Author: Tahereh Mafi
Pages: 416 pages
Rating: 3.45/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis:
Alice Alexis Queensmeadow 12 rates three things most important: Mother, who wouldn’t miss her; magic and color, which seem to elude her; and Father, who always loved her. Father disappeared from Ferenwood with only a ruler, almost three years ago. But she will have to travel through the mythical, dangerous land of Furthermore, where down can be up, paper is alive, and left can be both right and very, very wrong. Her only companion is Oliver whose own magic is based in lies and deceit. Alice must first find herself—and hold fast to the magic of love in the face of loss.
Non-spoilery Review:
This is a middle-grade fantasy that I enjoyed reading. I wouldn’t say that this is one of my favorite middle-grade books but its worth the read. I felt like I liked Tahereh Mafi’s writing style more than the actual story. Its poetic, beautiful and lyrical. This is her first book that I’ve read and I’m definitely interested in reading more. Now, onto the book characters: Alice is so pure and real, I loved reading about her. She was a force to be reckoned with, definitely! She takes crap from no one and I loved her so much. I adored her relationship with her dad and I really admired how her friendship with Oliver progressed. I was absolutely mesmerized with the world in this book — Imagine a blast of colors and magic. A thing I really love about middle-grade is that the stories are so pure, and Furthermore had this quality to it, for sure. I had some issues with the ending, it felt rather abrupt, in my opinion. I also felt that in some parts, the story didn’t flow well. Considering this is Mafi’s first book in the genre, I’d say she did a fantastic job, though. I would recommend to people who are new to middle-grade, especially. It doesn’t take much to get into this particular story, its written so beautifully that you would not want to stop reading it.
Off topic, but I feel the same with John Green’s books. I know a lot of people have issues with repetitiveness and stuff, but I love how he writes and crafts his narrative throughout his books. It’s compelling and has a spellbinding quality to it. *lecture over*
Spoilery Review:
Okay, ummm, I REALLY wish we get a sequel in the form of a YA book following Alice and Oliver! I would ship them so hard and it would be so incredibly interesting to read from a grown-up Alice’s point of view! Also, I feel like I may be the only one, but Alice’s mom annoyed me. I don’t know, I just didn’t like her…she was so unfair to Alice, knowing how hard it must have been for her to cope up with her father missing, as well as not being to fit in with everyone for her age-group. There’s not that many spoilers things I wanna talk about, actually. But yeah, I kind of want to start a petition for a YA sequel…
What are some of your favorite middle-grade books? You can buy this book here.
Happy reading!
bookishendeavors
Bookish Endeavors 