Darkly imaginative with an appealing but unsure star.
A young girl learns to unknot her dreams and memories in this middle-grade fantasy from Crichton.
At 12 years old, Tipani Walker already leads a difficult life. For the last two years, her father has been in a coma. She and her mother have had to move to Felony Flats, and at school, Tipani is the prime target of alpha bully Chris Prophet. Worst of all, Tipani’s mother has become an unfit parent. Addicted to the “medicines” of an unseen visitor whom Tipani has dubbed Spoon Man, Mom has stopped functioning. Amid such desolation, Tipani takes comfort in reading and tying complex rope knots. When she meets a bearded faerie named Piper, the tween learns that she herself is a Weaver. Once trained, she will be able to manipulate the content of her memories and dreams. But that training immediately goes astray. Tipani’s nightmares become entangled with those of a girl named Cassie. Has Tipani at last made a new friend, or is her life about to spiral further downward? Crichton’s assured prose guides us through her cast’s intriguing circumstances; a sympathetic lead, Tipani is a capable (but sometimes hesitant) hero. Crichton breaks the book into chapters headed by lines from Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Dream Within a Dream.” The protagonist’s nightmare quest reflects Poe’s notion of nested ambiguity—and while her determination in this strange, layered world is never in doubt, there is a sense that she flounders toward and happens upon resolutions rather than directly causing them. Also, revealing a main character’s transgender identity has potential to add interest and complexity but, alas, the plot twist lacks nuance. Each chapter commences with a half-page grayscale illustration, evincing either the bleakness that Tipani feels or a comic whimsy that doesn’t quite come through in the text.
Darkly imaginative with an appealing but unsure star.Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2022
ISBN: 979-8418930811
Page Count: 231
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A pleasing premise for book lovers.
A fantasy-loving bookworm makes a wonderful, terrible bargain.
When sixth grader Poppy Woodlock’s historic preservationist parents move the family to the Oregon coast to work on the titular stately home, Poppy’s sure she’ll find magic. Indeed, the exiled water nymph in the manor’s ruined swimming pool grants a wish, but: “Magic isn’t free. It cosssts.” The price? Poppy’s favorite book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In return she receives Sampson, a winged lion cub who is everything Poppy could have hoped for. But she soon learns that the nymph didn’t take just her own physical book—she erased Narnia from Poppy’s world. And it’s just the first loss: Soon, Poppy’s grandmother’s journal’s gone, then The Odyssey, and more. The loss is heartbreaking, but Sampson’s a wonderful companion, particularly as Poppy’s finding middle school a tough adjustment. Hartman’s premise is beguiling—plenty of readers will identify with Poppy, both as a fellow bibliophile and as a kid struggling to adapt. Poppy’s repeatedly expressed faith that unveiling Sampson will bring some sort of vindication wears thin, but that does not detract from the central drama. It’s a pity that the named real-world books Poppy reads are notably lacking in diversity; a story about the power of literature so limited in imagination lets both itself and readers down. Main characters are cued White; there is racial diversity in the supporting cast. Chapters open with atmospheric spot art. (This review has been updated to reflect the final illustrations.)
A pleasing premise for book lovers. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780316448222
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters.
Two young people save the world and all the magic in it in this series opener.
When tall, dark-haired, white-skinned Christopher Forrester goes to stay with his grandfather in Scotland, he ventures to the top of a forbidden hill and discovers astonishing magical creatures. His grandfather explains that Christopher’s family are guardians of the “way through” to the Archipelago, where the Glimourie Tree grows—the source of glimourie, or the world’s magic. Black-haired, olive-skinned Mal Arvorian, a girl from the Archipelago, is being pursued by a murderer, and she asks Christopher for help, launching them both on a wild, dangerous journey to discover why the glimourie is disappearing and how to stop it. Together with a part-nereid woman, a ratatoska, a dragon, and a Berserker, they face an odyssey of dangerous tasks to find the Immortal, the only one who can reverse the draining of magic. Like Lyra and Will from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Mal and Christopher sacrifice their innocence for experience, meeting every challenge with depthless courage until they finally reach the maze at the heart of it all. Rundell throws myriad obstacles in her characters’ way, but she gives them tools both tangible (a casapasaran, which always points the way home, and the glamry blade, which cuts through anything) and intangible (the desire “to protect something worth protecting” and an “insistence that the world is worth loving”). Final art not seen.
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters. (map, bestiary) (Fantasy. 10-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593809860
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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