Melanie Novak

A fun and well executed story

Revisado: 07-18-24

A Supernatural style tale from a new perspective. Well written and a fun listen.

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Fantastic and satisfying closure and growth

Revisado: 10-31-22

As someone who loved but then couldn't finish Novik's Temeraire series, I have to marvel at how much she's improved as a storyteller with this series. The world, the characters, the plot and conflicts between them, all very engaging, interesting, and clever. The way the main characters' personalities and attitudes and style play off of one-another, the competence and relatable actions of antagonists, the humor, horror, and hope threads winding through everything that happens, it's just so rare to see anyone able to weave together so many challenging elements into a satisfying and impressive whole. Highly recommend.

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Fantastic humor in a tale of gritty survival

Revisado: 10-11-22

Delighted in this entry even more than the previous novel. The personalities of other students, the character of the school itself, the novel ways of presenting the eerie absence of danger and the very real costs of being a weirdo who is just useful enough to worry about what happens when the world changes around you and those who tolerate you, and a wonderful punk 'We're forging a better way than the status quo' tale

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Unique yet familiar urban fantasy

Revisado: 08-13-22

This book has a lot going for it, in terms of familial relationships and an interesting magical underworld, but never does too much with the fun world that they built. lots of great potential from the author and series.

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disappointing follow-up in a fun series

Revisado: 05-20-22

I wanted tl like this one a ton. One of the most interesting and fun supporting characters from 'not your sidekick' takes center stage, but the book can't tell how much it wants to be recap of the first (about a third of it?) and how much to advance the narrative (not much). very much a story told at you, with lots of frustrating teen moments and foolish protagonist bits to advance the plot, not much of the cleverness and fun we got from the first entry. hoping it finds its feet again.

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Whimsy and growth with an edge

Revisado: 02-16-22

Fanciful story of magic and adventure not always turning out like the stories kids grow up with. If you're expecting something like Grossman's 'The Magicians', you'd do well to adjust your expectations towards a much younger audience. some of his skill at writing ominous dread and fear is there, though, which may catch you by surprise in a children's book. There's morals about growth and adversity and regret, finding optimism and hope even at the darkest moments or when having to face your species' worse aspects, and it sticks the landing rather well (if a bit less gently than many books for younger audiences.) Loades with clever and unique characters and a surprising amount of real information, highly recommended for any animal-lovers in your life.

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crushes, capes, and second-gen struggles

Revisado: 02-14-22

Hats off to an author who can stretch an adorable-yet-painful painfully obvious secret crush just to the level of tolerable and stick the landing. the characters are wonderful, the worldbuilding is interesting, and the parallel challenges of being a child of superhero immigrants and dealing with two wildly-different, yet powerfully similar, sets of expectations and judgements is great. Pacing varies, but a very fun listen.

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