★★★★★ 4
Fun if a bit offbeat upper elementary fantasy
Format: Hardcover
I read this in one afternoon and have to say I enjoyed it. The cast of characters are incredibly diverse, and for the most part this is a believable story (despite the undead magicians and ridiculous outhouse) This story is a "Hatfields vs McCoys" if the two hillbilly families were magicians and were feuding over how they practice instead of over moonshine and land. This brings me to my first gripe with the novel. The dense dialogue in accents. For a middle grade book, the text is filled with a lot of phonetic spellings and backwards english. I guess it is to be atmospheric, but it just makes the characters seem dumb. And that is sad because they are not. Stubborn, and sometimes too preoccupied to see what is under their noses but not stupid. I sometimes felt that the characters had been written into a corner so there were multiple instances of "because magic" and convenient acts of random fortuitous "we have everything we need and don't have to search more because the Luck Gods were smiling". Once or twice I completely missed how the characters got from point A to point B and I Really dislike "wave a wand and everything is good and the mortals forget what happened". A little convenient magic written to solve a solution is fine. But the ending sort of feels a little flat when a Major concern for the entire novel is resolved by sleight of hand.
On the whole though, the characters are likable, and age appropriate (though a bit whiny at times for this parent ;-p) and I liked that diversity isn't a "cause" its just an adjective...As in, there is a gay couple who act like every other parent in the story. There is a deaf younger brother who isn't treated as 'precious' but as a functioning human. Even one of the main characters is intersex and does question "Am I girl enough to be a witch". None of the cast of characters feels forced or out of place making this a nice addition to my kid's library.
ARC free in exchange for an honest review.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2021
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