Sanity and Tallulah, by Molly Brooks

This past week has been busy, with family, home-renovations, and determined reading of YA Speculative Fiction for the Cybils Awards.  But now the family are gone the home renovation can take a back seat (no houseguests expected till February) and I should have the time to blog more!  So here's one I just read, that's easy to write about because it is easy to see without much effort that it's good.

Sanity and Tallulah, by Molly Brooks (Disney-Hyperion, October 2018), is a fun science fiction graphic novel, particularly great for science-minded kids who love cats, but also good for story-minded kids/grown-ups who enjoy fun graphic novels.

Sanity and Tallulah are best friends, and so when Tallulah illicitly uses the lab of their space station home to create a three-headed kitten (Princess Sparkle Destroyer of Worlds), Sanity is there to help cuddle , and to be sad when the kitty is taken from them and imprisoned in the lab.  But PSDofW is not lacking in smarts either, and breaks free, disappearing into the bowels of the space station.  And at just about the same time, electrical malfunctions start plaguing the space station, and there are signs of chewed wires....is it the kitten(s) that are too blame, or some other menace?  Sanity and Tallulah set out to investigate (breaking more rules in the process), and discover that the whole space station is in danger of destruction.  Fortunately, Sanity's clandestine work in the lab has given her the skills she needs to fix the problem...but what will become of Princess Sparkle Destroyer of Worlds?

This is a great book for many reasons.  The friendship of the two girls is a joy to see; they are supportive of each other just beautifully!  The parents are involved and caring, though not always able to keep tabs on their kids, especially Sanity's parents, but they try.  And of course it's a joy to see smart girls doing science; it's not clear to me where Tallulah's own gifts lie, but she's there for her friend and perhaps future stories will give her more of a chance to shine.  The characters are diverse--Tallulah's mom, the senior scientist on the space station, is Latina and Sanity is black.

And on top of that, the story is interesting and engaging, and tense without being overwhelmingly so.  The illustrations help keep things light and the story on the fun side, even when things are going wrong, though the entertaining text doesn't need much help.

My only quibble is that I really wanted to have more context for this space station; there's a bigger story hinted at, and hopefully we'll see more of that in future books!

But in any event, if you have a graphic novel loving kid of 8-on up, offer this book!

Knights vs Dinosaurs, by Matt Phelan, for Timeslip Tuesday

Knights vs Dinosaurs, written and illustrated by Matt Phelan (Greenwillow, Oct 2018) is a great one to give to kids who love Ursula Vernon's Hamster Princess books, but want a bit of a change!  It's a fun story, and it's a graphic heavy one, with generous line spacing and not too many pages (148), making it friendly for Elementary School readers into the Middle Grade ages (so basically, 7-10 year olds).

Here's the story--

King Arthur's knights roam around the countryside, looking for bad guys/dragons to fight, but mostly they come up empty handed.  Still, they have to boast about something when they gather around the Round Table, and one night Sir Erec boasts that he slew 40 dragons. Merlin decides it's time to teach the knights a little lesson about boasting....and challenges Sir Erec, and three other knights, to a very different sort of quest, one that involves battling giant reptiles...

The knights follow Merlin's instructions to a cave....and once inside, the four of them, plus one squire, Mel, are sent back in time to the age of the dinosaurs!  At last there real monsters to fight, and the knights agree that they must be vanquished to complete the quest before they can return to their own time.  The dragons chomp and chase and swing their spiked tails, the knights thwack and run away and swing maces and throw rocks and run away a bit more.

But after a bit of practice facing off against the dinosaurs, the knights start working together more effectively, and make it home again!

The coolest of all the knights, both brave and level-headed, is the Black Knight, who turns out to be a woman.  Mel the squire is a girl in disguise.  Gender equity in dino fighting!  Harriet the Hamster Princess I mentioned above would be right at home amongst all the wild rampaging.

It is not a great time travel book qua time travel book, because, as Matt Phelan admits in his instructional guide to prehistoric fauna at the end, he included species that weren't contemporaneous.  So it basically a generic "dinosaur past."   But still it is lots of fun, and Phelan's illustrations are delightful.  If ever Merlin planned a second adventure for these knights, I'd welcome it.

