Madeline’s letter was disturbing, enough so that Alex Easton, a Gallacian sworn soldier, and kan horse, Hob, went to the gloomy manor that’s seen better days to see her. Madeline lives there with her twin brother, Roderick, and let’s just say that they’re not doing so well.
“I no longer know what needs to be done.”
This fungi infused reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher gave me a lake full of stars. It also introduced me to Eugenia Potter, whose enthusiasm endeared her to me immediately. I now need a Miss Potter book so I can spend more time with her.
“I do not know what you know of fungi, but this place is extraordinary!”
The only negative feedback I have is about me. Why did it take this novella so long to reach the top of my TBR pile? I will not be making the same mistake with the sequel.
Favourite no context quote:
“Deer are the ones that go moo.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.
What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.
Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.
It’s The Stranger Times: Celebrity Edition. They’re all here. Well, the ones that meet a specific criteria are. Regardless, you’re bound to come across a few familiar faces.
It’s the lead up to Halloween so, if you know this series even a little bit, you know you’re in for a treat! And maybe a couple of tricks…
I’ve been wanting more Stella and more Stella is exactly what I got. She may have preferred a smaller role in this book, though, as she didn’t appear to particularly enjoy having a guy fall for her. From the sky. Splattered all over the pavement.
‘You’ve got dead guy all over you, love.’
And that’s only the beginning of the ‘weirdy bollocks’ in this book.
Hannah meets her celebrity crush. Banecroft is given a deadline. Manny’s ability to remember to wear pants is improving. Sometimes.
These days, not only was anything possible, but almost everything was far too believable.
There’s more time spent in a graveyard than your average book and people seem to have a whole new appreciation for Laurence of Arabia. This is the book with the tone deaf roadie and a rage problem which, believe it or not, is not Banecroft’s. Or not only Banecroft’s.
And you’ll be introduced to Brian.
‘Nothing is weirder than Brian.’
With everything that’s going on for the team, I’m surprised they find time to print a newspaper at all.
‘News does not sleep.’
This series has action, humour, strangeness (obviously) and a weird little found family that I absolutely adore. The more I get to know them, the more time I want to spend with them. I will be reading The Stranger Times for as long as new editions keep getting published.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Bantam Press, an imprint of Transworld Publishers, Penguin Random House UK, for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Some comebacks can be murder…
Stella is enjoying life as an almost student, or at least she is until a man falls from the sky right in front of her, leaving a big old hole in the pavement for Manchester Council to fill. The obvious question of how he ended up in the sky in the first place has no obvious answers, which is where The Stranger Times come in.
But this isn’t just the hunt for another story. Dark powers think Stella might have been involved and the only way she and the team can prove her innocence is to find out what the hell is really going on. And what have dodgy gear, disturbed graves and a decommissioned rock star got to do with all this?
Vincent Banecroft has problems of his own in the form of a tall, dark but-definitely-not-handsome man dressed like a funeral who has been sent to make the paper’s editor atone for his sins. Once he finds out exactly what that entails, Banecroft is not keen. Being banished to a Hellscape for all eternity looks like being no fun at all, not least because he has that pale Irish skin that burns really easily…
All that plus territorial ghouls, homicidal felines, eternal (and seemingly unstoppable) gnomes and a celebrity Who’s Who that’d put a royal wedding to shame, and you’re looking at a wild few days for The Stranger Times.
“We are about to involve ourselves in a great deal of danger, much of it strange and unsettling.”
It’s time for Emily and Wendell to search for Wendell’s door and I, for one, am thrilled to have been invited to tag along for this quest. My enthusiasm may not be as contagious as that of Ariadne, Emily’s niece, but I have more field experience than her, having already accompanied Emily and Wendell to Ljosland, so my excitement is tempered by a tad of caution.
I also have some insider knowledge; Wendell’s stepmother is sending assassins to dispatch of him but my clothing is inside out so I’m confident I will be successful in evading any of the Folk’s attempts to enchant me.
“Oh, what a quest this is!”
