Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

Whimsically Wonderus.

Where to being with Nevermoor? So often we hear books being compared to other series as “the next big thing. No, really! It's just like “. We then nod politely, roll our eyes, think nothing could ever be the next  and continue about our day.

I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that Nevermoor is the next Harry Potter, or Hunger Games, or whatever Divergent was, but I am gonna tell you that there will be movies, there will be hype, it will be successful, and one day someone will tell you that the book they just read is definitely the next Nevermoor and you'll nod politely, roll your eyes, and continue about your day.

Nevermoor doesn't try to be anything else. It's perfectly written, it never slows down, nor do you ever lose interest. You forget you're even reading and it's suddenly 2am.

There are certainly tropes used in Nevermoor, but they feel less overdone or like stealing from other series, and more like subtle nods to the people and series who inspired the author. It's confidant. It knows what it is and what's it doing, and it knows it can hold it's own while still including those nods. It's written in such a way that you recognize the nods and you laugh and you can just tell that Jessica had a blast writing this book. Her personality and humor comes through in her writing and it only adds to story. You can tell she just loves the universe and all of the characters living in it.

You can compare parts Morrigan Crow to a bunch of different characters from other series we love, as you can with Jupiter, but you can't compare them to any one character because there are no other characters exactly like them. They're charming, you care about them. They grow and evolve throughout the book, and it's just such a treat.

What surprised me and delighted me the most about Nevermoor was the subcontext throughout it, little life lessons if you will. The book refers to politics, immigration laws, gender roles, and misogyny, and handles those many difficult topics, with elegance and grace. They're like little seeds of thought subtly planted throughout the book. I'm just smitten. Never have I read a book, especially a “children's fantasy” book, that felt so exactly right to the times. These are the seeds of thought that the world needs right now, and it's just done so well.

I know I'm on this long tangent, I haven't even talked about the plot of the book and, honestly, I sort of don't want to. Every other review and the synopsis will do that for me.

I'm rating this book an easy 5 stars. It's one of those reads where you put the book down and you question every other 5 star rating you've ever given. This is truly a 5 star read.

Happy Hallowmas! (God, I love Halloween! This book is so good. It may have just been secretly written for me, I can't say for sure.)

P.S. I think I may have caught subtle nods to Monty Python and Star Wars? I could be crazy, they may not have been on purpose, but if they were, I see what you did there, Jessica! Even if they weren't on purpose they still made me laugh.