Allison Pang

I finished this book barely,holding out to the end that it would get better...It didnt. To sum up the premise for the

Abby is a touchstone for this OtherFolk (Moira) who has disappeared without a trace. She gets a mysterious costumer who is searching for his missing sister.Could there be a connection?

This book was so bad in soo many ways,where to start? Oh yes the dialogue maybe?

The dialogue was at best silly let me give you an example.

"Whats up pussycat,I purred"

Who even talks like that?! It could have been forgiven if the main character was some sort of feline (she is not) But every other character talks equally stupidly and at times even offensive, like commenting on a guys..er assets.

I mean im all for feminism and womens liberation...

But does that mean women have to act like men? I cant count the times Abby and/or her friend are ogling a male body and making remarks,that were they said by a man would have counted as sexual harrasment.

And oh yes speaking of fantasies.Abby is supposed to be this former crazy artistic talent,wich is now spilling over into her having a very rich dreamlife.Because you can totally tell by the way she talks and acts that she is an ARTIST soul(not!)

You can tell who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. The bad ones are ugly/old and the good ones are beautiful/young-looking as things are in reality *rolls eyes*

The villain was pretty easy to figure out,even the characters suspect it,but they seemed strangely dis-inclined to follow through on the lead. But of course they had more important things to do, go to clubs,angst over their past and fall instantly into love/lust.

And while the idea of TouchStones (reminds me of a film company name)
was interesting,it never got properly explained.The author just throws us into the book expecting the reader to figure out things yourself.

I dont recommend unless youre out of urban fantasy and need a quick fix.… (altro)

What a great surprise! I came into reading this blind and came out seeing wonders. The world-building is a true delight, having a feel of Sanderson's old Mistborn, a touch of hardcore steampunk, but most of all: pure and distilled fantasy dystopia.

There's a lot of story going on and what's more, Pang's writing at the plain-beauty level is something to behold. I'm not just talking about the repurposed nursery rhymes, either. I'm talking about the perfectly placed and minimal placement of pure poetry right in the text where it would have the very best impact. I was a bit awed.

Make no mistake, this is a pretty epic fantasy not in terms of battles and such, but it was a core YA that centered on thieves. Magpie and Sparrow are best friends and all the downtrodden MoonChildren are at the core of a huge piece of deception and prejudice that will soon become, (I do believe,) the main story arc of the rest of the series.

There's plenty of mystery to go around, too, but it's the details and the imaginings that make this book so beautiful. There's plenty of core story elements that will be familiar to everyone, of course, but how Pang pulls it off speaks more to some serious skill than any other author's half-hearted attempts. :) This is the real stuff.

I am going to be following this series with GREAT anticipation. I can't wait to see more of this craft. :)

Oh, and thanks to NetGalley for this ARC! I love being surprised like this!… (altro)

When I came across this book, I rubbed my hands in anticipation. A steampunk setting with an infectious agent is right up my street.

We're taken into a well fleshed out dystopian world with the usual elements of social stratification into rich overlords, a middle tier, and those who live on the street. Main character Maggy is at the bottom of the heap, being one of the Moon Children who are so despised, even as lip service is given to the... mystic/symbolic way in which they aid society. When she stumbles upon a dead body and a clockwork dragon that takes a liking to her, her life becomes a lot more complicated.

The entire book is written from Maggy's perspective, in first person present tense. It's a PoV that normally takes me a few chapters to settle into, but I reached the end still feeling that the narrative voice was odd. This might be because the prose and vocabulary feel far more complex than we'd expect from a young street rat, so it always felt as if there was some other narrator between the reader (me, at least) and Maggy the character. Additionally, nearly every paragraph included a sentence with a participial or absolute phrase: the similar sentence structures were repeated enough that I found it distracting from the text. I noticed a couple of typos, but nothing significant.

The worldbuilding was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the little details immensely, such as surgeons tattooing a "signature" on any wounds they stitch, which has all kinds of delicious implications.

As to the story itself, Maggy ends up in all kinds of trouble, some of which she deals with, and some of which has lingering consequences, clearly leading into the sequel. We learn plenty about society and hints as to what's going on behind the scenes. Much of the story covers what Maggy learns (and how). However, I came away feeling that the book served more to introduce the scope of Maggy's challenges than as a complete story in itself. Personally, I'd have preferred to see a more distinct resolution.

If you enjoy immersive dystopian worlds, Magpie's Song is worth a look.… (altro)