The grumpy romance of the first book blindsided me in the best way possible. I wasn’t expecting it, thank goodness, or I probably wouldn’t have picked up the book in the first place. I actively avoid books that contain romance, which brings me to the second part of the blindsiding. I learned that I love grumpy romances, or at the very least, I love Emily and Wendell’s grumpy romance.
Their romance wasn’t quite as grumpy in this book, although they did have their moments. Their relationship has grown more comfortable since we first met them. That doesn’t mean we’re grumpless, though. Rose, who I absolutely adored, despite trying my hardest not to care a jot about him, does his very best to bring the grumpy with him wherever he goes.
I’m usually quite wary of sequels of my favourite books. They come with an almost impossibly high expectation of brilliance, having to compete with the joy of discovery you felt with the first book. This sequel didn’t disappoint.
In fact, I’m having trouble figuring out which book I loved more. There was the comfort in already knowing the main characters alongside the introduction of new characters, who managed to hold their own.
I love Emily. She’s lousy at small talk but is getting better at insults, her aim needs improvement and her journals contain footnotes. I adore the footnotes and need more of them!
Meanwhile, Wendell is a man after my own heart.
“There is nothing trivial about good coffee.”
If anything ever happens to Shadow, I will be bereft. I’d also like to put it out there that Poe can bake for me anytime.
I’d appreciate someone sharing Knight College’s postal address with me so I can submit my application to study dryadology.
If you have not already met Emily and Wendell, please make their acquaintance in preparation for this quest as there is prerequisite knowledge that will make this one more fulfilling.
Ensure you pack some carrots and maybe don’t look too closely at the faerie art. Be sure to bring enough pencils.
“Give me another pencil.”
“I only had the one on me!”
“One? Who are you?”
Handy hint: Do not allow Professor Eustacia Walters access to any of your books. If you ask me, she’s the true villain of this book.
If it is at all convenient, I would very much like to read the third book immediately.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Orbit, an imprint of Little, Brown Book, for the opportunity to be delighted by this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore, and has catalogued many secrets of the Hidden Folk in her encyclopaedia with her infuriatingly charming fellow scholar, Wendell Bambleby, by her side.
But Bambleby is more than just a brilliant and unbearably handsome scholar. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother, in search of a door back to his realm.
By lucky happenstance, Emily’s new project, a map of the realms of faerie, will take them on an adventure to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambleby’s realm, and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.
But with new friendships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors, and of her own heart.
‘I don’t want you to panic, but things are about to get a bit … weird.’
It’s been almost two years since I wandered into The Stranger Times office, which is an absurd amount of time between visits. To be completely honest, I hadn’t read this book earlier because of the potential for all things lovey dovey. Hannah reconciling with her no good, dirty rotten scoundrel ex and Banecroft reconciling with his deceased wife made the deepest recesses of my brain shout “Ptooey!”, a word I’ve never uttered in my life and likely still don’t know how to pronounce.
You have to help me. I’m in so much trouble.
My triumphant return has taught me a valuable lesson: if I enjoy a series as much as this one, I need to trust the author. I actively avoided this book because the ‘love’ in the title appeared to be referencing the romantic kind and I don’t do romance. If I’d given two seconds of thought to the content of the previous books in the series I would have devoured this one sooner. This is love Stranger Times style, which even a romantiphobe can get on board with.
‘Trust the process.’
My time away also renewed my appreciation for the series. It seems that no matter how much time has passed, I will feel like I never left before I finish the first chapter. Which brings me to the staff of The Stranger Times. These are my people!
And you know what? Curmudgeon Banecroft has a heart after all. It turns out it was mangled and squished under the weight of his grief. I won’t tell you that at one point he made me a little teary eyed because that would imply I also am in possession of a heart.
Be on the lookout for an unidentified frying object, cherubs up to no good and a suitcase that gives Mary Poppins’ carpet bag a run for its money. Make sure to join us for Loon Day, a spot of grave robbing and the hope that we get to spend much more time with Stella in the next book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Love can be a truly terrible thing.
Marriages are tricky at the best of times, especially when one of you is dead.
Vincent Banecroft, the irascible editor of The Stranger Times, has never believed his wife died despite emphatic evidence to the contrary. Now, against all odds, it seems he may actually be proved right; but what lengths will he go to in an attempt to rescue her?
