market for breathless YA romances with sexy vampires isn't fully saturated yet, because Crave, a new paranormal romance thriller by Tracy Wolff that cheerfully admits to being inspired by Twilight — check out the blatant knock-off cover — offers readers a slightly updated take on the genre.
When her parents are killed in an automobile accident, high-school-aged Grace reluctantly leaves San Diego and travels to the remote, icy interior of Alaska, where her uncle Finn is headmaster of an exclusive boarding school, Katmere Academy. Grace’s cousin Macy, who picks her up in Healy for a ninety-minute snowmobile ride to the luxurious, castle-like prep school, is anxious to help Grace fit in. The problem is, almost all of the other students at Katmere seem to be hostile to Grace — especially Jaxon Vega, the hot, dangerous-looking guy who is the first person Grace meets upon her arrival. Grace is (at least at first) determined not to let herself fall for Jaxon, although there’s something in his eyes that makes her think he’s as lost as she is. Their relationship runs hot and cold, but there's something or someone at Katmere Academy that seems to want Grace dead, and she may need all the friends she can find.
Crave promises to deliver an updated version of Twilight, but other than a stronger erotic element and the addition of plenty of F-bombs, it doesn’t really deliver on that pledge. Heroine-wise, Grace is a slight improvement over Bella, but not markedly so. She makes far too many impulsive, rash decisions. Crave’s Alaska setting isn’t drawn in any detail, other than that it's freezing cold there. Though it's set in an inaccessible prep boarding school, shades of Hogwarts, I don't recall any particular mention of any classes or teachers. The focus is on the social scene at Katmere, the romantic tension between Grace and Jaxon, and the mystery about who wants to kill Grace, and why.
Grace and the book take an inordinate amount of time to get clear about the paranormal nature of Katmere’s students, although the book's cover and blurb spill the secret up front. There's some interest for readers in finding out what type of powers each of the different cliques at Katmere have (hint: it’s not just vampires and werewolves). The romance stays in PG-13 territory, though the erotic bloodsucking scene was somewhat of an eyebrow-raiser. Crave’s mystery element adds some intrigue to the romance-driven plot, but readers should know that the book ends on a major cliff-hanger. Add to the above issues a first-person, present-tense narration, something that's difficult to pull off well even in much better novels.
Twilight was a guilty pleasure at the time I read it, sending me scrambling for the next book in the series. Crave wasn't nearly as much fun for me. Crave is a book I'd recommend only to readers who are still enthusiastic about paranormal romances and Twilight-type plots, and who are on board with adult language and steamier romance.
Initial post: Receives ARC of book. (Nice publicity package BTW!) Scratches head. “Is another Twilight knock-off really what we need?” Reads book: = Twilight with more smoldering gazes and making out, more F-bombs, colder weather, a slight upgrade to Bella (not as much as I hoped), and erotic bloodsucking. And bonus! told in first person present tense. Another bonus! Cliffhanger ending....more
The Wayward Children books have turned into such a great series ... and here's #5! Full review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Eleanor West’s H
The Wayward Children books have turned into such a great series ... and here's #5! Full review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children was an island of misfit toys, a place to put the unfinished stories and the broken wanderers who could butcher a deer and string a bow but no longer remembered what to do with indoor plumbing. It was also, more importantly, a holding pen for heroes. Whatever they might have become when they’d been cast out of their chosen homes, they’d been heroes once, each in their own ways. And they did not forget.
Come Tumbling Down, the fifth installment in Seanan McGuire’s WAYWARD CHILDREN YA fantasy series, returns to the conflicted relationship between twins Jack (Jacqueline) and Jill Wolcott, in a some-months-later sequel to where we left them at the end of Every Heart a Doorway. (Down Among the Sticks and Bones is a prequel that tells their story in much more detail, though it’s the second book published in the series.) To recap — spoiler alert for the first and second books here — as children Jack and Jill had found their way to a portal world called the Moors, where Jack was raised by a … if not mad, at least highly peculiar … scientist, and Jill was raised by a master vampire to be his daughter and heir, before they returned to our world and spent some time turning the Home for Wayward Children upside down. When they returned to the Moors at the end of Every Heart a Doorway, Jill was dead at Jack’s hand, but Jack was confident that she could resurrect her sister once they returned to the Moors and, perhaps more important, that because Jill had died and been brought back to life, she would no longer be able to be turned into a vampire.
But Jill is not in the least repentant of her lethal lifestyle, and she and her adoptive vampire father have thought of an ingenious way to get around this limitation. What she’s now done is beyond the pale — not only is it ruining Jack’s life, pushing her to the edge of a mental breakdown, but it’s likely to lead to an imbalance of power and deadly warfare in the Moors world. So Jack, with her girlfriend Alexis, returns to the Wayward Children home to get help from her old friends. Did Eleanor say “no quests”? Oh well!
