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A review by dowryofbooks
The Wonder State by Sara Flannery Murphy
4.0
If I had known this was a magical realism thriller, it's something I never would have picked up because magical realism never works for me. Give me a full blown fantasy or give me nothing. BUT- In this case, I'm so glad I read it because it was SO good!
This follows an unlikely friend group of teenagers in a small town in the Arkansas Ozarks who are looking for the historical houses over the town that have a bit of magic, designed by an architect who said she brought magic back from another world to build the houses. For example, one house you can only tell the truth, and another where you have incredibly good luck while inside it, and so on. Their quest to find all the houses ends in an unknown tragedy which causes everyone to leave town and never look back. Except one, Brandi. Brandi grew up in a trailer and never had the means to leave Eternal Springs so she stayed behind struggling with addiction while all her friends moved on and lost contact.
Fifteen years later, Brandi has gone missing. The whole group shows up back in town, making everyone suspicious. They think Brandi may have lured them as a form of revenge to make them feel guilty for abandoning her. The clues to finding out what happened to her are in the magical houses so they have to resume their teenage hunt to find them all and the truth about what happened to Brandi.
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It took me a few chapters to get into this, but once I was in- I WAS IN. The concept of Theodora and all of these houses is so fascinating and I really felt transported to Eternal Springs while I was reading this. I got pretty invested in the mystery. I definitely didn't see the reveals coming at the end either so I was shocked.
I loved the sense of nostalgia in the past timeline. Although, I think the characters read so much younger than 16-18 years old and I had to keep reminding myself they were teenagers because the picture in my head was like 12-13 year olds. I also could have done without the romance. Other than that, this was such a solid book and I highly recommend!
thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest review!
This follows an unlikely friend group of teenagers in a small town in the Arkansas Ozarks who are looking for the historical houses over the town that have a bit of magic, designed by an architect who said she brought magic back from another world to build the houses. For example, one house you can only tell the truth, and another where you have incredibly good luck while inside it, and so on. Their quest to find all the houses ends in an unknown tragedy which causes everyone to leave town and never look back. Except one, Brandi. Brandi grew up in a trailer and never had the means to leave Eternal Springs so she stayed behind struggling with addiction while all her friends moved on and lost contact.
Fifteen years later, Brandi has gone missing. The whole group shows up back in town, making everyone suspicious. They think Brandi may have lured them as a form of revenge to make them feel guilty for abandoning her. The clues to finding out what happened to her are in the magical houses so they have to resume their teenage hunt to find them all and the truth about what happened to Brandi.
-
It took me a few chapters to get into this, but once I was in- I WAS IN. The concept of Theodora and all of these houses is so fascinating and I really felt transported to Eternal Springs while I was reading this. I got pretty invested in the mystery. I definitely didn't see the reveals coming at the end either so I was shocked.
I loved the sense of nostalgia in the past timeline. Although, I think the characters read so much younger than 16-18 years old and I had to keep reminding myself they were teenagers because the picture in my head was like 12-13 year olds. I also could have done without the romance. Other than that, this was such a solid book and I highly recommend!
thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest review!