Jerry Cooke

5⭐️ - If Miss Peregrine's Home and Welcome to Night Vale had a cosy fantasy off-spring!

Linus Baker has spent many years working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY) as a case-worker assessing orphanages that take care of magical children. He's found stability and routine working to their Rules and Regulations and so he gets called in front of Extremely Upper Management and given a Classified Level 4 task to visit the sunny Marsyas Island and spend a month investigating the orphanage there, he's initially reluctant and confused. As he goes from the grey of the big city to the bright coast, and meets one Arthur Parnassus, he comes to discover that all that he understood about the system might be rotten and his expectations may need refactoring. Especially where it concerns a six-year old anti-Christ.

This was a story with so much heart and wisdom about being yourself. The children are all entirely unique in their personalities and as varied in their actions as they are in their powers. The exploration of the themes of government oppression and abuse, as well as the othering that comes from being different from most of the population, run deep through the story. With several of the children having been abused in their previous orphanages before coming to this one, there's also a lot of exploration of trauma and how trust can be rebuilt over time.

The overall messages of hope and kindness are so important, especially now with marginalised communities being more demonised. While the central setting here isn't a unique concept (a safe place for kids with powers is something that has been well covered by everything from the X-Men to Percy Jackson) the way that empathy and wisdom are used here to create a safe and inclusive story, despite the perils that exist in the world, are beautiful to see.

I can't write this review without acknowledging the discourse around this book and the history of residential schools in Canada. I speak about this in the TikTok video linked below, but I'd like to highlight the central claim in most criticism I see - that Klune based this book on the horrific 'Sixties Scoop', where indigenous children were forcibly separated from their parents and given to white families for adoption, with the aim being to strip them of their cultural heritage and raise them white. Klune had formulated the idea for this book and the central themes before he became aware of the Sixties Scoop - leaning of that history made him consider other places in the world this type of systematic abuse was occurring, including (at that time) at the US/Mexico border. He took some inspiration from all that, but I don't believe it's fair or accurate to say he based the book on it - while there are parallels, the fact that these are children who have lost their parents, but who would have otherwise been allowed to stay with them, is a fairly large difference.

The article where he talks about this (and that I've seen either mis-quoted, or with sections omitted) is here: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2020/03/17/the-big-idea-tj-klune/

4⭐️ - A gripping plot and hops through realms makes this a fantastic debut adventure!

Tenaya is fascinated by the lost magic of her society, after they pushed too far with realm and time hopping and caused a war that drew the attention of the stern fates that stripped that knowledge away, leaving humans to scrabble to regain what they lost. When an enigmatic member of a secretive group gives her the chance to access a rare magical device that can tear open the veil between realms and allow her to travel, she leaps at the opportunity. When this journey brings her face to face with a girl from her dreams, she must balance this newfound knowledge against her desire to persevere through the rest of the year until she can get herself and her brother away from her abusive step-mother. As these boundaries between these worlds thin, things get harder and harder to deal with until finally explosive confrontation is inevitable.

This was a really great debut work by O'Dowd, with a fascinating premise that left me wanting more answers about the world. The lore is handed out sparingly, leaving you to piece together what's going on in the big picture and it's really fun to be surprised or proved right about your expectations! The topics of abuse, alcoholism, and queer identity are well handled and many life experiences are touched on.

One of the things I like most is the use of interwoven POV, which isn't something I can remember seeing in any other book. It allows both characters to show their inner workings without having to split into single-POV chapters and I really enjoyed it. I can't wait to read more of this universe!