Come Tumbling Down didn’t quite reach the heights of my favorite books in the series, Down Among the Sticks and Bones and In an Absent Dream, but it comes quite close. McGuire does a great job examining Jack and Jill’s deeply troubled hearts. Jack, brilliant but burdened with OCD, has found joy in the mad scientist lifestyle, at least until the most recent troubles. She calls herself a monster, and in some ways that’s true, but she’s more or less a good-hearted person, if obsessive and demanding. Jill, though, is on a whole different level.
Jill had always been the more dangerous, less predictable Wolcott, for all that she was the one who dressed in pastel colors and lace and sometimes remembered that people liked it when you smiled. Something about the way she’d wrapped her horror movie heart in ribbons and bows had reminded him of a corpse that hadn’t been properly embalmed, like she was pretty on the outside and rotten on the inside. Terrifying and subtly wrong.
Joining Jack on her quest to set things right again in Jack’s life and in the Moors world are several familiar faces, including Kade (the one-time goblin prince), Christopher (who longs for the magical skeleton world of Mariposa), Cora (the former mermaid with the blue-green hair) and Sumi. They all bring their unique characters and talents to the story. The most delightful was Sumi, whose flighty behavior and off-the-wall comments conceal a sharp mind. She calls the crimson moon in the Moors “the sugared cherry on the biggest murder sundae in the whole world” and is serenely confident that one day she’ll find her way back to the world called Confection, where the gummy worms will eat her body when she dies.
Come Tumbling Down is a quest type of adventure novel, mixing together friendship and horror. It’s lifted above the norm by the quirkiness of the characters, by the tragedy of the broken relationship between twin sisters Jack and Jill, and by Seanan McGuire’s insightful commentary. She muses on what would have happened if Jack had become the vampire’s protégé rather than Jill, and the ruthless business tycoon Sumi would have become if she hadn’t found the door to Confection as a young girl. And she shows us how wayward children can be heroes. Sometimes, even, the monsters are the heroes.
I received a free ebook for review from the publisher and NetGalley. Thanks so much!
Initial post: I HAVE THE ARC! *does happy dance* *throws confetti in air* Update: And I read the whole thing in one evening. #noregrets...more
3.5 stars for this 1947 children's fantasy. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
In Bonfires and Broomsticks, part two of Mary Norton’s Bedknobs 3.5 stars for this 1947 children's fantasy. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
In Bonfires and Broomsticks, part two of Mary Norton’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks duology, it’s two years after events of the first book, The Magic Bed-Knob. The three young siblings, Carey, Charles and Paul, get the chance to leave London and spend the summer in Bedfordshire with their spinster friend, Miss Price, who was a witch in training. And they still have the magic bed-knob that enables them to fly through time and space on Paul’s old bed, which is now in Miss Price’s bedroom! Good magical times ahead!
Or maybe not: Miss Price, while pleased to see them, has decided that being a witch is a Bad Idea, and she’s given up magic. But, the children argue, almost anything is fine in moderation, and they never did get the chance to try the time-traveling aspect of the bed-knob. Maybe just one little trip into the past? It is rather tempting, Miss Price agrees …
Meanwhile, in London in late August, 1666, a 35-year-old, nervous necromancer named Emelius Jones has just taken over the magical practice of his old mentor, who told Emelius on his deathbed that there really was no magic involved in what they do; it’s just fooling people. But then three strangely-dressed (but polite!) children show up on Emelius’s doorstep.
Bonfires and Broomsticks is another charming, old-fashioned magical adventure, this one focused on time travel. The plot didn’t go at all in the direction I expected. For example, when the children first meet Emelius and find out what date it is, Carey brightly comments that the Fire of London will occur in a week’s time (you have to admire her outstanding memory for historical dates). One might be forgiven for thinking that a suspenseful and dangerous scene involving the children escaping death in the fire is in the cards, but Norton has something quite different in mind, though it does relate to the London fire.
Bonfires and Broomsticks has even less connection to the Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks than The Magic Bed-Knob does, aside from having a plot element involving a magical spell called “intrasubstantiary locomotion” (called “substitutiary locomotion” in the film). But the plot is entirely different, and should be enjoyed on its own merits. It’s definitely worth checking out if you liked the first book, and the pair is available on Kindle for just $4.99. Both are early middle-grade level reading....more
I was a child when I first saw Disney’s 1971 movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks and have fo[image] Final review, first posted on www.FantasyLiterature.com:
I was a child when I first saw Disney’s 1971 movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks and have fond memories of it. So when I found out that the book that inspired the movie, Mary Norton’s The Magic Bed-Knob, was nominated this year for a 1944 Retro Hugo award, I was excited to read it. It’s charming and old-fashioned … but not everything I had hoped for. Also, it’s not much like the Disney movie, which is both a positive and a negative thing.
