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bibliophilicjester 's review for:
Spellbook of the Lost and Found
by Moïra Fowley-Doyle
Ratings are so difficult to decide on...I think 4.25 stars?? Quarter stars make me feel crazy sometimes, but I'm just trying to be as accurate as possible.
I bought this book late last month and shelved it and couldn't stop staring at it. Every time I walked past my bookshelf, it caught my eye. I finally picked it up, deciding it would be a good slightly creepy October read.
I was so weirdly right about that. It has spells and possibly real magic and a lot of it happens at night, in the forest, on the rain, or a combination of those things.
The Irish countryside setting was an unexpected bonus. Maybe it's on the jacket? But I usually read summaries when I decide whether I want to read a book, then forget almost everything it says immediately. I think it's really fun to just jump into a story without really knowing where it will go. I wish I'd done that when I read The Valiant by Lesley Livingston, because the quote on the cover and the jacket summary give away just about everything in the damn book. But! I digress. I'm 25% Irish, a tiny bit German, and all the rest Italian. When I was little and we did heritage day type things, we always had to pick the thing we were the MOST and research/learn about that. After like 4+ years of reading about being Italian, I wanted to know about Ireland. But, of course, I always had to choose Italian. So needless to say, I love learning about Irish culture. I also love reading stories set in small towns in the south or midwest. I grew up in a suburb in northern New Jersey, just outside stupid NYC. I graduated high school in a class of 315 idiots, and there were some kids I barely knew - I just recognized their names. So small towns where everyone knows each other are really interesting. To me! I assume if that's your life, you would care to read about cities. Who knows.
WHY AM I NOT TALKING ABOUT THE BOOK?!?!
Semi-organized rambling about things I enjoyed:
• I like reading multiple perspectives. I typically struggle with first person present tense, but this was done really well. The one in past tense made lots of sense too. Hazel, Olive, and Laurel were all completely different narrators, and I had no trouble distinguishing between them. Hooray!
• Jude was such a pretentious douche. Laurel saw through him a bit, but also still fell under his spell for a while. I was much less interested in their stories once he showed up.
• Hazel is such a beautiful mess. She has all this guilt and regret and she does things she wants to stop doing but doesn't know how. Most characters like that make me angry because they feel more like symbols than real people. The token messed up friend. The kid from the wrong side of the tracks. Basically, this character seems like a cliche to me. I think it's the little things that make Hazel seem different. Her random tattoos that aren't at all random. How she falls in love too easily even though she's had almost no proper love in her life. When random strange girls show up in her life when it's raining and she keeps lending them her dry clothing without ever having been asked.
• Possible time travel?! Yes please. I wonder if the blond boy really was from the past. And if Olive's mom was the one kissing him before he disappeared, or if Olive was the one he was kissing.
• I don't know how to explain it, but I think Olive was my favorite. I loved Emily and Max, and all the dogs with food names, and her dad. Her dad! I love that he woke them all up every morning by throwing open their doors and reciting poetry. And EVEN MORE after reading the author's note/acknowledgements, I love knowing that there's an actual dad who did this.
• Seriously, read the author's notes always. Such good stuff in there.
• I loved that the author included "kill your darlings" in here...even though she did not, in fact, kill any of her own darlings.
• This feels like a slice of life type of story. Which, of course, I love. It's nice to see characters grow so much because of things that happen over the span of about ten days(?). But I also like the mystery. Who knows what will happen after the end of this book?
• I like the random questions left unanswered. Did the blond boy stay, or was Olive just seeing a flash of the past like when she saw the oak tree? What happened to Cathal and does anyone actually care if he's dead or missing? (Lol for real though). Are they ever going to tell Ivy that Hazel and Rowan are her half siblings? Did Ash (and Holly?) actually recover and pull their shit together?
• The dialogue was believable. Teenagers say "like" all the time. And sometimes they say really clever, witty things that should always be in books! It was done well. No one sounded pretentious or precocious except stupid Jude. Seriously.
• Olive's rant on page 228 about virginity:
"Why doesn't everyone understand that the very idea of virginity is a hetero-patriarchal concept invented to make women fee bad about sex"
was hysterical and spot-on. High five, Olive. Extra high five to Rowan for going along with it, lol.
Things I didn't love:
• All the sexy times. They were brief, and not too cringey. I was invested in the relationships!! Which is rare. But it seemed like everyone was kissing and then suddenly they're almost or completely naked?? That's not at all how my teenage relationships went.
• Probably this is just a me thing, like I said about my relationships. But I was a good kid - a good teenager. I'm not just saying that. I read books and never snuck out. I didn't even know drinking alcohol was a thing you could do in high school. And I certainly didn't have sex or even think about actually wanting to. Maybe it's just me being a 33 year old still pretty tame in my debauchery, but I have trouble relating to teenagers who were so drastically different than I was at that age. It's tricky because I'm interested, but I still find it unbelievable in a way. *shrug*
• Casual inclusion of rape and abuse and being in love with someone who you might later find out is your half sister?! I just wasn't ready. I guess the genre is really just fantastical contemporary. But I like my magical realism books more on the magical side than the real one. Again, just personal preference.
