Maria Dahvana Headley

Aza Ray Boyle's life has been defined by a unique lung disease and her evolving friendship with Jason, but just before her sixteenth birthday, she is swept up into the sky-bound world of Magonia and discovers her true identity.

Magonia

Rachel Kanyid

3.75/5 Interesting magical realism aspect, and I liked it well enough to continue on to the next book eventually!

#1 New York Times bestseller Maria Dahvana Headley’s soaring sky fantasy Magonia is now in paperback! Since she was a baby, Aza Ray Boyle has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live. So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn’t think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name. Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who’s always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found by another. Magonia. Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—but as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war between Magonia and Earth is coming. In Aza’s hands lies the fate of the whole of humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?

GUYS I AM CRYING *HYPERVENTILATES*
After I finished reading this earlier today, I log onto Facebook and from my timeline I see a headline and guess what it is about? Weird, Creepy Sound Heard from the Sky. OMIGOSH. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?

And guess what it says? According to the person who wrote the article, he heard a weird, creepy sound was allegedly heard from the sky in Batangas, Philippines, along with bird chirps. He heard the trumpet sound at around 3 pm that day, a few minutes before it started to rain. He said he immediately did a research on YouTube afterwards, and that he learned there were other YouTube videos revealing exactly the same freaky sound he heard from the sky that day. He swears that his video is not hoax, and many of his neighbors also heard it.

Call me naive, but I am waaaay to freaked out to write a review right now. 
Read the article here and watch the video here

Dated June 08, 2015

GUYS I AM CRYING *HYPERVENTILATES*
After I finished reading this earlier today, I log onto Facebook and from my timeline I see a headline and guess what it is about? Weird, Creepy Sound Heard from the Sky. OMIGOSH. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?

And guess what it says? According to the person who wrote the article, he heard a weird, creepy sound was allegedly heard from the sky in Batangas, Philippines, along with 
  bird chirps
. He heard the 
  trumpet sound
 at around 3 pm that day, a few minutes before 
  it started to rain
. He said he immediately did a research on YouTube afterwards, and that he learned there were other YouTube videos revealing exactly the same freaky sound he heard from the sky that day. He swears that his video is not hoax, and many of his neighbors also heard it.

Call me naive, but I am waaaay to freaked out to write a review right now. 
Read the article here and watch the video here

Dated June 08, 2015

Gisela Ayala 

Wow. Just Wow. This book made me laugh, made me cry, made me confused, and made me be more aware of what is really out there to take care of what you have now...at the moment before it is gone. This book is fantastical and beautiful and is written almost like poetry. 
Birds and
Ships and 
Pirates and
Skies and 
Whales...

You name it this book has got it. At first I completely did not know where the book was heading, I was confused and the language wasn't catching on at first, but then I decided to read some parts out loud and it was beautiful. Aza was phenomenal and probably the most unique character I have yet to read about. The world of Magnolia definitely had my senses going crazy and had me feeling all the feels. I will definitely be paying closer attention to the skies from now on...

jess

The plot didn't really resonate with me. I didn't really like the idea of a girl with a disability magically being cured because she's from another land. It struck me as sort of a Peter Pan plot, but not as charming as Peter Pan was. The characters were also not very developed and I didn't feel any connection to them.

Maria Dahvana Headley's soaring YA debut is a fiercely intelligent, multilayered fantasy where Neil Gaiman's Stardust meets John Green's The Fault in Our Stars in a story about a girl caught between two worlds . . . two races . . . and two destinies. Aza Ray Boyle is drowning in thin air. Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live. So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn't think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name. Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who's always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another. Magonia. Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—but as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war between Magonia and Earth is coming. In Aza's hands lies fate of the whole of humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?

Allison Garrett

I tried really hard to finish this, I really did. The writing is beautiful. I really liked the way it flowed and the way the brains of the two characters worked. I just couldn't get drawn in to the story. I may try and read it again, but for now it's unfinished.

Charmaine

Effing beautiful. ❤️ So full of meaning, what it truly means to love, finding what was once lost, and true HOME. I was wholly lost in the world of Magonia. ❤️❤️

Lila Harrison

OMG I CAN'T EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE HOW GOOD THIS BOOK WAS! Every moment was magical! READ IT!!

María Belén

3.5 stars

I liked the concept and the story in general, eventhough somethings about the characters were highly unrealistic. I liked Jason and Aza was an okay MC and I don't have much to say about the other characters, they were okay. Now the writing, I don't know why but it remained me a bit to Neil Gaiman's style and I don't really like his books. So that lowered the rating for me. 
Anyway it's not a bad book, it's fairly entertaining.

laura

This book was okay. I the world building confused me but i eventually grew to the like the characters. It way it was written was not as strong as i would like. I will read the sequel. I did like the 2 perspectives though.

