A quirky, cleareyed enchantment. More like this, please! (Mystery. 10-14)
A biracial (Chinese/white) Australian girl unravels art-historical and familial mysteries at a relative’s estate in rural Spain.
Iris Chen-Taylor, 12, has an uncomfortable mission from her parents: to discover who stands to inherit eccentric Great-Aunt Ursula’s massive Spanish estate, Bosque de Nubes. Iris’ parents suspect Ursula has a paramour, and they claim an interest in keeping the estate in the family. In the countryside beyond Barcelona, Ursula maintains the estate and the memory of her late brother, James, whose surrealist paintings are highly sought after. Iris’ parents have instructed her to ingratiate herself with the old lady and to make notes on the building’s structural integrity, but once at Bosque de Nubes (in English, “Forest of Mist”), Iris is disturbed, perplexed, and enchanted by turns when she discovers such oddities as sunflowers playing tennis and a pair of willful boots attached to real-seeming human feet. Iris quickly enlists help from Jordi, the white son of Ursula’s groundskeeper, to unravel the intertwined mysteries of the estate, its grounds, and her uncle’s paintings. Is art imitating life or the other way around? And what do the pushy neighbors want with those cagey land surveyors? Readers will happily go along for the ride as Iris and Jordi combine method and adventure to solve these riddles.
A quirky, cleareyed enchantment. More like this, please! (Mystery. 10-14)Pub Date: Dec. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-925240-79-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Text
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A charming setting and appealing premise are let down by uneven execution.
For generations, the heirs of the Feast and Famine families have dueled for control over the land of Fauret and the coveted guardianship of the demon Centurion.
Twelve-year-old Rue Famine is expected to succeed where her mother failed, but insufficient training has left her fumbling to master the simplest charms. Her curiosity about the Feasts’ legendary sweets leads Rue to a chance sighting of Merriment Feast, the sparkling embodiment of her family’s decadent reign. Merri has been training with her guardian, Aunt Ambrosia, in hopes of continuing the Feasts’ dominance, but her interest in learning the Famines’ potion work proves a catalyst for the heirs’ parallel paths to cross. As hidden histories and family secrets come to light, it becomes clear that the long-divided houses must reunite. Debut author Finn’s series opener is dense, and the alternating third-person narration struggles due to Rue’s and Merri’s voices being insufficiently distinct. Social class disparities are a central theme in this magical world, which evokes Studio Ghibli films, complete with quaint shops, talking cats, and a collection of entertainingly cagey and mercurial demons. At first, the lore required for effective worldbuilding is limited, while later in the book, a reveal is repeated without sufficient backstory. While the leads are well developed, the late introduction of explanatory information about supporting characters could pose a challenge to young readers’ comprehension. Most characters present white.
A charming setting and appealing premise are let down by uneven execution. (recipe) (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781728298337
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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