A review by pxr014
The King in the Window by Omar Rayyan, Adam Gopnik

4.0

Of all of the children's books I read this summer, this was probably the best. I loved the plot and the sudden, occasional, really insightful thoughts. And the writing style was really nice, though the random (though few) inconsistencies bugged me a bit. And it's just so original. I don't think I've read such an original fantasy novel in years. My only problems: Oliver's lucky guesses as the solution to problems (Deus-ex-machina-esque, although this was more at the beginning) and the easy way Mrs. Pearson and Charlie just completely believe his story. What almost bothered me was that there seemed to me to be very little development to the characters, except for Oliver. The other characters were well-developed and under-developed at the same time, especially Neige. It was weird. In any other book, I would've called her two-dimensional, but it was more like the author's lack of description described her well enough that she didn't really have to be further developed. We already knew her really well because everybody knows a sort of Neige. Hopefully that made sense. Anyway, gorgeous book. I really really loved this, even if it was a kid's book.