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clairescurrentlyreading's review
4.0
Let's talk about How To Survive Your Magical Family, a super sweet YA Fantasy read by @clarerhodenauthor!
In this coming-of-age story, we meet Toby, a young boy with the best magical ability ever – he can talk to cats. He’s not too pleased about this, though, as his family have been blessed with much more impressive abilities that they utilise in their everyday lives. His father is both medical a medical professional and a powerful wizard, his sister is an aspiring lawyer, and his mother… well, she had to leave when Toby was young, and nobody knows where she is or even if she’s alive. Together with his companion Katkin and his best friend Mia, Toby learns to accept himself and his abilities after getting caught up in his family’s mysterious past.
This book is delightfully light to read – its fast pace and the whimsical world make it perfect for younger readers to pick up. In terms of worldbuilding, Rhoden injects magic into the modern world with ease. The fantasy element feels natural, particularly as we discover magic alongside one of the characters. The main and supporting characters are likeable and easy to get to know, while the villain is portrayed as both destructible and human. She has faults, and swaying emotions and her motive is clear once you discover her backstory. I was impressed by Rhoden’s approach to a child’s view of grief and loss, and how she took Toby through his coming to terms with the story of his mother. Watching his thoughts evolve as his understanding grows is both heart-warming and bittersweet, and Rhoden does a splendid job of navigating the realistic family dynamic here.
All in all, this was a delightful, light-hearted read with a very interesting premise and plenty of magical cats!
Thanks to @odysseybooks for providing me with a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.
In this coming-of-age story, we meet Toby, a young boy with the best magical ability ever – he can talk to cats. He’s not too pleased about this, though, as his family have been blessed with much more impressive abilities that they utilise in their everyday lives. His father is both medical a medical professional and a powerful wizard, his sister is an aspiring lawyer, and his mother… well, she had to leave when Toby was young, and nobody knows where she is or even if she’s alive. Together with his companion Katkin and his best friend Mia, Toby learns to accept himself and his abilities after getting caught up in his family’s mysterious past.
This book is delightfully light to read – its fast pace and the whimsical world make it perfect for younger readers to pick up. In terms of worldbuilding, Rhoden injects magic into the modern world with ease. The fantasy element feels natural, particularly as we discover magic alongside one of the characters. The main and supporting characters are likeable and easy to get to know, while the villain is portrayed as both destructible and human. She has faults, and swaying emotions and her motive is clear once you discover her backstory. I was impressed by Rhoden’s approach to a child’s view of grief and loss, and how she took Toby through his coming to terms with the story of his mother. Watching his thoughts evolve as his understanding grows is both heart-warming and bittersweet, and Rhoden does a splendid job of navigating the realistic family dynamic here.
All in all, this was a delightful, light-hearted read with a very interesting premise and plenty of magical cats!
Thanks to @odysseybooks for providing me with a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.
sailingandreading's review
5.0
What an incredibly sweet story about a boy, friends, family and a lovable group of cats!
There was adventure (kidnapping), mystery and talking cats!
There was adventure (kidnapping), mystery and talking cats!
sreddous's review
5.0
This is a fun magical story! Really really cool worldbuilding here. I love in general that cats are the “good guys” even though this is a story about cool, sometimes spooky, magic. It’s common in other similar-genre books that cats are coded as “evil” or “conniving,” and I don’t like that. I’m grateful the cats are full, actual characters, and they get lots of personality and dialogue here!
Quick content warning: there’s descriptions of animal abuse, animal death, and cat suffering that can sometimes get a bit detailed. I’m pretty sensitive to this and it’s not…tooooooo graphic; the framing is, a character is describing what they saw happen in the past (so we don’t ‘see it happen.’ But still, it’s easy to imagine the things being described, so heads up if that's a thing for you).
The writing style and description is really pretty. It's easy to get into flow with. The different ‘voices’ of the different POVs are super distinct too. It’s great to see how “different” Mia sounds as a narrator. It’s hard to do that well, and it’s very immersive here. The father character is imposing and interesting, and I like the family dynamic.
The overall exposition is perfectly natural. I never felt bored or info-dumped-on when some magical stuff was just outright explained, because we got to see magic in action plenty too, so it doesn’t feel forced.
If there's anything that might make me want to rate this a 4.5 out of 5, it's the villain -- there are things about her that I really enjoyed, and things that I thought weren't super effective. Overall she’s a fun over-the-top character with good unique dialogue. But I think sometimes she comes off as a bit too childish, which then clashes with the level of threat she’s supposed to be to make the mom’s sacrifice worth it. I find myself wishing we could have seen even more violence and destruction from her. As-is, she does some dangerous things, but it’s not too hard to overcome and avoid her. I think it would still be funny for her to be whiny and over the top and dramatic IF we also saw her hurt a lot of people. I also don't deeply love the descriptions of Orsa as fat and meaty that accompany the times she’s doing bad-guy stuff… it’s not automatically bad to have a fat/big villain (she can change her size and power levels, so it's not, like, LITERAL), but still, it felt like we got 'fat' descriptions WHEN she was doing bad stuff. A few tweaks to her character would have made her more of a threat even if her character is still a bit dramatic.
But overall the plot is easy to follow in a good way, and the suspense is good! I was pretty ready to see what was up with the mom's impact on the villain's plotline, it has good buildup.
A fun halloween-y read, who doesn't want stories about cats and crows around this time of year?
Quick content warning: there’s descriptions of animal abuse, animal death, and cat suffering that can sometimes get a bit detailed. I’m pretty sensitive to this and it’s not…tooooooo graphic; the framing is, a character is describing what they saw happen in the past (so we don’t ‘see it happen.’ But still, it’s easy to imagine the things being described, so heads up if that's a thing for you).
The writing style and description is really pretty. It's easy to get into flow with. The different ‘voices’ of the different POVs are super distinct too. It’s great to see how “different” Mia sounds as a narrator. It’s hard to do that well, and it’s very immersive here. The father character is imposing and interesting, and I like the family dynamic.
The overall exposition is perfectly natural. I never felt bored or info-dumped-on when some magical stuff was just outright explained, because we got to see magic in action plenty too, so it doesn’t feel forced.
If there's anything that might make me want to rate this a 4.5 out of 5, it's the villain -- there are things about her that I really enjoyed, and things that I thought weren't super effective. Overall she’s a fun over-the-top character with good unique dialogue. But I think sometimes she comes off as a bit too childish, which then clashes with the level of threat she’s supposed to be to make the mom’s sacrifice worth it. I find myself wishing we could have seen even more violence and destruction from her. As-is, she does some dangerous things, but it’s not too hard to overcome and avoid her. I think it would still be funny for her to be whiny and over the top and dramatic IF we also saw her hurt a lot of people. I also don't deeply love the descriptions of Orsa as fat and meaty that accompany the times she’s doing bad-guy stuff… it’s not automatically bad to have a fat/big villain (she can change her size and power levels, so it's not, like, LITERAL), but still, it felt like we got 'fat' descriptions WHEN she was doing bad stuff. A few tweaks to her character would have made her more of a threat even if her character is still a bit dramatic.
But overall the plot is easy to follow in a good way, and the suspense is good! I was pretty ready to see what was up with the mom's impact on the villain's plotline, it has good buildup.
A fun halloween-y read, who doesn't want stories about cats and crows around this time of year?
chubby_little_butter_books's review
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
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