Jane Fletcher

Lori has lost her girlfriend, her home, and her job. Things don't improve when she's kidnapped and taken to fairyland.

Silver Ravens

Wonko the Sane

I’m really sad to be writing this review, as I have enjoyed Jane Fletcher’s books before (particularly the Lyremouth series.) Sadly, this book was disappointing.

Characters - The main character, Lori, is pretty unlikeable from the start. She seems to really look down on more or less everyone she meets, and she’s judgemental about strangers and acquaintances alike. When we meet her she’s at a low ebb (jobless, recently cheated on and dumped) and we should feel for her, but I don’t. The romantic interest, Tamsin, is slightly better only because we don’t get inside her head. We are exposed to the character traits that Lori finds interesting which, off the top of my head, are “hot” and “very hot.” 

Romance - Sadly, the romance in this book is just not very satisfying. It doesn’t help that Lori is not a likeable character, but the relationship between her and Tamsin doesn’t really develop beyond “Tamsin is hot and she makes Lori blush.” Lori is thinking in these terms from roughly the moment they meet, and for some reason Tamsin likes her back even though they don’t spend very much time together in the first half of the book and Lori never gives her any reason to find her interesting. I assume Lori must be hot too. What more does one need.

Worldbuilding - Jane Fletcher is good at worldbuilding. Both her Lyremouth and Celaeno series are set in sci-fi/fantasy worlds that feel coherent and make sense as fictional realities. Sadly, this book’s setting - Annwyn - feels shallow and undeveloped. It’s compared to a video game a few times, in that it’s flat and if you walk off one edge you warp to the other, and that comparison is apt really because it’s the kind of place that feels like nothing is happening unless the main character is there. At one point they go on what feels like a filler side quest to a place called Mud Town, and it’s like the stage was set waiting for them to arrive so the plot could begin. Nowhere in the story felt like it was a real place where people lived when our POV character wasn’t there.

Overall, this book was a bit of a sad disappointment. I liked the idea of the puzzles and codebreaking that was the hook to get Lori into the world of Annwyn, but other than that the story, characters and world left me pretty cold. I will still read whatever Jane Fletcher comes up with next, as I have enjoyed much of her previous work, but this one is eminently skippable I’m afraid. And if you are new to this author, please do not read this one first - go to either the aforementioned Lyremouth or Celaeno series, you will have a much better time.

1.5 stars.

Silver Ravens

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