During the London Blitz, three siblings ― Carey (“about your age”), Charles (“a little younger”) and Paul (“only six”) ― are sent to Bedfordshire to stay with their Aunt Beatrice. (Tangentially, it’s worth noting that in recent editions of The Magic Bed-Knob, all references to the war have been redacted, perhaps in an effort to make the story less tied to a particular era.) One day the children find their very proper neighbor, Miss Price, has fallen and hurt her ankle. As they help her back to her house, Paul lets slip that he’s been watching Miss Price practice flying on her broom at night, and that falling off her broomstick ― not her bike ― is why she’s now injured. She’s a newbie witch, it turns out, and is learning her craft through a correspondence course.
Miss Price is appalled that her secret’s been found out by the children, and is almost ready to cast a spell that will silence them permanently (perhaps by changing them into frogs, which she temporarily does to Paul). But the children manage to convince her to bribe them into keeping her secret instead. So Miss Price casts a spell on a bed-knob that Paul is conveniently carrying in his pocket. If they twist the knob when it’s attached to the bed and make a wish, the bed will (almost) instantly fly to where they wish. Or, as it turns out, where Paul wishes, since it’s his bed and bed-knob. Paul’s older siblings are a bit appalled, but Paul himself is ecstatic.
The Magic Bed-Knob is rather dated, as might be expected from a children’s fantasy published in 1943, but still retains much of its old-fashioned charm. The interactions between the three children are realistic, particularly with Carey and Charles treating Paul rather dismissively because he’s several years younger. Paul is resentful of this treatment, which makes the fact that he’s the only one who can work the bed-knob magic so much sweeter to him. Miss Price, interestingly, is shown to have some struggles with the kind side of her nature vs. the wicked streak that the study of witchcraft apparently brings out in her.
I’ll admit to some disappointment that the talking animals and the uproarious soccer game on the magical island of Naboombu in the Disney movie wasn’t in the original book; instead we have a rather mundane, boring trip to their closed-up home in London and a less boring but somewhat wince-inducing run-in with stereotypical cannibals on the island of Ueepe. How Carey immediately identifies the natives as cannibals after a single glanced is never explained, but the correctness of that assumption never comes into question. The Star of Astaroth never makes an appearance, but we do get an extended run-in with the London police.
The Magic Bed-Knob has limited creativity and lacks much of the excitement of modern children’s fantasy, but there’s a sweetness at its heart.
“Keep your warm hearts, your gentleness, and your courage. These will do,” said Miss Price, sniffing audibly, “just as well as magic.”
Recommended for fans of old-fashioned children’s fantasy.
A soft 4 stars for me, maybe 3.75. It's the ultimate meet-cute story, a night of romance, just a little magic (courtesy of some scuppies, magical beadA soft 4 stars for me, maybe 3.75. It's the ultimate meet-cute story, a night of romance, just a little magic (courtesy of some scuppies, magical beads given Zuzana by her friend Karou), and yes, cake and puppets too.
17 year old Zuzana, a petite but sharp-edged puppet maker in Prague, has been crushing on Mik, a hot violinist who works at the same marionette theater as Zuzana. She freezes up every time she gets near him, though, so they've never really MET met. So Zuzana finally decides to seize the day night and stick her neck out for the chance at a romantic connection. She concocts a lovely, elaborate treasure hunt for Mik.
Puppets ensue. And also tea and chocolate Sacher torte. Mmmm.
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Carpe noctum, and also carpe several other things, all told in Laini Taylor's lush prose. It's a little sappy, but Zuzana's quirky, spicy personality makes it a fun read.
I text Karou: Kindly confirm. If someone's evil, then killing them isn't murder. It's SLAYING, and not only legal but encouraged. Correct?
$1.99 Kindle sale, May 5, 2019. Pretty good YA fantasy, the start of a new series (the second book has just been published). 3.25 stars. Final review,$1.99 Kindle sale, May 5, 2019. Pretty good YA fantasy, the start of a new series (the second book has just been published). 3.25 stars. Final review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Smoke & Summons is the start of a new YA fantasy trilogy by Charlie N. Holmberg, with an interesting, rather dark occult concept underlying it. Demons and spirits, called numina, from the ethereal plane are able to be summoned and controlled by those who know the necessary rituals, which include painfully branding a person’s back with golden script and tattooing the demon’s name in blood above it. Kazen, an evil man in his sixties (seriously, he has no redeeming qualities whatsoever) has figured out a system to use these ancient powers for his own ambitions: he finds teens and children who have no family to protect them and who have the qualities necessary to be a vessel for a demon ― good health, no piercings, virginity and a cryptically described but vital quality called an “open spirit” ― and enslaves them. Then he can trot out the demon at will to terrorize and injure people so they’ll do what he wants, like sign over certain assets to him. What Kazen is doing is also highly illegal, so if any of his young vessels gets caught by the police, it’s an immediate death sentence for them, despite their innocence.
