This book has an amazing opening chapter. So gripping and intense. But ultimately I felt the book was too long and I got really tired of Barnhill italicizing individual words to show emphasis. If something matters, we should be able to tell it matters without you having to say it matters. If a writer does this sparingly, it's fine, but I think Barnhill overdid it, like it was a little bit of a crutch.


( )

In a small village, twin boys build a raft to sail to the sea: one drowns, and one is saved by their father. Their mother, Sister Witch, sews Tam's soul to Ned's.

In the woods, nine ancient stones are similarly trapped between life and death.

Also in the woods, practical Aine lives with her bandit father, who wears a small magic pendant around his neck, hoards treasure, and plans war.

On the other side of the forest, a young, selfish king learns of a province - and magic - that he believes should belong to him, and lets a bandit lead him toward war.

These stories, especially those of Ned and Aine, intertwine. Magic is tamed and released, war is averted, a king is toppled, a queen sets up a government, and children grow up.

Quotes

People would think what they liked, and would likely think wrong. This was nothing new. (6)

Terrible things led to more terrible things, sure as snow. (79)

Foolishness and fear. By fearing death they had trapped themselves in a place worse than death. It is a terrible thing when a fool with power fools with power. (119)

My mother says that selfishness is the root of tyranny. (162)

"The question...is not how wrong we were, but rather it is this: How will we respond?" (237)

Even the wicked can do one good, brave thing. (259) ( )

Another book I could not get into. The characters felt flat and the magic felt contrived. And when you find out that girl's mother had forbidden magic in any form or mention, I felt I was in for a diatribe against religion. I quit at 100 paged because I didn't see this book getting any better.

When I saw this on Good Reads, I thought it sounded interesting. However, I didn’t know it was written for middle school age kids, which didn’t detract. However, the story just dragged from the beginning and the characters were superficial. At one point, I thought I was going to be dealing with an anti-religious screws when a character went on about magic and how even songs about magic weren’t even allowed to be sing in the house. But the story just dragged and I gave up about eighty pages in.

Not recommending ( )

DNF @ 27%
I refuse to make myself suffer further.

Ugh. Reading should not equate suffering.
Which I did. Since one of the twins died - and that isn't even a spoiler.

The thing is, it started well enough. The premise seemed intriguing.
And then it dragged... And dragged... And...
Then I flipped.

I was just THIS close to spitting fire and acid.
If this were a physical printed book I would have flung it away to smash against walls, stabbed it with some sharp and pointy things, and ripped its spine in frustration. Possibly while screaming my head off in a blind rage and/or roaring with frustration.
(I love my kindle too much for all that nonsense, thank you; I've just about bled to get it - so: no)

You know things are bad when you spend first quarter a book wishing for the protagonist to grow a spine and make a goddamn effort, darn it! I just couldn't be bothered to wait out till... what? the middle? If reviewers are to be believed that's where things actually start happening and action picks up. I don't really see the point in everything being so drawn out.

I flipped to the end and didn't notice any improvements to Ned's character - still timid, still hesitant, still scared. The spineless boy did not seem to have acquired even the flimsiest of backbones. Which - what's the point of the story? WHY???

I did not care much for Aine either. She is unrealistically stoic. And I'm not impressed with how practical she is shown to be - she uses her work as an excuse to avoid thinking - and I mean at all, nevermind thinking deeply on issues of any kind. I'm not a fan.

Since I did not make far into the story I can't judge the whole thing. But I I honestly do not understand how all the people in the country could believe that the world ends beyond the forest and mountains. It's surreal! There's bound to be some explorers among the drab crowd. You can't go on living in the middle of a mystery without asking a question or twelve. You just CAN'T!

The one thing that stood out to me was magic. Such an opinionated sly twisted thing! It was far from nice, but what a personality! And don't go talking about "magic is not like that" nonsense. There are all sorts out there.

If you wonder why two stars after reading all the above?
-BTW, congrats! you are quite tenacious!-
Well, there's a lot of people who enjoyed it, and I could kind of see the parts of it that are not terrible-terrible. And it DID start in an interesting way. It just never took off. Not for me.

FINAL VERDICT : SEEK ADDITIONAL OPINIONS
(In all honesty - I cannot recommend this book. There are too many finer adventures out there.) ( )

Really drags in the middle. ( )