All three of these books are middle-grade to YA novels, each in a different genre: mystery, fantasy, and science fiction respectively. I’m reviewing them together because while I liked them all in different degrees, I don’t have much to say about each. They were all good but didn’t stand out. In the order I liked them:
Original
Publication Year: 2006
Genre:
Middle-grade, Mystery
Series:
Enola Holmes #1
Format:
Audio (Audible)
Narrator:
Katherine Kellgren
Awards: Edgar Award nominee for Best
Juvenile (2007)
Enola Holmes
is the younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft. Enola was a late in life baby for their mother and on her 14th birthday her mother (the Marquess of the title) disappears without a
trace. Calling on her older brothers for help
turns out to be a mistake, as they see her as nothing more than an ill-mannered burden
and prepare to ship her off to a horrid girl’s boarding school. Enola is cannot bear to be shipped off and is desperate to know what has happened to her mother so she makes her
escape, using a number of disguises to get to London. She then sets out to discover what
has happened to her mother (and a young missing duke to boot).
If I was
10-14 years old I would have eaten this book up and asked for seconds. As an adult, it definitely felt young and
that is what in the end really stopped this from being a great read. It suffers a little from the problem of Enola being
way too young for almost everything that happens in the book, including the
circumstances surrounding her mother’s disappearances. Despite all that fussing, I did find the book
charming and the puzzle is intriguing. I
liked it enough that I will definitely be continuing with the series which
promises to develop interestingly.
Final
Verdict: An engaging historical mystery series that seems perfectly
suited for middle grade readers and only slightly less so for adult
readers. 3.4 out of 5 stars.
Original
Publication Year: 2008
Genre: YA,
Fantasy
Series: Wildwood
#2
Format:
Audio (library - digital)
Narrator: Justine
Eyre
Awards: None
Marillier is
known for her retellings of fairy tales and even her original
stories have a very folk tale-esque quality to them. This book was no exception. In full
disclosure I have not read the first in the Wildwood series so this was my
introduction to the Transylvanian merchant family with
connections to a magical world. While I do wish I had read book one first I had no trouble keeping up with things - Marillier does a good job throwing in summaries to catch up new readers.
Much of the action in this book takes place
in a historical Istanbul and is focused on an artifact sacred to the ancient
Goddess Cybele. Interest in such an
artifact is dangerous in the highly religious Muslim community on Istanbul. The main character, Paula, is 18 and a
scholar and she struggles with a lot of the restrictions placed on women in the
Turkish culture. She is a relatively
likeable and strong female lead but I didn’t find her particularly interesting
and she does a lot of stupid and naïve things because she’s young and thinks
she knows best. I found none of the
characters all that interesting though there is some pretty transparent bait
and switch things going on with a couple characters – i.e. they seem stereotypically good
or bad but are not what they seem. The
setting is interesting however and there is a really fun obstacle course,
Indiana Jones- style contest to wrap up the quest to return the artifact to where
it belongs.
Final
Verdict: A perfectly readable, though not terribly remarkable YA book that is part
fantasy and a little bit historical fiction.
3 out of 5 Stars.
Original
Publication Year: 2004
Genre: Middle
Grade, Science Fiction
Series: Book
of Ember #1
Format:
Audio (library – cds)
Narrator: Wendy
Dillon
Awards: A
bunch of children’s literary award
This one is
a little bit of a challenge to judge. I
didn’t love it but that is because: a) I am not the intended audience and b)
part of my dislike was for the narrator who is actually probably fine but her
performance was pitched towards 9 year olds.
So for 9 year olds, I think this book has a lot of promise - an interesting
premise and mystery.
Unfortunately
for adult readers there are some fatal flaws mostly to do with plausibility. Many a great book has been built on completely implausible ideas but the internal logic must work and the story has
to crack on and be completely absorbing to work.
I think this book lacks both of those.
One flaw, that is a frequent pitfall for an adult reading children’s
or YA literature, is that there is too much agency and authority given to its young main
characters (in this book 12 year olds) and adults are marginalized and given no real
role. In The Case of the Missing
Marquess this was less annoying because Enola truly has no trustworthy adults to turn
to, but in this book there is no good reason for the children not to have enlisted
the help of some trusted adult relatives. The
second big issue is the premise itself which upon any kind of reflection reveals
itself to just be a spectacularly dumb, flimsy, or at the very least a poorly
executed idea. It is also hard to believe
that a society would not have innovated or at least shown the tiniest bit of curiosity
in 250 years.
Final
Verdict: I think this is a pretty good children’s
that really doesn’t translate well for adult readers. I wanted to see what happened enough that I
have started book 2 in the series but the problems from book one are just
exacerbated. 2.75 out of 5 Stars.
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