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A review by jenbsbooks
The Mystwick School of Musicraft by Jessica Khoury
slow-paced
5.0
I was looking for something in Audible's PLUS catalog that was NOT also available at the library ... this is an exclusive (although I was able to grab the Kindle copy from the library). YA ... but I thoroughly enjoyed this. I think the audio edition really has the edge. Great narration, but it's the music that really makes the difference. Now, normally I don't care for music in audiobooks - random music at the beginning/end or chapter changes. Annoying! Here though, it was part of the story and added SO much. When it mentioned the tune of "itsy bitsy spider" and then that was heard there playing in the background ... and then there were full fledged classical orchestrations. Perfect balance though, the music never overwhelmed the narration.
Told in a very conversational 1st person/present tense ... the first line is "It's harder to charm a chicken than you might think" as that's what our MC is doing as the book starts up. In this world, music is magical, play a tune and it's a spell for all sorts of things, even coaxing a chicken to to come out from her hiding place.
Many comparisons to Harry Potter ... our MC does end up at a school for the musically gifted, learning more about music and magic. For me, it reminded me of E.E.Holmes books (The Gateway Trilogy ... older girls going to a school to learn magic. The boy side-kick had some similarities too).
This was pretty light and fun, although there were some serious and sad moments too ... every chapter heading is a play on words/punny (Catch Us If You Cannon, Nothing But Treble, Overture and Out). No numerical chapters listed, just the headers ... I like to have both.
There were some additional pictures in the kindle/print copy (matches the cover illustration).
I can see there are two sequels and a prequel ... I plan on continuing on. Immediately ;)
Told in a very conversational 1st person/present tense ... the first line is "It's harder to charm a chicken than you might think" as that's what our MC is doing as the book starts up. In this world, music is magical, play a tune and it's a spell for all sorts of things, even coaxing a chicken to to come out from her hiding place.
Many comparisons to Harry Potter ... our MC does end up at a school for the musically gifted, learning more about music and magic. For me, it reminded me of E.E.Holmes books (The Gateway Trilogy ... older girls going to a school to learn magic. The boy side-kick had some similarities too).
This was pretty light and fun, although there were some serious and sad moments too ... every chapter heading is a play on words/punny (Catch Us If You Cannon, Nothing But Treble, Overture and Out). No numerical chapters listed, just the headers ... I like to have both.
There were some additional pictures in the kindle/print copy (matches the cover illustration).
I can see there are two sequels and a prequel ... I plan on continuing on. Immediately ;)