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lmn9812 's review for:
The Unadoptables
by Hana Tooke
OH MY GOUDA. This book, guys. I’ve already gushed about in on twitter, so sorry if you’ve already seen this before, but I need to talk about this book. THE UNADOPTABLES tells the story of five orphans in 19th century Amsterdam who are thrown into an adventure when they are forced to escape their orphanage one night. I visited Amsterdam a few years ago, and fell in love with it, so reading a novel set there was just fantastic. Hana captures the feel and essence of this magical city with ease, transporting the reader not only geographically but also back time. The world-building was complex and multi-layered, and partly because of this I sunk completely into the story.
This neatly moves us on to the next point of my gush-fest: the plot. It was compelling and twisty-turny and pace-y and unputdownable. Basically, it was a fantastic story. ALSO, there was a fortune teller. On to our main characters: we have five of them, which was daunting (I have a hard time keeping up when there are lots of characters). However, each of the unadaptable orphans were so different from each other, and they were complex and 3D people, so it was very easy to keep track of who was speaking and to whom. I also adored the diversity of the MC’s–we have a person of colour, a disabled character, and a character with selective mutism.
FINALLY, Hana’s writing was exquisite. This was one of those stories where certain sentences and turns of phrase made me OOH and AHH with appreciation (and a little bit of writerly jealously). This has been one of my favourite reads of 2020 so far; it is most definitely a classic in the making, and you need to read it when it comes out in July. I have pre-ordered, and I will definitely be re-reading it in the near future.
This neatly moves us on to the next point of my gush-fest: the plot. It was compelling and twisty-turny and pace-y and unputdownable. Basically, it was a fantastic story. ALSO, there was a fortune teller. On to our main characters: we have five of them, which was daunting (I have a hard time keeping up when there are lots of characters). However, each of the unadaptable orphans were so different from each other, and they were complex and 3D people, so it was very easy to keep track of who was speaking and to whom. I also adored the diversity of the MC’s–we have a person of colour, a disabled character, and a character with selective mutism.
FINALLY, Hana’s writing was exquisite. This was one of those stories where certain sentences and turns of phrase made me OOH and AHH with appreciation (and a little bit of writerly jealously). This has been one of my favourite reads of 2020 so far; it is most definitely a classic in the making, and you need to read it when it comes out in July. I have pre-ordered, and I will definitely be re-reading it in the near future.