Creature impossibili

It’s very rare, at the ripe age of 32, that a book can transport me back to being tucked up in my childhood bedroom exploring the impossibly imaginative worlds of Tolkien, Rowling, Pullman and Gaiman, but Rundell has achieved it. A devastatingly emotional and magnificently creative story - I immedia Leggi tutto

Impossible Creatures is the best modern children’s fantasy I’ve read since the first of the Nevermoor books. The world of the Archipelagos, a land within our world that’s hidden from view, is simply magical. It’s where all of the creatures of myth and legend exist, fed by the magic of the glimourie Leggi tutto

Oh man...I've gone back and forth about this book. I couldn't decide whether I should go with a 3.5 or 4 stars. I've ultimately decided to go with 4, but I have some interesting feelings about it. CW: death of an animal, death of characters, violence, vivid descriptions of injury. Impossible Creature Leggi tutto

British bookseller Waterstones has crowned Rundell’s young-adult fantasy its Book of the 2023. As I mentioned recently in the Book Club newsletter , I thought it was funny that Rundell has the same name as the author of “Super-Infinite,” a brilliant study of John Donne that I read last year. But it Leggi tutto

I read the book when I saw the comparison to Pullman and Tolkien, excited to read a great young adult novel. I was very underwhelmed from the first few pages. I found the prose clumsy, with an overuse of dashes (which are odd to find in fiction prose at all), colons and semicolons. The story was ful Leggi tutto

She’s the George R.R. Martin of middle grade fantasy, says School Library Journal. No. Wait. Scrap that. She’s actually reminiscent of Ursula Le Guin and Philip Pullman, says Publishers Weekly. No. No no, I’m still wrong because the Washington Post is saying she’s her generation’s J.R.R. Tolkien. Me Leggi tutto

Katherine Rundell is a very talented writer, with a lyrical sensibility and the ability to find new and surprising ways of describing both the worlds she creates and the characters that inhabit them. That’s a rare gift. So I was excited to hear of a new fantasy series from her. However, I can’t say Leggi tutto

An enjoyable way to spend New Year's Day and a fun lark to start 2025's adventure in reading. This middle grade book is itself All Adventure, complete with breathless pace and racing about to many imaginary places on the map in the front of the book and meeting many impossible creatures in the besti Leggi tutto

"He would never find it again, that kind of friendship. But once is enough. You need it only once – so that you may know what your human heart is capable of." Christopher is a boy who has always had a natural affinity with animals - they flock to him for reasons he can't explain. But on a stay wi