Min S S من عند Gruzinsky, Tatarstan, روسيا، 422530 من عند Gruzinsky, Tatarstan, روسيا، 422530

Formulaic but entertaining Medieval Fantasy, I think women and YA would enjoy it the most because of some mild romantic subplots. I will definitely be looking forward to the sequel. We need a map and list of characters for the next book.

It is so refreshing when you read something and it makes you go "Oh that's what it's like to actually like something instead of just tolerate it since you're already reading it!" This is a good book, hooray. Thanks to Meg for giving me a copy after I read a really good review of it in Salon. On New Year's Day my kitten peed on the dust jacket but the book was fine, and it turns out the inside cover is even prettier. Good job cover art. I know there's a lot of these books, grownup books with child narrators, it's a thing. I haven't read a lot of them though, and I wonder if I'd like them as much as I liked this, because Lawrence sits perfectly on the gap between literary and childlike -- he's not preternaturally gifted or anything, he just happens to tell us exactly the right things. And being inside his head is exactly like it should be: he expresses his thoughts in quotations a lot as they come to him, so we can follow his acute ups and downs and the differences between what he thinks and what he says. And it's cute how he says "actually" all the time. The only thing I'm not into is the use of elementary errors in the spelling and capitalization and punctuation etc. I don't need to think Lawrence is writing the book -- and it's never otherwise indicated that he is, which is good because I hate that device; "I just had to tell you my story!" -- and the narration would have exactly the same impact if it looked correct on the page. (The childlike grammar is a different thing, that totally works because it is careful and artful and natural to read. He's telling the book.) I really like the story, and the family dynamic between Lawrence and his baby sister, and Lawrence and his mother, and Lawrence and his hamster, and how he is their rudder. His mother's breakdowns are simple and well-drawn, and so is his love for her. The Roman setting is perfect, but also because you appreciate what this is going to be like for Lawrence to remember when he's older. Once the ending was near, I realized what was going to happen but in that good way where you're full of dread, not just "oh I see what you did there." Really liked it, really glad to read it.