You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
"Big bones, big meat, I'm a meal of a girl. Tall, too. A mass of curly brown hair to top the whole thing off. But I've got a sailor's mouth and skin inked black over freckles, and I know I've got legs that go on for days. A meal of a a girl and you wouldn't go hungry."
I finished this at like 2am, so this will just be dot points for now.
Things I liked...
o ALL THE REPRESENTATION IN THIS BOOK.
o I loved the writing style, it was incredibly charming.
o The entire atmosphere and build up was 👌👌👌
o I loved all the main characters (except kinda Ivy but that's just my own personal bias, the character separately was fine).
o I found the relationships each character had with one another to be very real and even relatable, specifically the way the three girls (Laurel, Ash, and Holly) treated Jude in the beginning.
o The way magic was treated throughout the story -is it real or is it all just coincidental.
o The Author's notes including corrections of things said in the book such as the phrase "kill your darlings" actually originating from another writer as "murder your darlings". I also liked the addition of a crossword puzzle because I'm a huge nerd.
Things I disliked...
o The pacing overall was good but I felt like somethings towards the end things were a bit rushed.
o One of the later plot twists,
o Some things kinda didn't add up or weren't explained or resolved but then again they don't really have to be in a story like this.
Overall, this has definitely become a favourite of mine.
Now, in terms of characters, I really liked Rowan and Olive. Rose and Emily were okay, and Hazel and Ivy were forgettable. And honestly, Ash, Holly, and Laurel were so forgettable that their POV really could have been chopped in half in terms of page time and the story wouldn't have suffered at all. Like, I liked the reveal with them and all, but there was nothing interesting about any of them, except maybe how suspicious Laurel was of Jude.
The writing was a pro and a con at the same time. It was beautiful, but there were so many moments that I had no clue what was going on because the prose was so purple. I think I'll read other books by Fowley-Doyle because of the prose and the tone she was able to create, but I won't rush the bookstore to do it.
!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!
I was completely fooled throughout most of the book thinking everyone was in the same timeline. It also never crossed my mind that Mags could have created the book but I did find it suspicious how they had the visions which I thaught needed to be explained a bit more clearly as well as the whole spellbook (like did the spell work in the end because it wasnt too clear) but I liked how they were able to see (read) other people experiencing the same mystery and confusion that they were going through in the view of their mothers. It was like their meeting was fate since their mums were friends back in the day.
My favorite quote was,
'The coffee... Its dark as night and smells like a sharp slap' - Olive
This is one of those books that you'll have to reread a few times in order to totally understand it. The setting and magic are well written. There's a lot of time/place jumping, mystery and "omg! That's who that is!" moments.
A stunningly beautiful book with real diversity of race, sexual orientation and ability. I am really excited to read Moira's other work and to reread this one. It's a PERFECT autumn book in a wonderful setting with multiple generation mystery and really well developed characters who evolve quite a lot through the book.
The characters in this book worked so well for me. Like The Accident Season, it's a group cast, and three people narrate; Laurel, who writes in her diary, which Hazel and Olive find. Basically all the characters are queer, which is great, and there are various representations of different races (Rose is half Indian woo!) and socioeconomic backgrounds (that's right, I thought I'd make this book reveiw sound smart with the word socioeconomic, I'm not above that) and Olive has a disability and uses a hearing aid. But the diversity wasn't pushed or highlighted;it was just part of who the characters were.
Fowley-Doyle gives such depth to her characters and I love that. Olive has a family who is super cool, and there's this whole side plot about her becoming better friends with her sister. I loved the resilience of Rowan and Hazel and how they're also more than that. And Rose with her eager heart and fearful eyes. The friendship that forms between the characters is just so lovely. Spellbook of the Lost and Found is a book where the characters have messy hair and absolute curiousity, and are learning to believe in each other, themselves--and magic.
One of the best things about the book is the layers of belief Fowley-Doyle creates. It's fiction, and you belive in the story as such. But the characters create their own fictions and their own explanations of what really happened and what the truth is, and unlocking this, playing with the riddle of it, is the key to the novel.
Fowley-Doyle examines the idea of loss and finding yourself in a very smart way. In some ways, this is the key of all YA books: finding yourself, losin what is not important, becoming comforatable with the inevitability of both. You can lose physical things, keys and wallets and bracelets. Do you even notice a loss if it's inconsequetial (to the hairpin I lost a few days ago: YES)? What makes something important? How do objects form your identity? How do you live with the transience of possesions? But other things can go missing too, like memories and virginity and secrets and minds. How do you approach that? And when things are going missing, when it's out of control, how do you approach other people's losses, the hairties you find in the street, the cardigan in the forest? the swirling ideas of movement inherent to the idea of loss and finding makes this novel so much more than it would have been otherwise. Like all YA novels, Spellbook is ultimately about seeking a sense of self-possession, a certainty in who you are that can transcend any loss--or discovery.