Анастасия Розова

UPDATE 31.01.2019

I'm changing my rating to 2.5, I've thought about this book and I have more negative memories than positive. It wasn't really that good. And I don't want to continue. Idk. My opinion has either changed, or I tried to like this book upon reading it too much.

3.5/5
It was a weird experience. But it's a good weird. I mean, I've never read anything like this before. If you want something different from anything you've read before, I strongly recommend this book. It's quite gripping.
I looooved Jason. His obsessions, his nervousness, his love. I loved him from the moment he showed up in the book. He was probably one of the liveliest characters in this book.
Though I had some issues with the plot, especially Aza's relationship with Dai. (view spoiler)[They didn't like each other, but she was attracted to him, I get it. Then she sings and BOOM, they're hugging, and sinning into each others lungs... Whaaat? I didn't like the development of their relationships, I didn't care for them. I did love her and Jason, though. (hide spoiler)] 
But I enjoyed the book overall. It's a strong, interesting read.

4.5

First book finished for #AuthorAThon April 2016.

This book was so incredibly unique. Maria Dahvana Headley did a phenomenal job of creating this world. It is partially set on Earth, and then partially set in a fantasy world called Magonia that is basically in the sky above Earth. This book is unlike anything I've read before, and I would definitley recommend it.

I will probably have a review up in the future. (:

razan 

just like Neil Gaiman said about it ,this book definitely feels like a magical dream that you want it to last forever.

Leelynn Brady

Hannah

Heather Killeen

At first I thought I could compare this book to John Green's The Fault in our Stars. Then crazy shit started happening and it quickly became clear this book can't really be compared to anything at all. I love how she creatively uses different surprising arrangements of the type on the page to say more than the type itself, which seems to be a new trend that I fully support (See also- Sally Green's Half Bad). Not to mention the use of {{[ ]}} and & and and, and... there's just lots of cool stuff in here. 

I loved both main character's points of view which is hard to pull off, especially when they are both confronted with dramatic shifts in their own conceptions of reality. Their reactions seemed realistic to me, acknowledging the absurdity they face just the right amount, without breaking the 4th wall, and moving on with the story. 

The only reason why I didn't give it 5* is I felt like the captain's character needed more depth. No spoilers, but I found her too predictable. Also I'm super picky about my 5* just because and to me 4* still covers a lot of my favorite books. And any book that gives me this many feels at the end gets at least 4*. 

So go read it already!

Gabriela Roxana 

5/5

Like all of my other favorite books,I am unable to make a competent review to it as my words would always fail to desribe the perfection that Magonia is. As being said,sometimes it's good to judge a book by its cover.

Kelly Macquire

Review originally posted my my blog here -> https://kelmacsbooks.wordpress.com/20...

Okay. First things first, lets just appreciate the beautiful cover. I mean, looking at this, who wouldn’t want to pick it up?! (It’s also going to get spoiler-y later in this review, but I will warn you:) ).

So when I bought this book, I had no idea what to expect but the blurb sounded cool so I grabbed it anyway. Now let me just say this, I didn’t not like it; I enjoyed it and I will read the second one… But there were things about it that I didn’t like and things that I just cannot stand.

When I started this book, I have to say I love Aza. I’ve seen a lot of reviews going on about how she was rude and took advantage of her disease and blah blah blah, but I thought she was just a girl dealing with her crap luck the best way she could. I thought she was witty, sarcastic and intelligent; not to mention just an interesting person to be in the mind of. And her relationship with Jason was unique, interesting and cute. The whole bracket note thing kind of annoyed me only because we never get confirmation of what it actually means but thats okay because it fits in with their quirky relationship.

And then, the big thing happened. The big tipping point of the novel that you kind of see coming from the start and then it happens in an intense (and I’m not going to lie, kind of confusing way), and then it’s like a completely different book. I tabbed so many sentences and noted down so many words and paragraphs that I loved from the first section of this book, and then I continued to read, and I became less interested, more confused and slightly annoyed.

So once this big thing happened, the more fantasy-ish parts of this story come in and it’s such an interesting concept and unlike anything I’ve ever read before. However, even after finishing the book, I’m still slightly confused as to parts of this novel, especially in the ‘Magonia’ parts.