One of Kazen’s slaves is our 18-year-old heroine, Sandis, who’s been chafing under Kazen’s control and cruelties. Though she’s supposed to have total amnesia when Ireth, a fiery horse numina, possesses her, she has some vague recollections of events and feels a connection with Ireth. When Kazen does something particularly horrifying, Sandis finally musters up her courage and runs away. Her family is dead, but during her last outing with Kazen she saw the name of a person sharing her unusual last name. Sandis pins her hope on finding this Talbur Gwenwig, hoping he’s a long-lost relative who will protect her.
What Sandis finds instead is Rone, a twenty-something thief who has an ancient magical artifact, called an amarinth, that he can spin once every 24 hours, giving him protection for sixty seconds against any mortal wounds and, conveniently, healing any that he’s already gotten. When Sandis swipes the amarinth while Rone is protecting her against Kazen’s henchmen who are chasing her down, Rone’s and Sandis’s fates become tied together. Sandis also knows that Kazen is bent on summoning a far more dangerous demon, Kolosos, who might destroy their city of Dresberg. She’s not sure how to prevent him from doing this, but she wants to try, even if it means keeping her connection to Ireth.
I thought Smoke & Summons was an engaging novel, easy to read and get lost in, and teen readers who like dark magical fantasies with a romance subplot are likely to enjoy it. The plot has several weaknesses, though; the type that start to bother you once the excitement of reading the novel starts to wear off. I frequently wanted to shake Sandis and Rone, who occasionally make blindingly imprudent decisions. One that Sandis makes at the very end of the novel was the final straw for me, though Holmberg offers justification for her choice that may satisfy other readers. And once you cut through all the chasing (mostly by Kazen and his goons) and running around ― which takes up most of the story ― this novel feels like it’s mostly a long set-up for the next novels in the NUMINA TRILOGY.
Dresberg and the entire country of Kolingrad are a dirty, corrupt place, one that most people (except the wealthy and powerful) would love to escape from, were it not that the borders are so strictly controlled. Sandis and Rone are a fairly typical YA fiction couple, dancing around their attraction and having their relationship nearly torpedoed with misunderstandings and external pressures. Kazen and his “grafter” henchmen are entirely villainous, without nuances to make them more sympathetic or at least understandable. I’m of the opinion that Kazen isn’t the only numina summoner in Kolingrad. Perhaps that would an interesting way for the plot to develop in next books?
What I appreciated most in Smoke & Summons were some of the secondary characters and subplots, especially those involving Rone’s long-lost father (this was a memorable episode, fraught with emotion, and a hard message about self-serving choices) and his former mentor Arnae Kurtz. Rone’s relationship with and devotion to his rather saintly (and definitely long-suffering) mother also ends up playing a key role in the plot.
Smoke & Summons is a darker novel than I would have expected from Holmberg, though not as dark as some YA fantasies I’ve run across, and Holmberg does pull her punches with the sexual content, if not with violence and death. This novel has a killer cliffhanger at the end (the one with the aforementioned hard-to-swallow choice by Sandis). Overall, it’s an interesting story and world, and despite some shortcomings in the plot and characterizations, I’m interested in seeing what happens in the next book in this series.
I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher, 47North, and the publicist. Thank you!...more
This Wayward Children book SHOULD NOT be missed, even though it's very bittersweet. Maybe my favorite of the entire series. Like the second book, thisThis Wayward Children book SHOULD NOT be missed, even though it's very bittersweet. Maybe my favorite of the entire series. Like the second book, this one is also by way of a prequel to the first book, Every Heart a Doorway, so you can read it without having read the earlier books in the series, though knowing what happens in the first book does add depth (view spoiler)[and sorrow (hide spoiler)]to this one.
I loved Seanan McGuire's concept of the Goblin Market as a fantasy portal world, and how Lundy adapts to (view spoiler)[or, sometimes, fails to adapt to or fully understand (hide spoiler)] that world. Lundy's father plays a far more interesting role in this novella than is usual for parents in YA fantasies.
Earlier post: Emailed publicist asking for an ARC. *no answer*
Requested book on NetGalley. *crickets chirping*
Gets brand new copy from the library today. HAH!!
