Reviews - Illuminations | The StoryGraph

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610 reviews for:

Illuminations

T. Kingfisher

4.01 AVERAGE

almas's review

4.0

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

hbramblett's review against another edition

3.0

I think this should have been penned under Ursula Vernon as it read more as a book targeting children audiences. That being said it was well written and a good story, but not quite the story I was expecting under the adult name.

mara_chris's review against another edition

5.0

Art and magic and a plucky young heroine! Have I mentioned that I adore T. Kingfisher?

ulrikedg's review

5.0

This is now one of my favorite Ursula Vernon/T Kingfisher stories! Yes, I liked it better than A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking. It is a Middle Grade book, with the main character being *almost* 10 years old, so if you have a road trip with a middle grade (or even a little younger) kiddo coming up, consider this audiobook as one you can both enjoy in the car.

This book is very much a love letter to artists. Kingfisher talks about burnout (without calling it that) and jealousy and how art can be fun right up until you have to do it to get paid. She has an artist who thinks her work is terrible right up until it's almost done and another who thinks his is great right up until it's done at which point he thinks it's trash. Kingfisher is a professional artist who has lived with artists and has artist friends, and it shows.

I enjoyed the way Kingfisher flipped the Wise Owl trope in this story. I was pretty worried at the beginning when Rosa was just taking everything

Payne said at face value, which meant keeping secrets from her family, which was putting her and a lot of other people at risk. And then it turned out that not only was Payne wrong about keeping the secret, but he was wrong about other things, too.

I still wish they'd thought to have Serena try to

use the charcoal. It's possible it had nothing to do with the Mandolini family at all.

Audiobook narrator Raquel Beattie does an excellent job with the text and voices, but she also read very, very slowly (possibly a deliberate choice due to this being a book for younger readers). I bumped the speed up to 1.25x, and it sounded pretty normal.

ladyj1989's review against another edition

3.0

challenging hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Little Rosa loves to draw radishes. One day those radishes will help save her family.
Cute story that got a little tense near the end.
The c-bug word was said twice so I won't be reading this again.