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (11/18/18)

Welcome to this weeks round-up; please let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

Are You Ready to Hatch an Unusual Chicken? by Kelly Jones, at Neverending TBR

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin, at Redeemed Reader

Bluecrowne, by Kate Milford, at Hidden in Pages

The Boy, the Boat, and the Beast, by Samantha M. Clark, at Semicolon

City of Ghosts, by Victoria Schwab, at Pages Unbound and Bookish Wandress

Dactyl Hill Squad, by Daniel José Older, at Charlotte's Library

A Dash of Trouble (Love, Sugar, Magic #1), by Anna Meriano, at From the Biblio Files

Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic, by Armand Baltazar, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

Evangeline of the Bayou, by Jan Eldredge, at Semicolon

Everblaze (Keepers of the Lost Cities #3) by Shannon Messenger, at Say What?

Flashback (Keepers of the Lost Cities #7), by Shannon Messenger, at Kitty Cat at the Library

The Frog Princess Returns, by E.D. Baker, at Sharon the Librarian 

The Hotel Between, by Sean Easley, at Middle Grade Book Village

The House in Poplar Woods, by K.E. Ormsbee, at Milliebot Reads

The House with Chicken Legs, by Sophie Anderson, at Waking Brain Cells

Inkinling, by Kenneth Oppel, at Always in the Middle

The Jamie Drake Equation, by Chrisopher Edge, at BooksForKidsBlog

The Language of Spells, by Garret Wyre, at Books4yourkids

The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis, at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

Ogre Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine, at Pages Unbound

Ottoline and the Yellow Cat, by Chris Riddell, at Pages Unbound

The Portal and the Veil, by Ted Sanders, at This Kid Reviews Books

The Scroll of Kings, by Sarah Prineas, at Off the Shelf Reviews

The Storm Runner, by J.C. Cervantes, at Book Dust Magic

Sweep, by Jonathan Auxier, at Semicolon

The Turnkey of Highgate Cemetery, by Allison Rushby, at Cracking the Cover

Unicorn Quest, by Kamila Benko, at alibrarymama

Wundersmith: the Calling of Morrigan Crow, by Jessica Townsend, at Diva Booknerd

Lots of mini-reviews from Cybils reading at Library Chicken

Authors and Interviews

Tara Dairman (The Great Hibernation) at Bas Bleu

There's a new blog in town--Spooky Middle Grade, a collaboration of authors; here's an intro post, wherein authors share why they write spooky stories, and why these stories are important year round

Other Good Stuff

.A look at popular middle grade fantasy series, at Redeemed Reader

I love the posts showcasing what's new in the UK at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books!

Dactyl HIll Squad, by Daniel José Older

There is a special fun that comes when reading a book in which it's clear the author enjoyed the books nifty premise immensely (or at least gives that impression). The premise of Dactyl Hill Squad, by Daniel José Older (Arthur A. Levine, MG, Sept. 2018), is that instead of horses, 19th-century USA relied on dinosaurs and pterosaurs for transportation. 

 The story takes place in New York City, around the time of the Battle of Gettysburg. Magdalys Roca, an insignificant resident of the Colored Orphan Asylum, is away from the Asylum for a treat with her friends, when the Daft Riots break out, and New York City becomes a battleground.  Richard Riker, an evil magistrate of the city, has his greedy eyes set on the orphans, who can be shipped out of the city as human cargo.  The orphanage is burned down, the 100 plus kids there are missing.  But Magdalys and her friends escape, and flee to Brooklyn.

There they find a group of men and women dedicated to stopping Riker and his ilk, Magdalys and the other kids determined to rescue their fellow orphans, now captives.  And it turns out that Magdalys is just the secret weapon that's needed for the job.  She has a rare ability to communicate mind to mind with the dinos and pterosaurs...and the determination to do what ever it takes to win!

It's a bright book (in the sense of bright as not dull)--it makes clear pictures in the reader's mind, it's, fast-paced, and the dino-wrangling is enjoyable mind candy.  There's a serious depth to it though--though it's all good fun, the wrongs that are being fought against really happened.   Kids wanting dinosaur fantasy fun and fighting won't be disappointed, but they'll also learn something.  There's good back matter, with historical information, dino information, and a note on "weapons and words."  Shakespearean dramatics also are part of the background, with the plays being embraced and played w by a famous African American actor who was part of Magdalys' escape to Brooklyn (it's nice to see Shakespear included as something fun and friendly).  I myself especially appreciated the thought given to how each type of dinosaur would be useful, both in battle and in daily life.

