Joel Dale Dale itibaren 20011 Castellazzo de' Stampi MI, İtalya itibaren 20011 Castellazzo de' Stampi MI, İtalya

I so wanted to like this more than I did--I think my hopes were too high, and I wound up disappointed. This book (and its author) suffered from trying to do too much in the span of one children's book. The story centers on Prue McKeel, just your typical thirteen-year-old hipster child from Portland. The plot does start off with a bang, as Prue's baby brother is abducted by a flock of crows and disappears into Portland's Impassable Wildnerness. Prue, with schoolmate Curtis tagging along, ventures into the forbidden forest, only to discover that its true name is Wildwood, and it is full of magic (talking animals, an evil queen, and tensions running high between different factions of magical beasts). Prue will have to endure many trials to rescue her brother, and the evil Dowager Governess may stop her in her quest. This book just took way too long to get going. I found myself still somewhat bored around page 300, but kept plodding through. It was so wordy, so chock full of scholarly vocabulary, so overly descriptive. One blurb I read called Wildwood the "American Narnia" (hence my high expectations!)--while the author certainly borrowed devices and fantasy themes liberally from C.S. Lewis' classic, Meloy's style and execution did not earn him this praise at all, in my opinion. There were also plot events that didn't sit right with me as a reader, which happened midway through the book as well as at the end. I would only recommend this to middle grade readers who simply love fantasy and can't get enough of it...and who have already read Narnia!

I'm glad I knew I liked steampunk before picking up this book, because most of the stories were not the kind of steampunk I enjoy. Still, there were a few with some really cool ideas or great witty dialogue.