With Banecroft distracted, the shock resignation of assistant editor, Hannah Willis, couldn’t have come at a worse time. It speaks volumes that her decision to reconcile with her philandering ex-husband is only marginally less surprising than Banecroft and his wife getting back together. In this time of crisis, is her decision to swan off to a fancy new-age retreat run by a celebrity cult really the best thing for anyone?
As if that wasn’t enough, one of the paper’s ex-columnists has disappeared, a particularly impressive trick seeing as he never existed in the first place.
Floating statues, hijacked ghosts, homicidal cherubs, irate starlings, Reliant Robins and quite possibly several deeply sinister conspiracies; all-in-all, a typical week for the staff of The Stranger Times.
Mary-Kate’s first two adventures were with her mother, the Prof, and both included very close encounters with the monstrous kind. Granny, who she’s travelling with to Scotland, is into romance novels and the shopping channel so Mary-Kate is confident nothing scary will happen.
Just in case, though, she makes sure to pack a selection of lucky items. You can’t be too careful, after all.
It’s a good thing she does because it isn’t long before Granny tells her the reason they’re travelling to Bonkillyknock Castle. They’re attending the 93rd annual World Society of Monster Hunters’ Conference. This can only mean that small talk is in Mary-Kate’s near future. Maybe she should have packed more lucky items.
Mary-Kate isn’t the only novice monster hunter at the castle. There’s Simon, who we first became suspicious of in the second book, and Millicent, who I loved as soon as I heard she wasn’t on time because she was up late reading the night before.
A Mary-Kate Martin book isn’t complete without a good ol’ monster hunt.
‘There’s been some kind of attack and I need your help.’
This monster has luminous green fur and if that’s not fun enough, allow me to assure you that the castle does have a library.
Mary-Kate is adorable. She’s one of the bravest characters I know; she has anxiety, yet she continues to do things that scare her. I wish kid me would have had the chance to meet her. We would have bonded over glitter pen colour choices and which lucky item was the right one for each circumstance.
I’ve been wanting to spend more time with Granny and she didn’t disappoint. I loved her even more when I heard her say, ‘Yoo-hoo!’
Freda Chiu’s illustrations continue to complement the story, bringing the humans and monsters to life in a way that capture the heart of both.
I can’t wait for the next book. I hope at some point we get to go on an investigation with all three generations of monster hunters – Granny, the Prof and Mary-Kate. I’m looking forward to finding out more about Mary-Kate’s father.
‘I’m definitely not doing anything dangerous ever again.’
Thank you so much to Allen & Unwin for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Mary-Kate and her granny are going to stay at a very quiet castle near a very quiet Loch in the Scottish village of Bonkillyknock. The perfect destination for reading beside fireplaces, going for long walks in galoshes and drinking cups of tea with Granny’s old friends. At least, that’s what Mary-Kate thinks.
However, this is no ordinary reunion – it’s a World Society of Monster Hunters’ conference. So, when an ear-shattering howl interrupts the convention, Mary-Kate isn’t too anxious. After all, the experts are on hand to investigate.
But when the castle kitchen is turned upside-down and the experts suspect the usually secretive Loch Morgavie monster, Mary-Kate isn’t sure the clues add up. Could there be some other kind of beastly problem bothering Bonkillyknock Castle?
Miss Mary-Kate Martin might only be a beginner, but she’s determined to get to the end of this monstrous mystery in the third exciting instalment in the Miss Mary-Kate Martin’s Guide to Monsters series.
I read this book weeks ago and I’ve wanted to gush about it ever since, but life postponed me. Distance between reading a book and writing a review tells you if the book’s glow fades with time, though. If anything, I appreciate this book more now than when I finished it and that’s saying a lot.
Before I ramble about the book, I need to say something about me. It’s my review so I get to do that. When I first started writing book reviews, I fantasised about the future and what outrageously impossible things I might find there.
This book fulfilled a dream that I only shared with one person because I was so certain it wouldn’t happen: that I would be given the opportunity to read a Seanan McGuire book before the publication date. That it happened at all still makes me smile at random moments. That it’s a Wayward Children book, the series that introduced me to Seanan, that’s perfection right there.