Short answer--I enjoyed it, and would recommend it in a sec to kids who enjoy historical fiction, gun fights, and dinosaurs!

Honor Among Thieves, by Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre

I have family coming to stay for Thanksgiving, and one of the most pressing things I need to do is to read all the books I have out from the library because my house looks like someone has vomited books all over it.  In this diligent spirit, I have spent the last four hours reading Honor Among Thieves, by Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre (Katherine Tegan Books, YA, February 2018), in a single sitting, all 465 pages of it, so clearly I found it engrossing as all get out!

A ways in the future, humanity was on the verge of wiping itself out when the Leviathans appeared from out among the stars, saving us from ourselves.  All they wanted in exchange was to chose 100 young men and women each year  to voyage with them.  Most came home after one year.  Others journeyed on, and did not return.

Black teenager Zara Cole lives as a petty criminal in one of the few unrehabed parts of urban Earth, and so she never expected to be one of the chosen ones.  But she can't refuse the golden ticket.  So she finds herself, with another young woman, Beatriz, on board Nadim, sentient, living creature who flies through space.  It's a bit of an adjustment to be living inside Nadim, but Zara feels strangely at  home, and as her bond with Nadim deepens, she can't imagine being anywhere else.

But though the media have spun the arrival of the Leviathans into a glorious deliverance, Zara, suspicious by nature and nurture, has always wondered if there's a con at work.  And indeed, all is not well out in space...

Beatriz, Zara, and Nadim play of each other very well as they get to know each other, and I enjoyed watching them bond.  There's smart-alecky bantering to lighten the mood, some moments where I was deeply moved, and intellectual pleasure from guessing where the plot was going (which wasn't hard to do).   Nadim is a bit like a manic pixie dream girl in ungendered sentient ship form, and it's a bit of an insta love between Nadim and Zara, but I was able to take this in stride.  Zara and Beatriz both have considerable abilities, both intellectual and physical, that are almost a bit much, but since they were chosen out of all of humanity, I felt it was allowable for them to be exceptional.

All in all it was a package of things I enjoy, and it took no effort at all to sit and read it more or less straight through.

Time Jumpers: Stealing the Sword, by Wendy Mass, for Timeslip Tuesday

Time Jumpers: Stealing the Sword, by Wendy Mass (August 2018), is the start of a new series in the Scholastic Branches line, aimed at kids just beginning to read easy chapter books independently.  It's the story of two siblings, Chase and Ava, who we meet in a flea market where they are helping sell their mom's art.  Exploring the flea market, they spot an old suitcase that has a strange appeal for them...and the manager of that stall lets them have it for nothing.  An angry man comes demanding that she give him that very suitcase, but she stands her ground and claims she doesn't know what he's talking about.

Clearly, it is a special piece of luggage....and when Chase and Ava open it, they find an array of strange objects, one of which looks like a dragon-headed doorknob.  When it almost flies into Chase's hand, the two kids find themselves whisked back in time to the court of King Arthur!

All is not well back in the past; Merlin and the King are both in trouble, and the same angry man from the flea market is back in the past as well, and seems just as angry....  But the dragon-headed doorknob (which is Not a doorknob!) is just what it needed to save the day.

It is a perfectly fine story for what it is; it's meant for an audience still not quite ready for the Magic Tree House book (I actually found the writing, on a very basic work level, more interesting than Magic Treehouse, but I am scarred for life by having to listen to MTH books on audio where the fact that it is "….said Jack" and …."said Annie" over and over is inescapable).   The siblings are supportive of each other, and though there's not quite enough time for them to become fully developed characters, Mass does quite bit in that direction, rather skillfully.  The addition of the sinister bad guy adds interest to the story, and a mystery that is yet to be resolved.  

So it's fine, like I said, and the illustrations on every page will help kids still acquiring reading conviction enjoy the book.

But as a fan of time travel and medieval fiction...it was disappointing.  We don't get any educational value out of the time travel experience; there's almost no detail about the past, except that this being King Arthur's court, there are tapestries and knights and stone walls....And of course it's not even a real past, though never does the story acknowledge that this high medieval King Arthur is just a story.  I feel Wendy Mass could have pushed her word limit to get a bit more history in there....Oh well.