*immerses self in book; emerges three hours later after reading the whole book in one sitting*
Amazing. Stunning. Beautiful. Heartbreaking. I loved it....more
Gregory Funaro’s just-published Watch Hollow is a charmingly spooky (or perhaps spookily charmiOn sale now! Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Gregory Funaro’s just-published Watch Hollow is a charmingly spooky (or perhaps spookily charming) contemporary fantasy featuring an 11-year-old girl, Lucy Tinker, her 13-year-old brother Oliver, and their clockmaker father … and also a fearsome giant, a boy who mysteriously appears and disappears, and a full dozen magical talking animals sure to warm the hearts of middle grade readers.
After a brief prologue with a heart-stopping chase involving the giant, a traitorous crow, and a rat named Fennish Seven, the story shifts to our main characters, Lucy and her brother Oliver. Between their mother’s death from cancer two years earlier and their father’s lack of business acumen, the Tinker family is teetering on the brink of financial disaster. So it feels like a huge windfall when a stranger, Mr. Quigley, appears in Tinker’s Clock Shop and offers Mr. Tinker a fortune in gold coins to come to Quigley’s old, abandoned mansion, Blackford House, deep in the woods in Rhode Island, and fix a huge clock that’s built into the home and is the source of electrical power for the home. To sweeten the deal, Lucy and Oliver are invited along.
The Tinker family finds Blackford House an ominous place, dingy and dilapidated, with black twisted trees pressing in on every side. The broken clock is ten feet in diameter, with twelve animal-shaped holes where the numbers on the face of the clock would normally appear. Lucy finds two wooden statues of a snarling cat and a cute little dog that are the perfect size to fit in the clock face, but the animals’ positions are the wrong shape. The answer to that mystery is explained (at least in part) that night, when the wooden dog turns into a real one and begs Lucy for her help. Blackford House is sentient but weakened by an evil giant called the Garr who lurks in the woods. The house, its magical clock and animals, and even the Tinkers themselves are in danger.
Watch Hollow is an appealing magical adventure with just enough tension and creepiness to keep things exciting for younger readers. Both boys and girls will find the Tinker siblings sympathetic; they’re well-rounded characters with both strengths, like their courage and love, and problems, like Lucy’s tendency to get in fights with a bullying classmate and Oliver’s anxiety about his acne. The animal characters are also delightful, with some distinct personalities. Torsten Six, the little dog, is anxious but loving and eager to trust; Meridian the cat is far more suspicious of the Tinker family.
Funaro’s writing has improved noticeably since he wrote his first middle grade novels a few years ago, Alistair Grim's Odditorium and Alistair Grim's Odd Aquaticum. While Watch Hollow isn’t quite as crazily fantastical as those books, I found Watch Hollow more coherent in its plot, with improved flow and characterization. Funaro still occasionally does some telling rather than showing, but overall the plot flows well, with enough depth and interesting details to keep the reader engaged.
"Everything here was designed to work together in perfect balance ― sunstone and shadow wood, light and dark, day and night. For in such balance there is potent magic.
Watch Hollow is the type of book that would lend itself to reading aloud to younger children, as well as being given to middle grade readers who love fantasy, animals, or both. The story ends on an open note (not a cliffhanger, thankfully), with a second book, Watch Hollow: The Alchemist's Shadow, expected in early 2020. I look forward to the further adventures of Lucy and Oliver.
Thanks to the author for sending a copy of this book to me for review!...more
2.5 stars. I've been VERY slow about getting this full review written (probably because I just wasn't terribly excited by this sequel to The Black Wit2.5 stars. I've been VERY slow about getting this full review written (probably because I just wasn't terribly excited by this sequel to The Black Witch) but here it is! Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
When Laurie Forest’s debut YA fantasy novel The Black Witch was published in 2017, there was a massive explosion of outrage in the Twitterverse and elsewhere online. Accusations of various types of prejudice — racism (albeit based on fantasy races), homophobia, white saviorism, ableism, lookism and more — were hurled against it. In my opinion those charges were unfair and based on a superficial reading of the text, missing the fact that the main character’s prejudices were clearly being shown as unthinking bias and bigotry, and in fact she does very gradually change her thinking over the course of the book. Still, I’m sure it was stressful for the author, so my assumption going into this sequel was that Forest likely probably worked overtime to make sure The Iron Flower wouldn’t offend anyone. It will come as no surprise to anyone that this assumption was correct. Unfortunately, what remains after the controversial elements have been removed is a run-of-the-mill romantic fantasy.
