Reviews - Mr. Parnassus' Heim für magisch Begabte

81.3k reviews for:

Mr. Parnassus' Heim für magisch Begabte

TJ Klune

4.45 AVERAGE

ashleyammerman's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lex_da_rex23755's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

jenstan0422's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jjolley's review against another edition

3.0

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Beautifully written and incredibly delightful cast of characters.

The core audience for this book is definitely younger teenagers - The romance elements are understandably limited. The real life situations children face when they're considered different and are taken away from their communities and placed in government facilities historically is heavily heavily softened. There were several moments at the beginning where I thought the author might explore these darker events,

but it seemed like he turned away and chose the simpler, happier ending.

There is a controversy with this book where the author explicitly mentions being influenced by the 'Sixties Scoop' where Indigenous Canadian children were taken from their families and put in foster homes or adopted out https://whatever.scalzi.com/2020/03/17/the-big-idea-tj-klune/?amp . While I do think this story could represent a broad number of situations where marginalized communities are abused, for a white author to explicitly and intentionally exchange indigenous children for magical creatures, deeply sanitize their trauma is, and then act like the foster home/adopted by a white family is a good thing... is super bad.

dandelion_9's review against another edition

4.0

lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

booksandstarlight_'s review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

amizelkova's review against another edition

2.0

hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Shallow and grating. The sort of book that thinks it's progressive because two men kiss chastely at one point.

Having the plot revolve around the One Good Residential School was certainly a choice.

If you forget that the main character is fat, don't worry, the author will remind you every few pages.

Fantasy racism is a difficult tightrope to walk for the best of books. This was not the best of books.

Content Warnings