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs (11/11/18)

Welcome to this week's round-up; please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

Archie Greene and the Alchemists’ Curse by D.D. Everest, at This Kid Reviews Books

Bluecrowne, by Kate Milford, at Puss Reboots and Magic Fiction Since Potter

The Darkdeep, by Allie Condie and Brendan Reichs, at Semicolon

Freya and the Magic Jewel, by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams, at Pages Unbound Reviews

The Girl Who Saved Christmas, by Matt Haig, at Jill's Book Blog

The Girl with the Dragon Heart, by Stephanie Burgis, at The Story Sanctuary and YA Book Nerd

The House in Poplar Wood, by  K.E. Ormsbee, at From the Biblio Files

Hurricane Katrina Rescue (Ranger in Time), by Kate Messner, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Island of Monsters, by Ellen Oh, at Charlotte's Library

The Language of Spells, by Garret Weyr, at The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia

Max Tilt: 80 Days or Die, by Peter Lerangis, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Music Boxes, by Tonja Drecker, at Laurisa White Reyes 

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor, Book 1) by Jessica Townsend, at Hidden in Pages

The Royal Rabbits of London, by Santa Montefiore, at From the Biblio Files

Snared: Escape to the Above, by Adam Jay Epstein, at alibrarymama

Sweep, by Jonathan Auxier, at Redeemed Reader

The Train to Impossible Pages, by P.G. Bell, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

Twilight of the Elves (Adventurers Guild 2), by Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos, at Feed Your Fiction Addiction

Unwritten, by Tara Gilboy, at Lost in a Good Book

Watch Hallow, by Gregory Funaro, at Middle Grade Mafia

Whiskerella,  by Ursula Vernon, at Becky's Book Reviews

Winterhouse, by Ben Guterson, at alibrarymama

Authors and Interviews

Melanie Crowder (The Lighthouse Between Worlds) at Literary Rambles

E.D. Baker (More Than a Princess) at Publishers Weekly

Other Good Stuff

Charles Vess on Working with Ursula Le Guin on the illustred version of The Books of Earthsea, at Tor

The Island of Monsters, by Ellen Oh

Not my greatest blogging week, but at least I'm getting one post up!

The Island of Monsters, by Ellen Oh (HarperCollins, middle grade, July 2018), is the sequel to last year's fantastic horror story, Spirit Hunters.  In that book, Harper Raine learns to use her gift for communicating with spirits, with the help of her Korean grandmother, and saves her little brother from a horrible ghost.  Now she's off to a family vacation on a remote Caribbean island, and has a bad feeling about it.  With justification, as it turns out to be demon infested.  Some years ago, 13 people were found horrible killed, and the mystery of their deaths was never solved.  It quickly becomes clear to Harper that supernatural forces were to blame, and when she experiences visions of what happened back then, she learns that it's not ghosts she's dealing with; it's demons.  And the demons are determined to claim more victims so that they can use their life force to break into our world and run amok.

Her grandmother can't come to island to help her, so Harper must take the lead on freeing the trapped spirits inside the demons, and sending them away from our world before they can kill again.  Fortunately her best friend, Dayo, has come along for the trip too, and she's a stalwart ally, but it is all very touch and go, and the horrible death of her little brother, and other young people,  is only a whisker away!

Spirit Hunters is a stronger book, because it deals more deeply with mundane concerns of middle school kids--moving to a new town, family tensions, friendship worries, wondering if the fact that you see ghosts makes you weird.  Here the story is almost entirely focused on the immediate threat, and that's certainly enough to keep the pages turning, but though the supporting characters are all clearly drawn and there's a mystery to solve about the past deaths, it's not quite so emotionally interesting to me story-wise.

That being said, kids who love horror (and it's pretty horrible, with some nasty disemboweling) will eat it up!

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (11/4/18)

Welcome to this week's round-up; let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Escapes, by Wade Albert White, at Feed Your Fiction Addiction

The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle, by Christina Uss, at Fuse#8

Amoung the Hidden, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, at Proseandkahn

Begone the Raggedy Witches, by Celine Kiernan, at Randomly Reading

The Boy, the Bird, and the Coffin Maker, by Matilda Woods, at Rosi Hollenbeck

The Frame-Up, by Wendy McLeod MacKnight, at alibarymama

Exile, by Shannon Messenger, at Say What?