“And we’re getting off topic, which is a neat trick when we haven’t managed to get on topic yet.”
I need to find someone in my world who I can get all spoilery with because they’ve read it too. Until then, I need to talk about some takeaways.
Dinosaurs. Yes, there’s a dinosaur on the cover. Yes, you will travel to a world with dinosaurs. No, this is not a dinosaur book.
The story. This is the continuation of Antsy’s story. You met her in Lost in the Moment and Found. If you don’t know Antsy, please introduce yourself to her before reading this book.
In fact, if you haven’t already attended Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, now would be a really good time to binge the series. Some of the Wayward Children books can be read as standalones if you really want to, although I’m not sure why you wouldn’t simply read them all. This really isn’t one of them. It refers to characters, worlds and events that you really had to be there for.
Antsy. A part of me is still a little bit broken from knowing why she ran.
No quests.
Of course there’s a quest! Would you have it any other way?
Doors.
“Every door is a little different, and every world they take us to is very different indeed, but they all ask the same thing of us, and they all break our hearts, in the end.”
I thought I was obsessed before. This book fuelled my need to know everything there is to know about them. I have decided I need a companion book, Door Lore. It will explain the history of Doors, how they work and how different cultures and worlds understand them and tell stories about them. There will be an entry for every world, which will include where it sits on the Nonsense, Logic, Virtue, Wickedness spectrum. It will be encyclopaedic and glorious!
Kade. This is not Kade’s story but I learned more about him and the world behind his Door. I still can’t wait for Kade’s book but don’t want to say goodbye to him either, so I’m trusting Seanan to give us his story when the time is right.
Sumi.
“You have to listen to me. I died, and that means I’m clever now.”
I have loved Sumi since the day we met. Her nonsense was strong in this book, as it usually is, and I adore it and her more every page we spend together.
Harvest. I need to go there!
The ending. It hit me like a tonne of bricks. Even though I probably should have, I was not expecting it. I definitely wasn’t expecting the sneaky ugly cry.
Be sure. The worlds can be sugar sweet or they can drown me. The characters can (and will) break my heart, time and time again. I will always be sure. I will not stop looking until I find my Door.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tor for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Antsy is the latest student to pass through the doors at Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children.
When her fellow students realise that Antsy’s talent for finding absolutely anything may extend to doors, she’s forced to flee in the company of a small group of friends, looking for a way back to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go to be sure that Vineta and Hudson are keeping their promise.
Along the way, temptations are dangled, decisions are reinforced, and a departure to a world populated by dinosaurs brings untold dangers and one or two other surprises!
A story that reminds us that finding what you want doesn’t always mean finding what you need.
Mary-Kate wasn’t expecting another close encounter with the creature kind after her first investigation led her to the Woolington Wyrm. A peek at P.K. Mayberry’s A Brief Guide to Monsters and Monster Hunters may have told her otherwise.
The Rule of Monsters states that people who have met one monster are statistically much more likely to meet another.
The stats take Mary-Kate to the Greek Islands. While the Prof, her mother, is working on an archaeological dig at a sardine processing plant, Mary-Kate meets a potential new friend, Nikos, even if he does own bicycles that don’t match.
Mary-Kate soon learns that the sardines aren’t the only fishy thing about this island. Rumour has it that the legendary two headed hydra has been causing all sorts of trouble recently.
Together, Mary-Kate and Nikos explore the island. While they’re investigating, Mary-Kate has plenty of opportunities to face her fears.
Fortunately, she came prepared. She has her trusty red sparkly shoes, coordinating outfits, strawberry scented notebook, glitter pens, novelty torch, back up novelty torch and some other very important lucky items on hand.
Mary-Kate is the anxious child role model a lot of us needed when we were kids. She acknowledges her fears while working to overcome them. She asks for help when she needs it and can be specific because she knows what helps her.
Mary-Kate is an absolute sweetheart. I want to follow her and the Prof around the world as they track down elusive, but certainly not mythical, creatures.
‘There are all sorts of weird and wonderful things in the world.’