As The Iron Flower begins, Elloren Gardner and her friends at the University in the country of Verpacia have joined the Resistance, an underground group that seeks to undermine the Gardnerian conquest of neighboring lands and their violent bigotry toward other races. Elloren is one of the privileged Gardnerians, but with one brother who’s gay (forbidden sexual orientation!) and another who’s fallen in love with a werewolf (forbidden mixing of races!), and a set of friends that includes numerous other races, she’s now fully committed to battling Gardnerian oppression in all its forms.
It doesn’t hurt that Elloren is also falling in love with (or at least crushing hard on) Yvan, a Keltic young man who alternates between gazing at Elloren longingly and pushing her away for reasons he refuses to divulge. At the same time, Elloren is still having mixed feelings about Lukas Grey, the hot Gardnerian military commander that her powerful Aunt Vyvian has been pushing her to wandfast with (the Gardnerian version of marriage). Elloran has never had any magical power, but Lukas is certain that locked within her is the tremendous power of the Black Witch of prophecy.
The first half of The Iron Flower is slowish and muddled and I kept bogging down and setting it aside. Every moment that Elloren isn’t being OUTRAGED by the social injustices of her society, she’s obsessing about her feelings for Yvan or dithering about (and kissing) Lukas. Lukas is aware of Elloren’s rebellious leanings but still wants her, even though he “doesn’t believe in love.” Also, unless you remember all of the secondary and minor characters from The Black Witch, you’re going to find the large cast of characters confusing.
In the second half of the book, the plot finally snaps into focus and things get more interesting. The most intriguing character by far was Lukas, who turns out to have some unanticipated depths. However, the ending is, if not exactly a cliffhanger, very much just a mid-story stopping place, with the overarching plot left unresolved. More problematic, Forest’s writing style is basic and she uses first person present tense narration, which tends to come across as amateurish in less-skilled hands.
If you were an enthusiastic fan of The Black Witch, then you’ll likely enjoy The Iron Flower, though you may need to push yourself through the slower-paced first half. If you despised The Black Witch because Elloren was prejudiced in so very many ways, you can at least rest assured that she’s now fully woke.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Thank you!...more
Stephanie Burgis follows up last year’s award-nominated middle grade fantasy The Dragon with a C3.5 stars. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Stephanie Burgis follows up last year’s award-nominated middle grade fantasy The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart with The Girl with the Dragon Heart, the second book in her TALES FROM THE CHOCOLATE HEART series. The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart followed the escapades of Aventurine, a chocolate-loving young dragon enchanted into the shape of a young girl. The focus now shifts to Aventurine’s friend Silke, a dark-skinned girl with short black curly hair. More importantly, Silke is also brave, quick-thinking and fast-moving, and has a great talent for creating stories, including her own.
Silke, an orphan, spends most of her time waitressing at the Chocolate Heart, one of Drachenburg’s finest chocolate houses (where Aventurine is an apprentice), helping to market their shop by creating and passing out promotional handbills, and keeping the hot-tempered Aventurine out of trouble. But Silke, who’s lived on the streets for years, feels compelled to create a life that has more security and permanence. So when the crown princess of Drachenburg offers Silke a challenge ― pretend to be one of the relatives of the royal family, spy on a delegation of visiting fairies from Elfenwald, and find out what they’re up to and why they’re visiting humans for the first time in over a century ― Silke is delighted to accept, and make herself over as one of the nobility. But is she really ready to leave her friends at the Chocolate Heart behind?
Also, what Silke doesn’t tell Princess Katrin is that six years ago, when Silke was only seven years old, she traveled through Elfenwald with her parents and older brother Dieter in a caravan of refugees. In the middle of the night the group had an encounter with the fairies that ended badly. Dieter and Silke’s parents suddenly disappeared, and the rest of the group rushed out of the forest, taking Dieter and Silke with them. This assignment from Princess Katrin is just the chance Silke has been waiting for, to find out what became of her parents and whether they’re still alive.
The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart is a solid sequel to The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart. The fairies are perhaps not quite as exciting as the dragons in the first story, but they’re a devious group that presents some unexpected challenges for Silke, particularly when her sometimes-dragon-sometimes-girl friend Aventurine gets involved. The story emphasizes the importance of love, acceptance, and loyalty to both friends and family ― both biological and “made” families.
There’s lots of racial diversity in Drachenburg, not only a minority heroine with a can-do attitude, but characters from both the lower and upper classes of society. Horst and Marina, the couple who run the Chocolate Heart, are a mixed-race couple, as are the king and queen of Drachenburg. Skin color is mentioned in passing but doesn’t ever play a role in how people are viewed and treated by others; it’s a refreshingly color-blind society.
I appreciated Silke’s story-telling point of view, and her determination to create her own story.
I wouldn’t feel this helpless again. I had sworn that a long time ago.
