Name: Aphra's Child
ISBN: 9780992651473

Lesley Glaister

Lesley Glaister brings all her literary storytelling skills to this dark and magical fantasy about a young girl, Tula, who inhabits a frightening world where hiding your differences may be the only way to survive and trusting the wrong person can be fatal.Packed with twists and turns and exploring the timely issues of betrayal, resistance, the strength of love and the intricacies of teenage relationships, Aphra's Child will capture the attention and admiration of readers who savour accomplished fantasy coupled with bewitching writing that echoes Philip Pullman, JK Rowling and Joan Aitkin.

Aphra's Child

Narah Quinn

I enjoyed this story, especially in that it can be interpreted in a couple of different ways (a story about Chimera and also as a parallel to society and racism/segregation and politics) which makes it both a nicely written story about a sheltered girl trying to find her way in the world and also as a story with a deeper and often darker message about our society and people and how we all treat others. 
Tula is a likeable teenage character and as she has lived an exceptionally sheltered life with just her mother and she behaves as you would expect a naïve teenage girl to behave. She is trying to rely on herself for the first time ever - she is trying to navigate what she has always been told by her mother along with what she feels is right and at almost every turn she is taken advantage of, 
I don't want to give too much away, I did have my suspicions about who her father was after first meeting the character - I was very briefly, but cleverly made to question if I'd got it entirely wrong at the point it was confronted! 
It ends well, but comfortably leads to a continuation in the series and I definitely think it would be a good book for somewhat younger readers to approach social and political issues with the topics that run deeply through it. 
One of my favourite quotes from it was "Cleansing . . .How can something so cruel and wicked, sound like a pure, simple thing . . ."

If I were able to give half stars I would give an extra half - but I can't, sorry! I must also thank NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this.

Aphra's Child

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