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A review by hazeyjane_2
The Fantastical Exploits of Gwendolyn Gray by B.A. Williamson
4.0
Thanks to Flux and Netgalley for an ARC.
The Fantastical Exploits of Gwendolyn Gray is a children’s book, so it wouldn’t be accurate to say that I enjoyed it in quite the same way I’d enjoy a book for adults. Besides, I’m not the biggest fan of books where the protagonist has apparently limitless powers.
What I liked:
The wonderful writing, the fast pace and Gwendolyn’s sheer glee at having adventures.
The world Gwendolyn visits and the people she encounters there are all skilfully and vividly drawn, from Cyria Kytain’s weird steampunky lab to Faeoria to Gwendolyn’s own dystopian City, which she’s trying to save from the mysterious Mister Men. Gwendolyn suffers setbacks and the odds seem legitimately against her. The eventual mastermind behind the plot wasn’t who I expected it to be at all.
The book features two powerful female characters (three, if you count the faerie queen Titania).
I liked the nods to Shakespeare, particularly genderfluid Puck. The protag’s mental health also features prominently. Like others, I’m reminded of The Neverending Story and, as a matter of fact, The Giver as well. There were probably other allusions I didn’t catch.
What I didn’t like (aka: Nitpicking):
Fantastical Exploits is the second in a series (which, predictably, I forgot to check for before ordering). Lacking a clear idea of the events of the previous books affected my understanding of what was going on in this one.
The phrase “It was a very specific sort of___” was repeated at least eight times. I was also slightly annoyed at Cyria Kytain’s way of talking at first, but that’s really scraping the barrel for complaints.
This is not so much a dislike as a nitpick, a matter of personal taste. It’s probably a result of my reading this as an adult, but it felt a tiny bit paint-by-numbers to me. Like ‘plug in your adventure and off you go’. I can’t explain how or why, because everything should have worked. This is probably to do with the protagonist being overpowered, or the central premise of her being the only one who’s able to provide her fellow Citizens with imagination. I know that imagination, ideas and creativity are the entire premise of the story, but there were points when I couldn’t suspend my disbelief when Gwendolyn fought enemies by conjuring up, say, vines from her imagination alone. It seemed a bit too direct a channel between the protagonist’s mind and the worlds she inhabits. I have read The Neverending Story as an adult, and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I can’t quite put my finger on what it was about Gwendolyn Gray that niggled at me.
The Fantastical Exploits of Gwendolyn Gray is a children’s book, so it wouldn’t be accurate to say that I enjoyed it in quite the same way I’d enjoy a book for adults. Besides, I’m not the biggest fan of books where the protagonist has apparently limitless powers.
What I liked:
The wonderful writing, the fast pace and Gwendolyn’s sheer glee at having adventures.
The world Gwendolyn visits and the people she encounters there are all skilfully and vividly drawn, from Cyria Kytain’s weird steampunky lab to Faeoria to Gwendolyn’s own dystopian City, which she’s trying to save from the mysterious Mister Men. Gwendolyn suffers setbacks and the odds seem legitimately against her. The eventual mastermind behind the plot wasn’t who I expected it to be at all.
The book features two powerful female characters (three, if you count the faerie queen Titania).
I liked the nods to Shakespeare, particularly genderfluid Puck. The protag’s mental health also features prominently. Like others, I’m reminded of The Neverending Story and, as a matter of fact, The Giver as well. There were probably other allusions I didn’t catch.
What I didn’t like (aka: Nitpicking):
Fantastical Exploits is the second in a series (which, predictably, I forgot to check for before ordering). Lacking a clear idea of the events of the previous books affected my understanding of what was going on in this one.
The phrase “It was a very specific sort of___” was repeated at least eight times. I was also slightly annoyed at Cyria Kytain’s way of talking at first, but that’s really scraping the barrel for complaints.
This is not so much a dislike as a nitpick, a matter of personal taste. It’s probably a result of my reading this as an adult, but it felt a tiny bit paint-by-numbers to me. Like ‘plug in your adventure and off you go’. I can’t explain how or why, because everything should have worked. This is probably to do with the protagonist being overpowered, or the central premise of her being the only one who’s able to provide her fellow Citizens with imagination. I know that imagination, ideas and creativity are the entire premise of the story, but there were points when I couldn’t suspend my disbelief when Gwendolyn fought enemies by conjuring up, say, vines from her imagination alone. It seemed a bit too direct a channel between the protagonist’s mind and the worlds she inhabits. I have read The Neverending Story as an adult, and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I can’t quite put my finger on what it was about Gwendolyn Gray that niggled at me.