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michelle_neuwirth_gray9311's review
4.0
An interesting read and I hope there is a second volume as the authors left some questions open.
sarechafin's review
5.0
I enjoyed the story of Poe and his search to find his purpose but I loved the art. It's stunning. I can't wait for my son (9) to read it.
calistareads's review
4.0
Fantastic opening volume to this story. I like the characters and there is enough mystery to keep me wanting more, but it made sense. I still don't really understand what was happening with the villain and the feathers at the end. The rest of the story worked.
Feathers is a boy who has feathers like a boy. He lives up in the towers of a city hidden by his pop. He doesn't know who his real parents are. A girl runs away from the prosperous part of the city and meets feathers. She helps him get find his way into the world. The orphans of the maze of the poor city are filled with kids called mice. Feathers is trying to help them and they think he is a scary ghost.
I thought the art was fantastic. Someone else made the comparison and it's true, this is a weird take on the Hunchback of Notre Dame, which I loved as a kid. I want to know more and I hope this volume continues. It is refreshing to find a story that is new and different and well done.
Feathers is a boy who has feathers like a boy. He lives up in the towers of a city hidden by his pop. He doesn't know who his real parents are. A girl runs away from the prosperous part of the city and meets feathers. She helps him get find his way into the world. The orphans of the maze of the poor city are filled with kids called mice. Feathers is trying to help them and they think he is a scary ghost.
I thought the art was fantastic. Someone else made the comparison and it's true, this is a weird take on the Hunchback of Notre Dame, which I loved as a kid. I want to know more and I hope this volume continues. It is refreshing to find a story that is new and different and well done.
samanthabryant's review
4.0
What an intriguing set of characters and interesting setting! Feathers takes place in a world where there is "the city" and "the maze." The city is clean and white and perfect, sterile even. The maze is rough and tumble, in want, and falling apart. Of course, the worlds must collide.
Poe is a boy with feathers, who lives hidden away with his adoptive father in the maze. Bianca is the bored daughter of a wealthy city family, who craves adventure. When the two become friends, they are both changed, and their assumptions upturned.
We also have a bad guy who is a kind of Pied Piper, a group of street kids called Mice that feel very Dickensian, Poe's adoptive father who has secrets as well, and two mysterious narrators who appear only as voices in text boxes at the story's outset and close.
While I felt the volume ended rather abruptly, even given probably intentions for a sequel, it was still quite a creative and entertaining story that explores moral issues without becoming directly pedantic (as too many works aimed at young readers do).
Poe is a boy with feathers, who lives hidden away with his adoptive father in the maze. Bianca is the bored daughter of a wealthy city family, who craves adventure. When the two become friends, they are both changed, and their assumptions upturned.
We also have a bad guy who is a kind of Pied Piper, a group of street kids called Mice that feel very Dickensian, Poe's adoptive father who has secrets as well, and two mysterious narrators who appear only as voices in text boxes at the story's outset and close.
While I felt the volume ended rather abruptly, even given probably intentions for a sequel, it was still quite a creative and entertaining story that explores moral issues without becoming directly pedantic (as too many works aimed at young readers do).
ladykatka's review
3.0
This was both intriguing and infuriating at the same time. I really liked Poe, but couldn't stand Bianca. She was a little spoiled brat who did whatever she wanted and it was really annoying. She didn't listen to anybody and would whine and run away. Then when her father told her she was the "bravest person I ever met" I was thought "Why? What has she ever done?". The reader does not get to know this character well enough yet that is supposed to be believable? Umm... didn't work for me.
I was intrigued by the narrator, one of which you can figure out, if not right away by the end for sure. But the other one... could guess but can't confirm. Also which one is truly bad? Could both of them be bad? Maybe? Poe's adoptive father, tell us more about him and his relationship to the Guide. This is interesting and I want to know.
The main story is interesting, questions about the supporting characters are really interesting. But Bianca just doesn't do anything for me.
I was intrigued by the narrator, one of which you can figure out, if not right away by the end for sure. But the other one... could guess but can't confirm. Also which one is truly bad? Could both of them be bad? Maybe? Poe's adoptive father, tell us more about him and his relationship to the Guide. This is interesting and I want to know.