Overall, a really enjoyable read! Slightly creepy but with depth. Just enough magic to make things confusing and interesting. And delightfully messed up characters who I adored. I'd highly recommend this one!! 😊
I bought this book late last month and shelved it and couldn't stop staring at it. Every time I walked past my bookshelf, it caught my eye. I finally picked it up, deciding it would be a good slightly creepy October read.
I was so weirdly right about that. It has spells and possibly real magic and a lot of it happens at night, in the forest, on the rain, or a combination of those things.
The Irish countryside setting was an unexpected bonus. Maybe it's on the jacket? But I usually read summaries when I decide whether I want to read a book, then forget almost everything it says immediately. I think it's really fun to just jump into a story without really knowing where it will go. I wish I'd done that when I read The Valiant by Lesley Livingston, because the quote on the cover and the jacket summary give away just about everything in the damn book. But! I digress. I'm 25% Irish, a tiny bit German, and all the rest Italian. When I was little and we did heritage day type things, we always had to pick the thing we were the MOST and research/learn about that. After like 4+ years of reading about being Italian, I wanted to know about Ireland. But, of course, I always had to choose Italian. So needless to say, I love learning about Irish culture. I also love reading stories set in small towns in the south or midwest. I grew up in a suburb in northern New Jersey, just outside stupid NYC. I graduated high school in a class of 315 idiots, and there were some kids I barely knew - I just recognized their names. So small towns where everyone knows each other are really interesting. To me! I assume if that's your life, you would care to read about cities. Who knows.
WHY AM I NOT TALKING ABOUT THE BOOK?!?!
Semi-organized rambling about things I enjoyed:
• I like reading multiple perspectives. I typically struggle with first person present tense, but this was done really well. The one in past tense made lots of sense too. Hazel, Olive, and Laurel were all completely different narrators, and I had no trouble distinguishing between them. Hooray!
• Jude was such a pretentious douche. Laurel saw through him a bit, but also still fell under his spell for a while. I was much less interested in their stories once he showed up.
• Hazel is such a beautiful mess. She has all this guilt and regret and she does things she wants to stop doing but doesn't know how. Most characters like that make me angry because they feel more like symbols than real people. The token messed up friend. The kid from the wrong side of the tracks. Basically, this character seems like a cliche to me. I think it's the little things that make Hazel seem different. Her random tattoos that aren't at all random. How she falls in love too easily even though she's had almost no proper love in her life. When random strange girls show up in her life when it's raining and she keeps lending them her dry clothing without ever having been asked.
• Possible time travel?! Yes please. I wonder if the blond boy really was from the past. And if Olive's mom was the one kissing him before he disappeared, or if Olive was the one he was kissing.
• I don't know how to explain it, but I think Olive was my favorite. I loved Emily and Max, and all the dogs with food names, and her dad. Her dad! I love that he woke them all up every morning by throwing open their doors and reciting poetry. And EVEN MORE after reading the author's note/acknowledgements, I love knowing that there's an actual dad who did this.
• Seriously, read the author's notes always. Such good stuff in there.
• I loved that the author included "kill your darlings" in here...even though she did not, in fact, kill any of her own darlings.
• This feels like a slice of life type of story. Which, of course, I love. It's nice to see characters grow so much because of things that happen over the span of about ten days(?). But I also like the mystery. Who knows what will happen after the end of this book?
• I like the random questions left unanswered. Did the blond boy stay, or was Olive just seeing a flash of the past like when she saw the oak tree? What happened to Cathal and does anyone actually care if he's dead or missing? (Lol for real though). Are they ever going to tell Ivy that Hazel and Rowan are her half siblings? Did Ash (and Holly?) actually recover and pull their shit together?
• The dialogue was believable. Teenagers say "like" all the time. And sometimes they say really clever, witty things that should always be in books! It was done well. No one sounded pretentious or precocious except stupid Jude. Seriously.
• Olive's rant on page 228 about virginity:
"Why doesn't everyone understand that the very idea of virginity is a hetero-patriarchal concept invented to make women fee bad about sex"
was hysterical and spot-on. High five, Olive. Extra high five to Rowan for going along with it, lol.
Things I didn't love:
• All the sexy times. They were brief, and not too cringey. I was invested in the relationships!! Which is rare. But it seemed like everyone was kissing and then suddenly they're almost or completely naked?? That's not at all how my teenage relationships went.
• Probably this is just a me thing, like I said about my relationships. But I was a good kid - a good teenager. I'm not just saying that. I read books and never snuck out. I didn't even know drinking alcohol was a thing you could do in high school. And I certainly didn't have sex or even think about actually wanting to. Maybe it's just me being a 33 year old still pretty tame in my debauchery, but I have trouble relating to teenagers who were so drastically different than I was at that age. It's tricky because I'm interested, but I still find it unbelievable in a way. *shrug*
• Casual inclusion of rape and abuse and being in love with someone who you might later find out is your half sister?! I just wasn't ready. I guess the genre is really just fantastical contemporary. But I like my magical realism books more on the magical side than the real one. Again, just personal preference.
Overall, a really enjoyable read! Slightly creepy but with depth. Just enough magic to make things confusing and interesting. And delightfully messed up characters who I adored. I'd highly recommend this one!! 😊