Frostfire, by Jamie Smith, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

Grump, by Liesl Shurtliff, at Semicolon

Inkling, by Kenneth Opel, at Imaginary Friends

Island of Monsters, by Ellen Oh, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Let Sleeping Dragons Lie, by Garth Nix and Sean Williams, at Charlotte's Library

Midnight Reynolds and the Spectral Transformer, by Catherine Holt, at Sharon the Librarian

Monstrous Devices, by Damien Love, at Books4yourkids

The Mortification of Fovea Munson, by Mary Winn Heider, at A Backwards Story

The Nameless Hero (Joshua Dread #2), by Lee Bacon, at Say What?

Skulduggery Pleasant, by Derek Landy, at Geo Librarian

Small Spaces, by Katherine Arden, at Always in the Middle

Snared: Escape to the Above, by Adam Jay Epstein, at Charlotte's Library

The Snow Witch, by Rosie Boyes, at Kitty Cat at the Library

The Stone Girl's Story, by Sarah Beth Durst, at From the Biblio Files

The Storm Runner, by J.C. Cervantes, at The Reader Bee

The Train to Impossible Places, by P.G. Bell, at Laura Noakes

The Wild Book, by Juan Villoro, at alibrarymama

To Catch a Thief: an Endless Quest Book, by Matt Forbeck, at The Write Path

Two at Falling Letters-- The Island of Monsters, by Ellen Oh, and Fesitval of Ghosts, by William Alexander

Two at alibrary mama--  Last (Endling #1) by Katherine Applegate, and Heartseeker, by Melinda Beatty

Two at Ms. Yingling Reads--The Girl With the Dragon Heart, by Stephanie Burgis, and Let Sleeping Dragons Lie, by Garth Nix and Sean Williams


Authors and Interviews

Jan Eldrege (Witch Girl) at Alittlebutalot

Adam Gidwitz, on his podcast Grimm, Grimmer, and Grimmest, at Educating Alice

Other Good Stuff

A look at the busy reading of an Elementary/Middle Grade Cybils panelist, at A Library Chicken

"How Narnia and Harry Potter Wrestle with Death and Rewrite Christianity" at Tor

A fun dreary Edward Gorey quiz at The BookList Reader

Snared: Escape to the Above, by Adam Jay Epstein

Snared: Escape to the Above, by Adam Jay Epstein (Imprint, June 2018), is a fun adventure fantasy for the young end of middle grade; if you have a kid of ten or so who's intrigued by Dungeons and Dragons style fantasy, offer this book!

The only life young Wily has ever known has been spent down in a monster-filled maze of caverns, making traps to snare adventurers searching for his masters treasure.  Fortunately, many of the monsters are his friends, and one young hobgoblet girl, Roveeka is like a sister to him, even though he himself is a strange sort of hobgoblet, not shaped quite like all the others.  And fortunately, Wily enjoys creating puzzle and traps (cleaning up giant snail slime and pushing boulders back into place not so much).

No adventures ever make it anywhere close to the treasure.  And Wiley never goes outside.  But the boredom of this state of things is relieved when a party of adventures arrive who don't play by the rules.  The elf, the fighter with the magical detached arm, and the earth golem make it through alive, and as well as the treasure, they want to take him away with them too; his skill with traps makes him valuable in his own right

So Wily, and Roveeka, who comes too, get to see the Above world.  Though it is wonderous in many ways, it is a place of danger as well.  It is ruled by a fanatic king, who is determined to bring order to everyone's lives, kidnapping them with his mechanical minions to live perfectly structured lives in his mechanical city.  Wily and the adventures, against their will, find themselves not looking for treasure, but looking for a way to bring the tyrant down, and, along the way, to solve the mystery of Wily's parents.

The strength of the story is the charm of the found family of the two kids, human and hobgoblet, and the adventures.  The adventures are not at first interested in the kids except as a means to an end (treasure enough to escape the kingdom), but gradually strong bonds form, and that's a pleasure to read. It's also lots of fun to see the above world through Wily's eyes, but I wish his innocence had lasted longer...I think the strangeness should have lasted longer than it did.