I loved Freda Chiu’s illustrations as much as I did in the first book. The characters are quirky and expressive and the monsters are wonderful. The details match the descriptions in the text, something that doesn’t always happen in children’s books. My favourite illustration in this book shows Granny in her zebra print dressing gown.
I’ve been keen to spend more time with Granny so I’m thrilled that she’s accompanying Mary-Kate on her next investigation.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Mary-Kate and her mother are visiting Galinios, an idyllic Greek Island filled with history and surrounded by the shimmering Aegean Sea. An ancient mosaic has been unearthed at the local sardine processing plant and Professor Martin must investigate, leaving Mary-Kate to enjoy a few days of sunshine and antiquity.
But a message asking for help changes everything. A wrecked boat and smashed jetty have recently disrupted life on this tranquil island and point to a monster-sized mystery. Could the local legend of the Two-Headed Hydra be more than a story? If so, what could make this historically serene sea creature so angry?
Armed with her glitter pens and strawberry-scented notebook, Miss Mary-Kate Martin is determined to find answers. She might be scared of heights, but there is no problem too big for her to solve.
“Everything seems fine until it ain’t. And then we come to see it wasn’t never ‘fine’.”
This is one of the most harrowing books I’ve ever read. One of the best, without a doubt, but also one of the most heartbreaking.
Before I even made it to the first chapter I knew this was going to be a confronting read. Robert Stephens, a relative of the author, died in the 1930’s at the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida.
Robert Stephens, the book’s main character, is sent to The Gracetown School for Boys. He’s only twelve years old when he’s sentenced to six months at the Reformatory for kicking a white boy.
This is Jim Crow Florida in the 1950’s and it’s just as brutal as I feared it would be.
“Nobody stays nice”
But despite everything its characters endure, their courage, strength and resilience shine brighter than I’d dared to hope.
“This isn’t everything. There’s more than this.”
I expected this to be Robert’s story. I wasn’t anticipating the chapters voiced by Gloria, Robbie’s sister. Getting to know Gloria was a double edged sword for me. I grew to love her but that came with its own fears.
It was painful enough witnessing what Robert and the other boys at the Reformatory were subjected to. Worrying about Gloria as well, almost certain that the only ways her story could end were with the loss of her brother or her sacrifice to save him, made this book even more stressful.
“I may not be brave most times, but I can be brave for Robbie.”
The brutality of the physical and emotional abuse the children in the Reformatory experienced was bad enough. That a town full of adults who could and should have protected them but didn’t, that’s a whole other level of injustice.
Books like this are so hard to read. If they’re not, something is very wrong. Books like this are necessary, though. I loved this book. I hated this book. You need to read this book. Just make sure you have tissues in arm’s reach while you’re reading it.
“Go on,” Blue said, voice husky. “Ask me what I know about this place. Ask me.”
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Jim Crow Florida, 1950.
Twelve-year-old Robert Stephens Jr., who for a trivial scuffle with a white boy is sent to The Gracetown School for Boys. But the segregated reformatory is a chamber of horrors, haunted by the boys that have died there.
In order to survive the school governor and his Funhouse, Robert must enlist the help of the school’s ghosts – only they have their own motivations…
This is my first Christina Henry read and now I need to read everything she’s ever written. I loved the blurb and expected this book to be fun, but not this much fun!
Desperately trying to survive the horror stories they’ve been cast in without their consent are Celia, Allie and Maggie.
Celia has a husband and young daughter she doesn’t recognise. She owns a restaurant near her home in a town she doesn’t know. Unsure if she’s experiencing amnesia or something more nefarious, Celia suspects that this is not her life.
“You’re the number one suspect.”
Allie’s girl’s weekend was hijacked by her friends’ boyfriends. Now she’s using her horror movie knowledge to avoid being added to the body count.
“Movies are fun and all, but that kind of stuff doesn’t usually happen in real life. Usually.”
Maggie has twelve hours to successfully complete the Maze. Her daughter’s life depends on it. Although characters reference The Hunger Games while Maggie does her best to ensure her insides don’t become her outsides, I kept thinking of Squid Game.
