Fantasy Genre
The Midnight Guardians is a journey about a boy and his imaginary friends on a mission to save the world from darkness. This is a fine intertwining the history and mythology of England and providing a message of hope despite overwhelming odds.
I loved Mills and Boon as a tween/teen and avidly consumed this sub genre of romance novels on a frequent basis. So much so that they were battered beyond recognition. Now I look at that time and think, why don’t I read that genre as much now. Why are some of my old favourites out of favour?
If you were a babysitting, event planner and mortician would your life be this much fun? Stone Cold Mortal is a nice blend of humour, supernatural happenings and a cast of eccentric personalities. Come, join in the mayhem.
Call it Science Fiction or Fantasy, either way you will revel in this Africanfuturism novella. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor will take you on a journey to the future where tradition and technology blend and war looms. This short read is intense and covers so much in terms of family, acceptance, dreams, independence and communication. Enjoy.
“Adults always pretend the things they do are terribly complicated and unknowable. For the most part, they’re walking into rooms and pressing buttons of one sort or another.” Best friendsOleg and Emma are clever, they have us sussed. They do something incredible and create an Impossible Boy. Reading about what happens next will be the highlight of your day. The crazy shenanigans that ensue are random and satisfying. The tender, sweet way that family and tough real life issues are discussed and portrayed is marvellous.
Wonderscape is one of those books that you pick up and after a couple of paragraphs ,think why isn’t this happening to me and why am I not on this adventure of a lifetime?
Gargantis is another cracking read, full to the brim with more sinister happenings in Eerie on Sea. Verdict: Lovely place to visit, too scary to live there, never a moment’s peace. A thrilling middle grade mystery.
Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger starts with a good premise: a tween who’s not like everyone else.This is a generalisation or more accurately a truism, that most people want to feel necessary, be important and it’s set up from the beginning of the novel that Sophie is all that and more.
This is a world of magic and the fight of good against evil abounding with religious allegory.. I wanted to like this book, in fact I wanted to love it given the plot: it had all the themes that I typically enjoy. But I didn’t., which was a crying shame.
Orphans of the Tide is a fantastic tale about history, loss, friendship, and love. It takes place in a bleak land almost devoid of joy, where the inhabitants are focused only on survival, a place mired in mystery: this is The City. Where strange things happen because they always have and only a few remember or know the truth of the matter.
The world-building is wonderful and the characters charming, thoroughly recommend
