The Morrow Secrets by Susan McNally
My rating: 3/5 cats
this is a very charming book.
it has adventure and whimsy and family dysfunction and bitter betrayals. it is for a middle-grade audience, but an older audience can definitely appreciate it.
but for me, it was difficult.
i do not have a strong background in fantasy. invented creatures and words get muddled in my mind—i find it difficult to keep them straight. and as i am typing this, i am realizing that this completely contradicts everything i was saying earlier in a private forum about my brain. here’s a rundown:
i have difficulties with aural retention. in school, i had to write down basically the entire lectures, to reread in the privacy of my apartment later. i watch all my movies at home with the subtitles on. when i read things, i retain them better than if i just hear them. this is why i am great to tell secrets to – chances are, i will just forget. the brain, she is porous.
and yet, against all expectations, i have difficulties with reading fantasy novels, with their wacky names and geographies. it is a really good thing that i watched game of thrones before reading it, is all i’m saying. who can tell how to pronounce things? and where are all these places in relation to each other?? oh, cool—opening credit sequence. that’s sorted.
this seems counterintuitive, right?, but i think my brain is one of those “floor models” only intended for display, so it doesn’t need to be consistent.
all of that to say that i think i would have liked this more if i had a stronger background in fantasy. i truly bemoan my weakness in the genre. and people are always trying to help me with this and i always make promises, and then i just get overwhelmed and i go into rabbit-in-headlights mode. it is a huge stumbling block, and my brain just refuses to wrap around the conventions of the genre.
so for me, the skinks and the shroves and the groats and the swarm and the murk mowl, etc etc—my brain kept balking at unfamiliarity. this is completely a personal shortcoming and in no way the fault of the book.
because it is charming. it is an adventure-y book with a good brother-and-sister team as the standout characters, a distant mother, some eccentric aunts, one scarily-driven cousin, and one who is physically hapless, and a grandmother with a big spooky house and power, and so many family secrets.
also, some great illustrations.
this is the first part of a proposed trilogy, and like all great trilogies, it leaves off in a complete cliffhanger, so be prepared to be left hanging, tantalizingly.
so, as long as you are better at, you know, reading than i am, you should add this to the virtual “to-read” pile.
and then come back and tell me how dumb i am.
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