Author: Heather Fawcett
Genre: fantasy
Similar books: Hooky by Miriam Bonastre Tur
The Hatmakers by Tamzin Merchant
Rating:
Summary (provided by publisher): Twelve-year-old Autumn Malog is a servant at the enchanting Inglenook School, where young magicians study to become the king’s future monster-hunters. Along with her Gran and three too many older brothers, she works as a beastkeeper, tending to Inglenook’s menagerie of terrifying monsters.
But when she isn’t mucking out the wyvern stalls or coaxing the resident boggart to behave, Autumn searches for clues about her twin brother’s mysterious disappearance. Everyone else thinks he was devoured by the feared Hollow Dragon, but Autumn is convinced she’s heard—and glimpsed—him calling to her from within the castle walls. But who will believe a lowly servant?
So when Cai Morrigan, the “Chosen One” prophesied to one day destroy the Hollow Dragon, comes to her for help, Autumn agrees on one condition: Together, they’ll search for her brother and uncover the dark truth at the heart of enchanting Inglenook School once and for all.
My opinion: We have a fair number of common elements here. There's a magical boarding school; a stratified society; a prophecy that will change the course of the entire world. We also have vastly different characters thrown together, each working to their own end. Fawcett devotes a fair amount of space to the nature and personality of assorted magical creatures, almost as much as is devoted to the actual plot. Now, the exploration of the class divide is more subtle than we typically see in middle grade fiction. We simply see the realities of their lives and are left to draw our own conclusions. The foreshadowing doesn't pay off the way we would expect and the messaging may be a bit too subtle for many readers. Entertaining but not engrossing.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
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