The main story is interesting, questions about the supporting characters are really interesting. But Bianca just doesn't do anything for me.
erine's review
4.0
Beautiful graphic fantasy, set in the dark streets of the maze against the backdrop of the glowing city.
drtlovesbooks's review against another edition
3.0
What it's about: Poe, an 11 year old covered in feathers, lives a secretive life, keeping to the shadows of the chaotic area of town known as The Maze. His father has warned Poe repeatedly that he has to keep out of sight, that others will not understand him, will fear him. But Poe finds himself drawn to the activity of the Maze, particularly the adventures of the street orphans who steal food to avoid starvation, risking being captured by the City Guards. Poe has found he can help out these children in need and still keep himself (mostly) hidden from sight.
But Poe isn't able to prevent orphans from disappearing, victims of the whistling stranger who haunts the byways of the Maze.
Bianca has grown up inside the Wall that surrounds the City, a place of order and prosperity. The Wall is meant to keep out the trouble-making folks from the Maze; but for Bianca, it feels like the Wall is meant to keep her from having any adventures. Despite her prim and proper mother's strong disapproval, Bianca is fascinated by the tales - and the skills - of her father. Under his tutelage, Bianca has learned something of fighting and leading. She gets to put her skills to the test when she takes advantage of the chance to get lost in the Maze.
When Poe and Bianca's paths cross, neither is prepared for the series of adventures that will follow. Their friendship will set in motion a much larger series of events that may completely change how the Cit and the Maze interact - which is sure to create problems for both sides!
What I thought: While I enjoyed the overall story, there are strong hints that this story is just one piece of an ongoing struggle between two higher powers. The events here take quite a while to build up, then they suddenly resolve in a curiously short amount of time, and with remarkably little fanfare after the build-up. To me, the story felt truncated.
In addition to a general unevenness of pacing, there was also a strangely uneven tone. There are children who get killed (or, more literally, sacrificed) in this story, and while these moments are not depicted in any kind of detail, it is definitely referenced several times. While the story definitely tends toward the dark and gothic, the deaths struck me as jarring.
Why I rated it like I did: The storytelling feels a bit uneven to me. The beginning takes its time setting up the central characters of the story and building up the elements of the conflicts (of which there are several, and which slowly layer one upon the other as they build toward the climax). It is an interesting concept that feels a bit draggy in places, but as it slowly builds, the story definitely started to grab me. But just as it was reaching its most interesting point, with an antagonist that seems to have collected enormous power and abilities, it wraps up disappointingly easily.
This feels like it's meant to be the start of an ongoing series, but based on how frustrating I found the resolution of this volume to be, I doubt I would chase down the next installment.
Nevertheless, middle grade readers might enjoy the adventure and gothic elements of this tale. The central baddy might inspire some spines to shiver.
But Poe isn't able to prevent orphans from disappearing, victims of the whistling stranger who haunts the byways of the Maze.
Bianca has grown up inside the Wall that surrounds the City, a place of order and prosperity. The Wall is meant to keep out the trouble-making folks from the Maze; but for Bianca, it feels like the Wall is meant to keep her from having any adventures. Despite her prim and proper mother's strong disapproval, Bianca is fascinated by the tales - and the skills - of her father. Under his tutelage, Bianca has learned something of fighting and leading. She gets to put her skills to the test when she takes advantage of the chance to get lost in the Maze.
When Poe and Bianca's paths cross, neither is prepared for the series of adventures that will follow. Their friendship will set in motion a much larger series of events that may completely change how the Cit and the Maze interact - which is sure to create problems for both sides!
What I thought: While I enjoyed the overall story, there are strong hints that this story is just one piece of an ongoing struggle between two higher powers. The events here take quite a while to build up, then they suddenly resolve in a curiously short amount of time, and with remarkably little fanfare after the build-up. To me, the story felt truncated.
In addition to a general unevenness of pacing, there was also a strangely uneven tone. There are children who get killed (or, more literally, sacrificed) in this story, and while these moments are not depicted in any kind of detail, it is definitely referenced several times. While the story definitely tends toward the dark and gothic, the deaths struck me as jarring.
Why I rated it like I did: The storytelling feels a bit uneven to me. The beginning takes its time setting up the central characters of the story and building up the elements of the conflicts (of which there are several, and which slowly layer one upon the other as they build toward the climax). It is an interesting concept that feels a bit draggy in places, but as it slowly builds, the story definitely started to grab me. But just as it was reaching its most interesting point, with an antagonist that seems to have collected enormous power and abilities, it wraps up disappointingly easily.
This feels like it's meant to be the start of an ongoing series, but based on how frustrating I found the resolution of this volume to be, I doubt I would chase down the next installment.
Nevertheless, middle grade readers might enjoy the adventure and gothic elements of this tale. The central baddy might inspire some spines to shiver.