This thoroughly absorbing, sometimes-bewildering fantasy boasts series potential.
A girl hoping to save her father braves a strange world teeming with dangers in Mathos’ debut middle-grade fantasy novel.
In 1941, 10-year-old Georgie Karras spots a glowing green light in her Chicago home’s attic. That’s where she discovers a letter addressed to her from Ned, who seems to know her (but whom she definitely doesn’t know). She and her neighbor, Sam, somehow find themselves in the mist-laden kingdom of Nern, which contains such fantastical elements as pixies and dragons. Amazingly, Georgie’s father Nick helps the friends make it home. A year-and-a-half later, after Nick has died in the war, the green light in the attic returns— this time accompanied by Ned, a “purple fuzzball” who promises Georgie and Sam that he’ll help save her dad. This task requires an amulet that they must snatch from the nefarious “King Twinkle,” who has stolen the throne. The mission puts Georgie and Sam in the company of trolls, a mermaid, and plenty of dragons (some obliging, others not so much). A shocking secret Georgie soon learns may change everything. A colorful cast fuels Mathos’ brisk tale. The villains include a “giant” who holds Georgie captive as well as the monstrous Leecher, which is mostly black smoke and red eyes. The characters are full of surprises, like those plotting behind Georgie’s back and someone who unexpectedly pops up in Nern. Parts of this narrative, however, are overcomplicated; for example, Ned, as an apprentice to the Keeper of Histories, can “seam” through time, an ability that’s only somewhat clarified. This vagueness may indicate the author’s plan to develop these ideas over the course of a series, which would also explain a notable character’s essential disappearance from the story. Readers will certainly hope for a follow-up and more opportunities to enjoy Mathos’ pithy prose: “She woke the next morning with a head full of questions and a tummy on empty.”
This thoroughly absorbing, sometimes-bewildering fantasy boasts series potential.Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781964989099
Page Count: 261
Publisher: River City Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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