While I still enjoyed this long-awaited third installment in the series, this narrative lacked the spark that drew me in and did not let go, mainly due to the necessary placement of the expanding cast of characters. Deonn has taken this story and expanded it tremendously. The way that Deonn has expanded the world unfolds naturally as if she simply, slowly pulled back the curtain. That being said, even though Deonn made
series master level chess moves in this installment, she dropped the ball on the characterization, especially since a key pairing does not interact at all until almost the very last moment. I will definitely continue but hope that Deonn will be able to return to the heights of books 1 and 2.
I expected Graudin’s more well-known work, Wolf by Wolf, to be my first experience with the author but this one beat it by a month and heightened my expectations for Wolf by Wolf. This book takes place in a casually fantastic world, a world where magic exists but only four men, the mages of each cardinal direction, to keep the balance and prevent the rise of the mythical evil shadow queen. The main character works for the Mage of the
West who wakes up one day leaving his body behind not realizing that he died overnight. Once the main character, voluntold, informs the mage of his death, the castle is thrown into a tizzy as the mage decides to throw a contest to choose his apprentice while hiding the fact that he died. Of course, things go catastrophically wrong and it’s up to the main character to keep the castle from crumbling. Graudin did an excellent job with this world and the main character. I eagerly anticipate the sequel.
This book awoke the mama bear in me. It’s not an easy read at all but so necessary. Kita, the main character, lives constantly on edge, at the start of the story only recently reunited with her mother, sister, and brother after a summer in foster care thanks to her mother leaving them along for 9 days. So much of Kita’s 12 years has consisted of acting far more like the mother than her actual mother has ever done. She, Kita, pays the bills. She
makes sure that her brother (who has an unnamed intellectual disorder) does not annoy her mom too much. She tries to fly under the radar at school, never smiling with her teeth because of the teasing she receives. She constantly lives expecting the other shoe to drop and when it does has to come to terms with the fact that it is not her fault and that she, too, deserves to be loved.
I have not read the original novella on which Ursu based this story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” but am familiar with it thanks to BookTuber, Merphy Napier. I would not have imagined that a middle grade novel could adequately retell a novella written by a woman locked up “for her own good” while suffering from postpartum depression yet Ursu does a marvelous job. The main character was just about to start middle school just as their
family moves to a new house with a creepy attic that ends up being her new room and then she ends up getting sick. What starts as a nasty virus turns into something that lays her low for weeks and starts to make her wonder about her sanity, especially after she starts to see something in the walls. Through this, Ursu explored a lot, like what it means to not be believed when suffering from an invisible illness and how that affects so many things including their relationships. While I understand why Ursu added the fully fantastical element, I think the story would have been better without it.
This book started as a fairly carefree coming of age novel in verse before slamming into the emotions when I was’t looking. In this book, the main character has two best friends, one for years and then one for a shorter time. An attempt to gain world records turns tragic and one of those friends is hit by a car and killed. The main character must now work through his grief and how that changes all of his relationships. This
novel is real and raw and written absolutely beautifully.
This book has vibes of “The Series of Unfortunate Events” although thankfully free from the constant death of guardians and near constant vocabulary definitions. After her parents’ untimely death by meteor strike and a series of failed foster home placements, the State finally finds Eden’s paternal grandfather, Vulcan Smith, a master smith living in a guildhall with other quite elderly smiths. She happens to arrive on the
very day that Vulcan is punished for a crime. The only way to clear his name is to complete the five impossible tasks which no one else has ever done. Through the course of attempting to complete these absurd tasks, Eden creates a new family and dismantles an antiquate caste system. I loved this.
I have never finished a Brubaker Bradley book disappointed. This one was no different. However, I did not love this one as much as others like Fighting Words. In this book, the main character begins the narrative by escaping with an “adopted” sister when French collaborating soldiers round up all of the Jews in Paris. A serendipitous chance sends her to a small town and convent school on the border with Vichy France near a castle
once home to Catherine de Medici who also makes an appearance of sorts in this story. (That is actually what brought down my enjoyment a little.) I wish I could say that this story did something new wiht the topic and setting but this subject has been told multiple times before. This was a fine story, well-written, but it trods well-worn paths with nothing new to say.
Leave a Reply