“Let the game begin”
There was plenty of action and blood spatter, and I enjoyed the anticipation as the body count grew. I loved figuring out what was going on along with the women and watching them use their individual skills and knowledge to outwit, outplay and outlast.
“Men always underestimate women”
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books introducing me to a new favourite author.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Celia wakes up in a house that isn’t hers. She doesn’t recognise her husband or the little girl who claims to be her daughter. She tries to remember who she was before, because she is certain that this life — the little family-run restaurant she owns, the gossipy small town she lives in — is not her own.
Allie is supposed to be on a fun weekend trip — but then her friend’s boyfriend unexpectedly invites the group to a remote cabin in the woods. The cabin looks recently assembled and there are no animals or other life anywhere in the forest. Nothing about the place seems right. Then, in the middle of the night, someone bangs on the cabin door…
Maggie, along with twelve other women, wakes up in a shipping container with the number three stamped on the back of her T-shirt. If she wants to see her daughter Paige again, Maggie must complete The Maze — a deadly high-stakes obstacle course.
When I tell you I finished this book in one sitting, that only tells you part of the story. I haven’t been able to concentrate enough to read for over a month so it’s saying a lot that Cas, Warrior and my other new friends not only introduced themselves to me today but grabbed my attention and held onto it.
We’re introduced to Cas, who doesn’t remember anything before waking up outside of a curiosity shop. A curiosity shop that I would happily live in, mind you.
Brought to a school for the magically gifted by a stranger, Cas soon learns that he’s the Chosen One, AKA the Foretold. As such, he’s the only one who can stop the nefarious Master of All. It’s been prophesied, after all.
You know this story, right?
The wonderful thing is you actually don’t. At all. Yes, the writings of She Who Must Not Be Named are alluded to at one point but this is not that story.
Welcome to Wayward, in the Balance Lands.
“A halfway place between this world and the Normie world. And everywhere else. That’s how it got its name – Wayward. Way through the wards.”
The Balance Lands are a mirror image of the Normie world so things may look familiar but there are some significant differences. Normies don’t travel between worlds using reflections. They don’t have Puggle the Nuggle or Hobdogglin. They probably don’t have a chute from their bedroom to the library, but they absolutely should.
I had a couple of favourite characters, Warrior and Mrs Crane. The tips of Warrior’s hair change colour with her moods! As if that wasn’t enough to endear her to me, she’s a heart of gold wrapped inside a protective layer of attitude. She’s a badass. She’s a bit of a mystery. She has pain and passion, and she’s an outcast.
Meanwhile, Mrs Crane is the school librarian. As the keeper of the books, she’d have to be pretty boring to not grab my attention. Mrs Crane is anything but boring. She also has biscuits.
Cas, Warrior, Paws and Fenix are four friends who I really enjoyed getting to know. They’re all Abnormies so their magic doesn’t work like ‘normal’ magic. What I loved more than anything about this book is the message that being different isn’t something to be ashamed of.
“Whatever people tell you about who and what you are, always remember this: normal doesn’t exist. Everyone is different, from the points of our fingers to the tips of our toes. Being different is what’s normal. It’s what makes each one of us magic, each one of us strong.”
Nathan Collins’ illustrations complemented the story well. From the quirky characters to the creatures unique to Wayward, they matched the tone of the book.
This is the first book in a series that you’d better believe I’ll be continuing.
Favourite no context quote:
“I’m armed with a blanky and I’m not afraid to use it!”
Thank you so much to Walker Books for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
A boy with no memory. A world searching for a hero.
Casander Darkbloom has no memory, lives outside a curiosity shop, and experiences random surges of uncontrollable energy in his limbs. When he inexplicably brings a stuffed raven to life, he unravels a strange and thrilling magical world. A world waiting for Cas to save it.
Cas is the Foretold, the one prophesied to defeat the malevolent Master of All. Under the protection of Wayward School, Cas must learn to master his magical abilities. But, as he soon discovers, all may not be quite as it seems – and Cas will need to take control of his own destiny if he is to find the strength to fight the powers of evil.
Spectacular and imaginative, this thrilling fantasy novel celebrates difference and how what makes us unique is also our greatest strength.
Schizanthus Nerd 