Jessica Townsend

"A cursed child destined to die on her eleventh birthday is rescued and whisked away to a secret realm called Nevermoor and given the chance to compete for a place in a prestigious organization called the Wundrous Society"--

The Trials of Morrigan Crow

Jessica  Townsend

Denaiir

Here's my unpopular opinion on this book that everybody seems to be rating 5 stars. 

I just want to say that I believe I might have enjoyed it more if I had read it and not listened to it, because I didn't enjoy the narration that much, especially not the voices of the female side characters (not sure Cadence is supposed to sound that stupid), so it would probably have been a 4-star in paper form.

The start was not too strong for me, the descriptions were a bit flat and it borrowed ideas from other books/movies so it didn't feel really original (Harry Potter, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mary Poppins, Totoro). The characters were a bit too two-dimensional and I generally didn't like or dislike them, except for a few of them (Fen and Cadence are my favorite side characters, but as for the rest of them, nothing special, and the villain's bad deeds are totally underwhelming).

However, some passages pulled me into the story, such as the bids for apprenticeships, or the 2nd and 3rd trials. I also liked getting to know the knacks of the various characters.

Overall, I liked the book in its own right, not comparing it to Harry Potter, and the elements that were comparable to other books were the ones that I disliked (especially the Dumbledore-like idiotic idea that the mentor not telling anything to the main protagonist about what they are and what they can do is the best course of action). 

However, I definitely see potential in the world built here: I want to know more about wunder and its uses, about the Wundrous Society... I think after a first book that is a bit too slow due to a lot of exposition, there's a chance that it could take off and become a great series.

Las pruebas de Morrigan Crow

Florencia Sime

4.5 ⭐️

Morrigan Crow solo quiere ser normal y feliz, literalmente es todo lo que busca a lo largo del libro. Quiero protegerla de todo lo que pueda pasarle.

Jupiter es todo lo que esta bien.

Middle-grade’s supremacy 🛐

Sahi K

I don’t think I’ve read any middle grade books except Harry Potter and I DNFd the first Percy Jackson a long time ago. I never thought I would ever get back to the genre but couldn’t help it because my friends Ana and Dilip were reading it too. And I can say that this was a pleasant surprise – entertaining, charming and lots of fun.

Morrigan’s curse means that she is blamed for every bad thing that happens in the town – from bad weather to a broken hip. Her family is just waiting for Eventide when she will die and they can go back to living happier lives. Everything changes when the quirky Jupiter North arrives to take her away to Nevermoor and asks her to compete in the trials to become a member of the elite Wundrous Society.

Nevermoor is a wonderful place full of fascinating people, all kinds of interesting creatures and riveting technological inventions. Jupiter is the owner of Hotel Deucalion and Morrigan finds a home among the chirpy cast of characters living there which include a vampire dwarf (mind you.. he is very sensitive to being incorrectly called a dwarf vampire), a grumpy sassy talking cat Fenestra and Dame Chanda Kali who is a soprano singer whose voice has a magical hold over birds.

The setting of the book is perfect and very evocative and I enjoyed getting to know everybody. Morrigan is very low on confidence because of her upbringing and it takes her sometime to grow out of it. She starts making friends and finally believes that there are actually people who care about her. Jupiter is a Dumbledore-esque mentor who never gives her straight forward answers but is way more charming and chirpy in personality. Every other character is quite unique in their traits and that’s definitely a highlight of the book. I also liked that the author made Nevermoor ethnically diverse and seeing some very authentic Indian names made me very happy.

Despite the amazing characters, it’s the plot that fell flat for me. I expected so much more from the four trials but Morrigan just happened to skate by through luck and not much effort. Also, nothing much happened between the trials – you could just skim through paragraphs and not miss anything. The ending also felt very simplistic and anti-climactic and the reveal of the evil villain wasn’t very remarkable, though I enjoyed getting to know the truth about Morrigan’s gift.

Don’t go by my review for this book. If you enjoy middle grade or want to try the genre, you should definitely read this book. I think I had too many expectations from this one, especially because everyone is comparing it to Harry Potter. Go into it with an open mind and get ready to have some fun. I’m definitely looking forward to reading the sequel.

Fluch und Wunder

Angela Zeiler

Ideen / Ideas: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Handlung / Plot: ⭐⭐⭐
Charaktere / Characters: ⭐⭐⭐
Schreibstil / Writing Style: ⭐⭐⭐
Unterhaltung / Entertainment: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wiederholen / Repeat: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Jessica Townsend is bursting with creative ideas, but unfortunately the plot does not fully exploit the potential in some places. The characters are original, but sometimes a bit too bizarre for me. Nevertheless, I really liked the beginning of the series and I am looking forward to the next volumes.

Os Desafios de Morrigan Crow

alice nunes

Ruth Parker 

Such a cute middle grade book. I will totally carry on this series, I loved the nostalgia it gave me for magical worlds of my youth!

The Trials of Morrigan Crow

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