Basically (and I’m going to get spoiler-y here so bear that in mind)- once Aza dies and her body gets brought up into Magonia, the novel feels a bit rushed and slightly disjointed. We find out that she’s not human at all but a Magonian, and the daughter of the captain of the Amina Pennarum. Also, that they have little trap doors in their chests where they have a bird that they sing with (this is cool).

We are introduced to her actual mother Zal, a few bird people called Rostrae and some other cool air animals like stormsharks which are all great for the building of this new world… And then we get introduced to Dai. I don’t know why, but I never liked his character. Rightly enough, he seemed cautious and indifferent when it comes to Aza upon her arrival, but then suddenly, without much pre-emption at all, they’re holding hands and singing together?? I feel like he had the potential to be a great character but he lacked in personality and development.

Zal, on the other hand, just seemed to be manipulative of Aza and I was never a fan of hers. She seemed more interested in her own affairs than helping her daughter adjust to such a change after she just died and left everything she knew back on earth.

The ending as well, was good and bad. Interesting and rushed. I loved the final chapters aboard the Amina Pennarum and their ‘fight’ of sorts to get to the seeds, and Jason being all cute and using his insane intelligence and faith to get to Aza. The actual ending does set up some hardships for the next novel which I like as well… But I feel like something didn’t work and it wasn’t a cliff hanger ending, so I feel like I shouldn’t feel like how I am now, like I’m still waiting for something… Still waiting for explanations…

But please, do not get me wrong! Most of the characters I really liked, the world building in Magonia was wonderfully done and the fantasy concept was spellbinding and extremely intriguing. I did enjoy this, but I felt like after the first few chapters, the writing in the second half of the novel was lackluster and just missing something… And I loved the differing points of view between Aza and Jason!! So much love, and they’re cute and unique and I can’t wait to read the next one, however I will be critical of it because of how this novel did let me down a bit…

Eleni Liakou 

At first I was very excited to read this book, because of all the hype surrounding it when it first came out. I'm very sad to say, though, that it really didn't live up to my expectations. The first 100 pages were okay, I guess, and at some point I even started to get the hang of it. And then the whole ships-in-the-sky / weird bird-humans thing happened... I'm really confused right now!

Pamela Alvarado

I had mixed feelings about how Magonia started out. It was all a lot of telling, and explaining, and thoughts, and really, no action at all. On the other hand, it was entertaining. I wish all those quirky thoughts about Aza's 'sickness' had been saved for later scenes.

Now that I think about, the whole book was a mixed feelings fest.

Let's start with,
 The Characters 
Aza is likable enough, and so are the rest of the crew characters. But her character arc was somewhat blurry. I still don't have clear what exactly wanted to be achieved with her.

Jason is a sweetheart, even though sometimes he bordered on the cardboard cut-out line. He has two moms, which totally rocks because it was written like nothing out of the ordinary. We don't dwell too much on the social aspects, he just... has two moms and that's it. And t works.
 The Plot 
The thing with the plot is, most of the time I had no idea of what was happening. There is a balance between keeping the reader guessing, and leaving him completely out of the loop. I was right there with Aza as she had these revelations and stuff happened to her. Normally, that'd be totally okay, but unfortunately, not for this story.

Speaking of stuff and revelations, one's suspension of disbelief can only go so far. And, this book was constantly defying that limit.

I mean, a bird flew into Aza's mouth and settled in her lung. IN HER FREAKING LUNG. Later, I understood the why, and how it made sense within the world the author created, but at the same time, it was difficult to swallow when the world I'd been introduced to was a normal one in which Aza goes to highschool, is constantly depressed, but managed to get through. I couldn't wrap around my head the bird-in-her-lung event.

What I really liked is that it was very orginal.
 The World-Building 
You mean, just the ship, right? Because I have no idea of how Magonia actually is like. I just know about the ship. Maybe the book should be just called Amina Pennarum, like the ship.
 The Love Triangle  The Romance 
This is not a romance book. But it does have romance. And it's not very good, honestly. It also contains a wannabe love triangle. But pay no mind to it, because it's obvious in a way only Twilight can rival.

 

I know it sounds like I didn't enjoy this story, but actually, I think it's pretty cool. Not what I was hoping for, though.

Farah Khaled 

It took me 2 weeks to finish this book... the first 100 pages were great, it kind of reminded me of Shatter Me. But after "the thing" happened everything changed completely!

I think if 30% of the book was cut out, I could have endured it better. Also, I started to skim because it got too much. (I really skipped a lot) There’s a lot of “nothingness” going on. There’s a lot of random dialogue and random scenes. I understand it’s for character development, but I also wanted something that would draw me in

I don't think I'll read book 2

Magonia

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