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3.15 AVERAGE
3.15 AVERAGE
Eva is an orphan who gets by through doing fake seances. She pretends to be loved ones talking from beyond the grave, but she knows that it's impossible. It's a scam she does to survive. But when she hears a voice in her head telling her to go to the Chicago World's Fair, she knows it's very different from the seances. This is real. She meets a boy who has visions of his own and a magician who wants her help to bring magic back to life, but her friend is suspicious. Eva needs to figure out what the magician's plan is and who to trust.
This book had so many of the things I'm always hungry for. World's Fair. Mysterious magical people and places that vanish or can only be accessed by a few people. It's got mystery, friendship, an orphan with the possibility of found family. And maybe those things are why I felt overall disappointed with the book.
The book starts out interesting but turns vaguely confusing around the middle of the book and never comes back. The beginning is a lot of fun, and the descriptions of wandering around the World's Fair is probably the closest you could get to experiencing it yourself. It's well researched and clearly something the author loves.
But once we meet the magician, things get confusing. The magic rules are hard to follow. It's not completely clear where Eva has come from and even what she wants. The setting doesn't seem solid in spite of the historical event as a major point. And one of the most frustrating parts is that the characters don't seem to question things enough. I know a lot of twelve-year-olds who would use more critical thinking than Eva does. The character motivations are never clear and they are generally shallow. Eva starts the book with more personality than she finishes it with.
Worst of all, I read the ending twice, but I am still not completely sure what happened. It depended on characters we hadn't met, and the overall message was "don't trust anything fantastical and wonderful because it will definitely be too good to be true." That could have been an interesting moral, but it felt like talking with the kind of person who discourages children from watching Disney movies in case they get the wrong idea about magic and fairy tales: it's too optimistic and we should all accept how terrible the world is. That's a pretty heavy message for this age, and it isn't handled well. Especially when it does start with such a marvelous sense of wonder.
I guess that moral applies to the book: don't judge a book by its cover because it may sound wonderful and magical from the description, but in reality, it's dark, bleak, and confusing.
Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book to review.
This book had so many of the things I'm always hungry for. World's Fair. Mysterious magical people and places that vanish or can only be accessed by a few people. It's got mystery, friendship, an orphan with the possibility of found family. And maybe those things are why I felt overall disappointed with the book.
The book starts out interesting but turns vaguely confusing around the middle of the book and never comes back. The beginning is a lot of fun, and the descriptions of wandering around the World's Fair is probably the closest you could get to experiencing it yourself. It's well researched and clearly something the author loves.
But once we meet the magician, things get confusing. The magic rules are hard to follow. It's not completely clear where Eva has come from and even what she wants. The setting doesn't seem solid in spite of the historical event as a major point. And one of the most frustrating parts is that the characters don't seem to question things enough. I know a lot of twelve-year-olds who would use more critical thinking than Eva does. The character motivations are never clear and they are generally shallow. Eva starts the book with more personality than she finishes it with.
Worst of all, I read the ending twice, but I am still not completely sure what happened. It depended on characters we hadn't met, and the overall message was "don't trust anything fantastical and wonderful because it will definitely be too good to be true." That could have been an interesting moral, but it felt like talking with the kind of person who discourages children from watching Disney movies in case they get the wrong idea about magic and fairy tales: it's too optimistic and we should all accept how terrible the world is. That's a pretty heavy message for this age, and it isn't handled well. Especially when it does start with such a marvelous sense of wonder.
I guess that moral applies to the book: don't judge a book by its cover because it may sound wonderful and magical from the description, but in reality, it's dark, bleak, and confusing.
Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book to review.
Reading the book summary, this had all the making of a great middle-grade found magic story.
Eva starts as a mistreated orphan who finds a world of magic as she visits the Chicago World's Fair. The start was promising. When we reached the magical elements, the middle-grade sweet spot disappears.
The magic rules are hard to follow, it's very disjointed and full of creepy edicts from this mysterious magical man to an 11-year-old girl: Come to the fair- in the middle of the night and make sure you are alone. Come live at this magical house, don't worry- we will magically make it so no one will remember you are gone. Memories are taken without consent and fuzzy memory gaps happen more than once.
The obedience of the main characters to these mandates in order to learn magic felt equivalent to a kid willingly taking off in a random car because a stranger is offering them candy. Given the age range of the target readers for this genre, this is not the best device to drive the plot.
Eva starts as a mistreated orphan who finds a world of magic as she visits the Chicago World's Fair. The start was promising. When we reached the magical elements, the middle-grade sweet spot disappears.
The magic rules are hard to follow, it's very disjointed and full of creepy edicts from this mysterious magical man to an 11-year-old girl: Come to the fair- in the middle of the night and make sure you are alone. Come live at this magical house, don't worry- we will magically make it so no one will remember you are gone. Memories are taken without consent and fuzzy memory gaps happen more than once.
The obedience of the main characters to these mandates in order to learn magic felt equivalent to a kid willingly taking off in a random car because a stranger is offering them candy. Given the age range of the target readers for this genre, this is not the best device to drive the plot.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Top-tier execution of historical fantasy. The two main characters are a girl and a boy which should increase appeal to all kids. MGS
RR
RR
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Eva is a child medium who breaks away from her adult. On her train ride away, she meets Henry, an artist of some esteem. Henry is bound for the Chicago Worlds Fair and Eva is enticed to go with him. From there the story unravels into a hard to follow, very dark story of magic, deceit and….friendship? I guess. The story was hard to follow and the magic was random with very little basis for existing. I have loved Savit’s other books and thought them brilliant. This one was just confusing.
*I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
*I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I'm not sure if this will be a soft dnf. I noticed that I don't care too much for books that are set in the circus.
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment
Savit does an incredible job with atmosphere in this book, enveloping the reader in the world of the Columbia Exposition, a fiar that screams for the existence of magic. As Savit's author's note explains, he clearly did an immense amount of research making the environment highly realistic. The character development and interactions though, the meat of the story, as well as any attempt at explaining the magic fell flat. I found myself wrapped up in the world yet somehow disconnected.
slow-paced
I was immediately drawn into this book by the cover and the writing. You will be craving peaches after reading this. I enjoyed the first 25% of this book but it seemed to lose the plot after that. I had a hard time connecting with the characters, even the protagonist. I thought it was a great idea to write a historical fiction for middle grade but I did feel like this one became a little dark in the end
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book!. v
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book!. v
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder