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A review by marydrover
City of Islands by Kali Wallace
5.0
This was SO GOOD. It followed Mara, an orphan, who works for a powerful mage diving into the ocean to find cool things for the mage’s collection. While following a lead about some spooky bones, Mara tries to use a bit of magic to find the bones. Magic in the City of Islands is done through song, and so Mara sings an old fishing song her mother used to sing to her that has always been a comfort. Expecting nothing, Mara is rightfully shocked when the ocean sings back. Even wilder is that the bones she finds are not just ordinary bones–they’re the bones of strange, hybrid animals that haven’t been seen since the time of the founders.
Gosh, the lore in this is just so well done and so lovely. So much of it was fresh, too! There was never a moment where I kind of nodded, like yeah that makes sense, I’ve seen this bit of lore at work in other stories before. No! All of it was new and fun and exciting. The writing was really excellent, too, which I did know would be the case going in (I’ve read two of Wallace’s YAs), but it was so lovely to witness. I adored every single character, from Mara as the MC to all of the well-developed (and diverse!) side characters. Everything about this was fantastic, and it’s definitely gone into my favorite middle grades.
Gosh, the lore in this is just so well done and so lovely. So much of it was fresh, too! There was never a moment where I kind of nodded, like yeah that makes sense, I’ve seen this bit of lore at work in other stories before. No! All of it was new and fun and exciting. The writing was really excellent, too, which I did know would be the case going in (I’ve read two of Wallace’s YAs), but it was so lovely to witness. I adored every single character, from Mara as the MC to all of the well-developed (and diverse!) side characters. Everything about this was fantastic, and it’s definitely gone into my favorite middle grades.