I’d been seven years old the first time I’d felt that taste of sick danger in the air: the feeling of an angry crowd transforming into a mob. By then, I’d already lost my parents and any illusion of safety. … But I wasn’t that powerless girl anymore. I was not. I was the heroine of my own story, and I would make my story work.
It’s a powerful theme in the story, and young readers will enjoy Silke’s adventures and appreciate her courage.
For fans of this TALES FROM THE CHOCOLATE HEART series, Burgis also has a couple of cute short stories set in this world that are available to read for free on her website: “A Chocolate-Flavoured Bargain” and “The Dragon with an Unbearable Family.”
Thanks to the author and publisher for an ARC of this book!...more
3.5 stars for this MG/YA fantasy. Full review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Anya is an orphaned young princess, about twelve or thirteen years ol3.5 stars for this MG/YA fantasy. Full review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Anya is an orphaned young princess, about twelve or thirteen years old, and a bookworm (as many of the best princesses in literature seem to be). She and her fifteen year old sister Morven are orphans under the dubious care of their stepmother, a botanist who is enthusiastic about plants but completely uninterested in and uninvolved with the girls, and Duke Rikard, their stepstepfather (which is what you get when your stepmother remarries after your father dies). Morven is supposed to be crowned as the queen when she turns sixteen in three months, but she’s far more interested in handsome princes than in ruling. This suits Duke Rickard just fine: he’s a black-hearted sorcerer who’s intent on making his control of the Kingdom of Trallonia permanent.
Duke Rickard is also given to transforming unlucky servants and hapless princes into frogs. Morven asks Anya to do the dirty work of changing his latest frog victim, Prince Denholm, back into a human with a kiss (kissing frogs, even if they’re really handsome princes, is definitely not on Morven’s agenda). Luckily their librarian has a magical Transmogrification Reversal Lip Balm that will reverse the transformation spell without the otherwise necessary ingredient of true love. Unluckily, Anya kisses the wrong frog with the last of the lip balm, and although that prince was happy to no longer be a frog, it does still leave Denholm in a frog-sized bind, and making more lip balm involves assembling several tricky ingredients, like a pint of witches’ tears and six pea-sized stones of three-day-old hail from a mountaintop.
Coincidentally, at the same time Duke Rickard announces to Anya that he’s sending her far away to a school for royalty, on a journey that seems likely to be fatal for Anya and leave Morven alone and in danger. Tanitha, the senior royal dog, tells Anya that she must leave the palace and seek help from others to defeat the Duke. So Anya embarks on a twofold Quest: searching for the elusive ingredients to the Transmogrification Reversal Lip Balm, and also searching for those who can help to overthrow Duke Rikard and stop his evil plans. Anya is assisted in her quest by Ardent, a young and excitable royal dog; Shrub, a junior thief who’s also been shape-changed by a sorcerer into a huge, bright orange talking newt ...
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(two shout-outs to Monty Python and the Holy Grail for the price of one!); a Good Wizard who tries to evade her obligation not to directly help Anya; Snow White ― who is NOT what you’d expect ― and seven dwarves; and many others. Anya’s quest turns out to encompass more than she expected, as several people that she meets strongly encourage her to do even more to change their society ― in particular, to bring back the All-Encompassing Bill of Rights and Wrongs.
Garth Nix has a lot of fun with Frogkisser!, weaving in various fairy tales and fantasies, both old and new, and twisting them in humorous ways. Besides the aforementioned Monty Python references, there’s a Robin Hood figure, Bert (short for Roberta, which is only a couple degrees of separation from Robin), leader of the Association of Responsible Robbers, who steal from the rich and give to the poor in time-honored fashion. I never read Lloyd Alexander‘s CHRONICLES OF PYRDAIN series, so it took me a while to realize that there was a shout-out to Gurgi behind the Wallet of Crunchings and Munchings that Anya is offered by the semi-helpful Good Wizard.
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And OF COURSE magic carpets have to wrap you up in a tight roll so you can hardly breathe don’t fall off them when they’re zooming around. [image] Frogkisser! is a little long-winded for a middle grade novel, but then winds up in an unexpectedly rushed manner. It didn’t entirely captivate me, and I never really lost myself in the story. But it’s a reasonably fun middle grade fantasy with some weightier elements. Nix pays attention to diversity: the Good Wizard, like Bert, is dark-skinned woman; Snow White is an old man (nicknamed for his snowy white beard) who previously was known by another familiar name; the seven dwarves include three females. Nix also works some important life lessons into the plot.
