Delightful, funny, and sweet. Packed with adventure. ( )

3.75 stars

12-year old Max is a Boy Scout and is in a forest, but he has no idea how he got there. It’s not long before he meets up with a talking badger. Next comes along a talking feral cat, then a talking bear. How very odd! In trying to figure out what is going on here (Max considers himself a bit of a detective), Max and the others learn that they are being chased by people called the “Cutters”. The animals know that the Cutters cut critters into something different that isn’t themselves. The Cutters themselves think they are making the critters better with the cutting they do. In any case, Max and his three new friends need to run from the Cutters. They are making their way down the river to the Wizard’s sanctuary.

I liked this. I often am not a fan of fantasy (although I generally do better with children’s fantasy, as this is) and talking animals, this was cute, and I liked all the characters, including those talking animals. I gave it the extra ¼ star for the twist at the end. Max has mostly solved the mystery of where he came from, etc, but he learns more from the “wizard” and I thought that twist was very clever – I did love the twist! ( )

This was the last book of the epic roadtrip. I have owned this for a long while - it was one of the first books I'd ever bought at Audible, back when I had mistakenly thought I'd enjoy listening to books as much as reading them. Spoiler: I don't, but I like them for long car trips or for multi-tasking when I'm playing with yarn.

I actually only got a bit past halfway through the book before reaching home. I immediately bought the ebook after walking through the front door and continued reading. Which should indicate how much I enjoyed the story.

It's obvious fairly early on what the plot twist/solution to the mystery is but I still really enjoyed the reveal and Max's mental progress to reach there.

This is a charming story with danger, mystery, talking animals, and a quest to find the powerful wizard. It is also a thinly veiled critique of censorship or overreaching editors (take your pick), which was a tad annoying at the end when the narrative turned a bit more info-dumpy than I liked.

But! I still liked this story a lot and am glad I finally read it. Though it loses a star for the weak ending, and the less than satisfying non-explanation for the role and reasoning of the Cutters. ( )

Willingham moves firmly away from his Fables storyline as he takes us on a romp through an entirely new land. He does maintain his literary fairytale motifs though, as this is a land of talking animals, by scout adventurers, and wizards. His tack is slightly different though, as the creators of this world are actually the wizards (who act as authors and storytellers), and the characters who populate the lands are all the animals and people who were in their stories before the wizards' death. For what is essentially supposed to be a children's book, this novel has some deep and thoughtful themes about what it means to be a writer, and thus a creator of worlds. ( )

I really liked the characters and seeing them get to know each other on their adventures. I figured out the twist pretty quickly but I'm also a grown up. Loved the narrator and the voices he did. ( )