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FindingJane
Jul 10, 2015FindingJane rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
While on the surface a standard tale of a magical boy on a perilous quest, this novel manages to insert a few quirky twists and turns. Avians play a large part in its story and thus we get to see and hear a lot of talking birds who help, hinder, give advice or silly gossip. The children in the story are all unique, with short paragraphs giving lucid insights into their natures. Perhaps the only one who is really shortchanged in terms of characterization is Corax, a boy once handsome and admired who fell sway to the evil of a cursed torc. You wonder just why he succumbed so easily when his brother was able to resist. Storybook villains are often slighted in this way; we don’t even know quite how Septimus Geiger ended up in his clutches. But the story is really good, the riddles amusing and genuinely hard (although the answers aren’t as difficult as you might imagine). It also promises to have a sequel. Wherever the torc is, it clearly isn’t finished with the Finleys.