The adventure part is fun too, and any kid who enjoys tricksy dangers and creepy creatures will be enthralled.   Suspension of disbelief is required with regard to Wily's mechanical brilliance (he manages to quickly whip together a propeller plane at one point), but it's a fantasy, so one can let that slid.

In short, it's not a particularly complicated book, and the final challenge is perhaps too easily overcome (it's a bit "voila, a happy ending!), but it has charm, and I think it's one that works well for its target audience, though I myself didn't love it enough to imagine wanting to re-read it.

Shadow of the Fox, by Julie Kagawa

I have been busily reading YA speculative fiction for the past few weeks, in my role as a 1st round Cybils Awards panelist in that category, so busy reading I haven't given much attention to reviewing...which I find annoying.  Happily the book I just finished, Shadow of the Fox, by Julie Kagawa  (Harlequin Teen, Oct. 2018), is one I enjoyed, and I have no trouble figuring out why I enjoyed it, so it is easy to blog about!  

I was doubtful, at first.  I liked the first point of view character, young Suki, and she dies almost immediately, and I was all, uh, what? But nevertheless I persisted.  And yay!  none of the other pov characters die (at least, not in this first book of the series).  Which is good, because one of them I liked very much indeed, and the other I am keenly interested in.

The character I liked very much is Yumeko, a half human, half kitsune (fox shapeshifter) girl raised by monks in an isolated temple.  Though her childhood was lonely, the monks were not unkind, not even when the kitsune half of her rose to the surface to play tricks.   It's a horrible shock for her, as indeed it would be for anyone, when her temple home is attacked by demons.  They kill all the monks, but not before the master of the monastery entrusts her with a fragment of a magical scroll (the sort of magical scroll fragment that, if reunited with its fellow fragments, would bring disaster to the world if it fell into the wrong hands), and tells her to run to a second temple.

So Yumeko flees into the night, not sure how to find this other temple, just as POV Character 2 arrives.  Tatsumi is a young man of the Shadow Clan, who was made into their weapon (serving his clan masters with almost no free will left) during the course of a hellish childhood.  He wields a demonic sword, and must constantly keep all emotion in check lest the demon get free.  Like the monk-slaughtering demons, he's looking for the scroll.  Instead he finds the destroyed monastery and the demons, who he kills, and Yumeko, who his sword would like to kill if he let it, which he doesn't (it's not a nice sword).  Yumeko tells him the scroll was already sent away, but that she must warn the monastery where it was sent.  And he decides she might be a useful tool in getting the scroll, so he agrees to travel with her and help her on her journey.  Help is needed, because an evil witch of great power (the one who sent the demons) wants them to fail...

So that's the set up.  The journey is the bulk of the story, with various adventures and new companions along the way, and it's good reading.  What makes it especially interesting is that Yumeko is trusting, naïve, and good-hearted, and her warmth causes chinks to develop in Tatsumi's control of his emotions...very, very slowly.  She slows their journey down to help people, for instance, which is a novel idea for him, and she tries not to hurt him when she cleans his wounds (wounds happen) which blows his mind.  No one ever tried not to hurt him before.    

Here's what I especially like about the way their relationship is built--Yumeko gets to stay a young teen in her perceptions; she's not swooning into insta love, and she gets to start growing out of her naiveite gradually. She's not an adult in young teen clothing.  And Tatsumi  does not have an aha moment of love, which would have been annoying and out of character, though it's clear to the reader that that is where we are headed....he basically only gets to the point of "I don't want to be told to kill her" but that's huge for him....So lots to look forward to in the next book on that side of things!

Likewise, not a lot of progress is made on the whole quest they are on.  So if you set a high value on  briskness in plot, with the things that happen all push the main plot along, you might become restive at times.  I myself am happy for things to meander a bit if I'm enjoying the characters, and I don't mind descriptions of meals....and there were bits that were actually funny. There's not a lot of sarcasm in YA fantasy (Sarah Rees Brennan is the only author I can think of for sarcasm, recommendations for others welcomed), and I did very much appreciate the sprinkles of it here!  It is one of the most entertaining YA fantasies I've read for a while; dark things happen, but I was probably grinning quite a bit during the non-dark parts.

What I did not enjoy was the ending, which is basically the first book stopping.  If I had the next book on hand I'd keep reading, probably straight through till I finished it...but that not being possible, I will wait with anticipation.