Bert and Dehlia had planted the seed of thought in her mind, and it was growing away busily and putting out new shoots of thought, all of which were quite bothersome, because they were about things like responsibility and fairness, and thinking about others, and why being a princess perhaps should be about more than just having a nice library and three meals a day, particularly when other people didn’t have these things …
These periodic discussions of the previously unexamined privilege that Anya enjoys as a wealthy princess, her responsibility to others, and the need to recognize their rights, can get a little clunky and heavy-handed, but the book’s heart is in the right place.
Frogkisser! was a finalist for the 2018 Locus Award for Young Adult Book and is a current nominee for the 2018 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature. ...more
All the stars!! One reviewer described this award-nominated novel as "Narnia with teeth," and that's a great summary. I had so much fun reading this pAll the stars!! One reviewer described this award-nominated novel as "Narnia with teeth," and that's a great summary. I had so much fun reading this portal fantasy! Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Summer is a young girl whose overly protective, clingy mother tries to protect her from every possible danger, although Summer is allowed to read books about magic and shapechanging and such. (“Summer’s mother believed that books were safe things that kept you inside, which only shows how little she knew about it, because books are one of the least safe things in the world.”) But Summer’s mother is no match for Baba Yaga! One spring day Summer is found by Baba Yaga ― actually, she’s found by Baba Yaga’s chicken-footed house, which manages to convinces Baba Yaga that Summer is the girl they want for some unstated purpose. [image] When Baba Yaga offers Summer her heart’s desire, Summer really isn’t sure what to answer, though shapeshifting or being able to talk to animals do come to her mind. Instead, though, Baba Yaga looks deep into Summer’s heart and mind, then hands over a talking weasel to Summer and shoos her out of the house. And suddenly Summer finds herself in a strange, magical world, not at all certain where she’s going or what she’s supposed to do there.
Initially she’s in a long hallway with purple stained glass windows featuring a mischievous-looking saint, whose book proffers some cryptic advice like “Don’t worry about things you cannot fix” and “Antelope women are not to be trusted.” A door then leads Summer to a forest in the magical land of Orcus, where she meets a trio of shapeshifting women and is charmed by dryad-inhabited trees whose leaves turn into mice or frogs as they drop to the ground. But: “There is a cancer at the heart of the world” the woman in the bear skin tells Summer, and Summer can see that the Frog Tree is dying. Entrusted with a tadpole acorn by the tree’s dryad, Summer takes on a quest to save the Frog Tree, and perhaps more. She finds help from several inhabitants of Orcus, particularly a shapeshifting wolf (at night he turns into, not a human, but a pleasant cottage) and a hoopoe bird with Regency manners and a helpful flock of small valet-birds in bowler hats. [image] But she also finds that she’s being pursued by the fearsome Zultan Houndbreaker and his aptly named servant Grub, who hunt her in the name of the Queen-in-Chains.
I am completely in love with Summer in Orcus, a charming portal fantasy by T. Kingfisher (a pen-name of Ursula Vernon). Summer in Orcus manages to be absolutely delightful, with vividly imagined details and a delicious sense of humor, while at the same time subverting several stock fantasy tropes. It references Narnia with clear affection, while remaining clear-eyed about the dangers and difficulties of being a child who’s actually in a fantasy portal world.
She thought, down in her very private heart of hearts, that she wanted to go home.
She felt immediately guilty for thinking it. In books, nobody who found themselves in a fantasy world ever wanted to go home. (Well, nobody but Eustace Clarence Stubb in Narnia, and you weren’t supposed to agree with him.)
She was definitely not feeling grateful enough for being on a superb magical adventure. She told herself this sternly several times and then wanted to cry, because it doesn’t help to yell at people who are cold and wet, even when the person yelling at you is you.
Summer in Orcus will be enjoyable for both younger and older readers. It’s written on a middle grade/young adult level, but its sly humor and frequent references to classic fantasy novels and fairy tales will keep adult readers engaged. While the life lessons learned aren’t particularly subtle, they have elegance and mesh well with the plot of the book. Very highly recommended!
Summer in Orcus has been nominated for the 2018 World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) award for best Young Adult book. Kingfisher originally posted this novel online in weekly installments, which you can read online here on her website. It’s also available in print and as a very reasonably priced ebook, which have appealing pencil illustrations by Lauren Henderson (I especially loved the tadpole acorn) that help to bring the story to life. [image]
Initial post: Amazing story!! I LOVED this charming portal fantasy, which manages to be completely delightful and subvert several tropes at the same time. Highly recommended! It’s by T. Kingfisher, aka Ursula Verson, the author of the wonderful award-winning stories Jackalope Wives and The Tomato Thief, which are both free online and which you should read IMMEDIATELY if you haven’t already done so.
Many thanks to the author for providing me with a free copy of this book for review!...more
Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽
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