Author: Juman Malouf
Publisher: Pushkin Children's Books
Release Date: 7 Jun. 2018
ISBN-13: 978-1782692041
Synopsis
Identical twins Sonja and Charlotte are
musical prodigies with extraordinary powers. Born on All-Hallows-Eve, the girls
could play music before they could walk. They were found one night by Tatty,
the Tattooed Lady of the circus, in a pail on her doorstep with only a note and
a heart-shaped locket. They've been with Tatty ever since, roaming the
Outskirts in the circus caravans, moving from place to place.
But lately, curious things have started to happen when they play their instruments. During one of their performances, the girls accidentally levitate their entire audience, drawing too much unwanted attention. Soon, ominous Enforcers come after them, and Charlotte and Sonja must embark on a perilous journey through enchanted lands in hopes of unlocking the secrets of their mysterious past.
But lately, curious things have started to happen when they play their instruments. During one of their performances, the girls accidentally levitate their entire audience, drawing too much unwanted attention. Soon, ominous Enforcers come after them, and Charlotte and Sonja must embark on a perilous journey through enchanted lands in hopes of unlocking the secrets of their mysterious past.
My Review
I
received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest
review. All opinions are my own.
The
premise of the story sounded really interesting to me – two young girls raised
in the circus with amazing musical talents that become magical, it appealed to
me in a number of ways which is why I accepted it for review. I love magic, I
love Circus based stories and I love mysteries, we’re on for a winner, right!?
Sonja and
Charlotte are twins, raised in a circus on the ‘Outskirts’ by Tatty – a lady
covered from head to toe in tattoos. They have extraordinary musical talents
that they perform in the ring but lately it’s started causing magical things to
happen and the customers are getting freaked out. The girls must learn to
control their powers or find somewhere else to live. The opening of the book
was very exciting and powerful, it put you right into the moment and introduced
you to the twins and I was encouraged. The writing style was a bit blunt – a lot
of short sentences but I could get past that.
The twins
hear about an audition for a famous music academy, and they decide it’s worth a
try, even with the possibility of magical mishaps - and that’s when things go
wrong, that night their talents get stolen, Tatty gets kidnapped and they end
up on a journey to try and save themselves and their adoptive mother. Along the
way they meet a host of characters and end up in a variety of different
situations. However this is where the book went downhill for me, I found Sonja
and Charlotte to be very annoying, Charlotte falls in love with every boy she
meets, has no regard for anyone around her and basically ignores her twin,
whilst Sonja complains about everything, whines that life isn’t fair and
basically makes every situation ten times worse with her bad attitude. They
were both very dislikeable characters and I found myself irritated by them and
basically wanted to smack their heads together and tell them to grow up a bit.
They didn’t really act like the twelve years they were supposed to be.
I also
found myself getting confused with who everyone was, you meet so many
characters, some that are only present for a few pages and then seem to
disappear again but I was never really sure what their purpose was in the first
place, and many of them have more than one name, it just got so confusing.
Throughout the story they also traveled to a number of places and I found
myself getting lost and very confused.
The twins
meet a group of characters and they start to travel together to try and save
‘the key’ to the ‘Seven Edens’ (a concept that sounded really cool, like a
whole other hidden world that is basically a paradise). Anyway, the team arrive
at some sort of factory and the story started to get interesting, I found
myself settling into the book again, there was a real edge of mystery and
excitement, it was quite creepy but the imagery was great, I could picture all
the children and the dark corridors and sinister people, I really found myself
engaging with the story again, I started to read quicker again, and I actually
wanted to know what would happen next, but that was over far too quickly and
then they were out and back on the run again. I just found the whole thing very
hard to follow and the writing style started to irritate me again, I wanted
flowing sentences that would carry me through the story but I found them to be
short and abrupt, very matter of fact and stilted. I just couldn’t get on with
it. I found myself counting how many pages were left until the end, I just
couldn’t get to grips with it.
I did
like the introduction of Wolf-boy and his friend Moritz, they had some real
personalities and added a bit of humour to the story. The villains were creepy
and twisted just like villains should be, but I didn’t understand their
motivation for what they were doing – they just seemed to be evil for the sake
of it – at least with the Contessa anyway. With Katz you learn a bit more about
his backstory which makes certain things make sense, but I just didn’t feel
like I understood the purpose of it.
I also
didn’t understand how Alexandria acted throughout it, without giving away any
spoilers, her behaviour towards the twins did not match up with her feelings at
the end, there was just no arc or development between the two situations and I
wondered how anyone could act so coldly all those years if they were feeling
something else. She was a mystery to me- although saying that, I loved her
magical powers. She was a very cool woman and I did like her sassy attitude.
The book
also has illustrations within of the characters, I can see the skill in the
drawings but to be honest they kind of freaked me out a bit, they didn’t look
quite human to me, and they didn’t add anything to the story, but some people
may like them.
Overall I
was disappointed with this book, I felt like it had so much potential but it
left me feeling flat. There were moments that got me excited and carried me
along but they were few and far between. There is a good baseline in there
though but for me it didn’t reach it’s potential.
My Rating
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