SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Illuminations by T. Kingfisher: https://t.co/78Z9d6FbVF
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) January 11, 2023
Short Review: 7.5 out of 10 - A Middle Grade novel featuring 10 year old Rosa, member of a family of magical but eccentric loner artists as she accidentally unleashes a monster who feeds on
1/3
Short Review (cont): the magic in their art and wants revenge on her family, forcing Rosa to try to find a way to re-imprison it before bad things happen. Enjoyable often very humorous (as usual for Kingfisher) story but there's less here for adults than usual for Kingfisher
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) January 11, 2023
2/3
Illuminations is the latest book by author T Kingfisher, the pen name for children's author Ursula Vernon, who usually uses that pen name for adult work (like her romances or horror novels) or for middle-grade/YA works that her editors insist is too scary/strange/horrifying for kids to read (see Minor Mage or A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking). This is one of that second kind of novels - a novel that will probably be listed as middle-grade but really could be read by kids younger than that, with little in here particularly scary or difficult even for readers younger than its main protagonist Rosa, who is ten years old. If you've read Vernon/Kingfisher before, you should know that her books are filled with enjoyable and adorable characters, often present and caring families, hilarious offbeat dialogue, and even some moral lessons appropriate for both kids and adults. She's one of my favorite authors and I was excited to bite into this new self-published work.
And well Illumniations has all of the above hallmarks of Vernon/Kingfisher's work, and probably works even better for the young crowd than her more recent middle-grade/YA works, but at the same time didn't really have the same spark for me as an adult reader as some of those other works. This time around we're following a girl Rosa from a family of artists who sell their magical art to people who want to use such art for its magical effects - like keeping away rats or cleaning drinking water. Naturally Rosa gets into trouble when she unleashes an old evil from a box who wants to destroy this art, and she finds herself running around trying to make up for that mistake with the help of a talking crow. It's an enjoyable setup, with enjoyable characters who don't always follow the usual script - Rosa's family is made up of artists who are oddballs who don't work together and whose rivals DO work together for instance, the opposite of how you'd normaly see this setup (and such rivalry is not actually tense or hateful, but friendly). At the same time, it really does feel far more like a children's book, so for older readers like myself it isn't going to stand out as much as those other middle-grade/YA works that really hit for all ages.
More after the jump:
----------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------
10 Year Old Rosa is bored. She knows and is proud of her family, the eccentric Studio Mandolini who serves as one of the studios that paint Illuminations, magical artwork that provides effects that the city and its people rely upon to have better lives (like keeping away rats, or cleaning drinking water, or something else). She even thinks that her family is the best Studio out there. But her own artwork just never quite comes to life as magic like her family's, and even if it did, making magic work consistently would require her to draw the same thing over and over and that would bore her even more.
So when Rosa discovers deep in her family's storage closet a box with a crow painted on it - a crow that magically seems to compel her to stay away, she resolves to find a way to get passed the crow and find out what's inside. But when she manages to accomplish that feat, she discovers she's unleashed two things: a living talking crow named Payne, and a small magical monster named the Scarling, who is determined to get revenge on her family by ruining all of their Illuminations.
It's up to Rosa to find a way to put the Scarling back in the box, and Payne insists she can't tell anyone about it, or bad things will happen. But with the Scarling ruining more and more of her family's works, and drawing negative attention to Rosa, will she be able to save the day before the Scarling's sabotage ruins something really important to the City?
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Illuminations in many ways follows some typical plot arcs for a children's or younger audience novel. Our protagonist is a ten year old who gets into trouble because she's bored and is surrounded by adults who don't have time to entertain her, even if she loves them (and vice versa). She opens a box she shouldn't that results in magical trouble getting out that she tries at first to find a way to fix on her own without the rest of her family finding out - this of course becomes impossible and causes more problems. And she's dealing with a friend from a rival family who is a bit older and who starts the book acting like she's too old for Rosa's silliness anymore. All of these things are elements that most readers will have anticipated in children's (and some adult's to be fair) media all the time.
But Illuminations subverts these expectations about as much as it plays them straight. Rosa's family is rivals to the other artist families only in a business sense, and has good friendly relations with the other artists; in fact, whereas normally the lesson of working together would come from the protagonist's family, here that lesson comes from OTHER families as Rosa's family is made up of eccentric oddballs (some of whom are on the spectrum almost certainly) who don't mesh evne as they love each other. Rosa tries keeping what's really happening to herself not because she wants to, but because the magical crow who she unleashes in the same box as the monster is certain that telling others will be bad - and that magical crow guide isn't some helpful guide Rosa ignores, but rather a being that makes his own mistakes as you might expect from a magical crow (he likes his shiny objects). And even Rosa's best friend Serena isn't really growing too old for Rosa or being selfish but is dealing with her own insecurities, boredom, and jealousies and becomes super helpful once the two of them realize that and have to deal with bigger problems.
In short, like a lot of Kingfisher younger age works, this is a story with a lot of supportive characters and basically no true evil antagonist, which understands both the importance and uniqueness of families - Rosa's family is different from Serena's family, but that's okay and totally normal, even if Rosa's family is different for being a bunch of oddballs. There's a struggle here with boredom which is again totally normal and a recognition in the plot that everyone has their own capabilities that work in their own way that are all equally valid, whether that is painting elaborate model-drawn murals or drawing cartoon fanged radishes. And the story once again has Kingfisher's often snappy and hilarious dialogue to go along with its enjoyable and real feeling characters, which will make the novel highly enjoyable for kids of younger ages - I talked a lot above about lessons, but this is not preachy as much as fun reading with underlying themes and morals.
Again like I said against the jump, the biggest issue with Illuminations isn't an issue at all, but a case of reader mismatch - Kingfisher's other younger age group reads had enough in them for older readers to really still appeal to them, especially in how creative they were with concepts like magical baking. Illuminations on the other hand doesn't really feel like that, it feels like something that could easily have been published under Vernon's real name (Hell, there's no violence here at all or death unlike some of those books). And well that's totally fine and I would happily give this book to say my 9 year old niece - it's just a different kind of book.
Illuminations in many ways follows some typical plot arcs for a children's or younger audience novel. Our protagonist is a ten year old who gets into trouble because she's bored and is surrounded by adults who don't have time to entertain her, even if she loves them (and vice versa). She opens a box she shouldn't that results in magical trouble getting out that she tries at first to find a way to fix on her own without the rest of her family finding out - this of course becomes impossible and causes more problems. And she's dealing with a friend from a rival family who is a bit older and who starts the book acting like she's too old for Rosa's silliness anymore. All of these things are elements that most readers will have anticipated in children's (and some adult's to be fair) media all the time.
But Illuminations subverts these expectations about as much as it plays them straight. Rosa's family is rivals to the other artist families only in a business sense, and has good friendly relations with the other artists; in fact, whereas normally the lesson of working together would come from the protagonist's family, here that lesson comes from OTHER families as Rosa's family is made up of eccentric oddballs (some of whom are on the spectrum almost certainly) who don't mesh evne as they love each other. Rosa tries keeping what's really happening to herself not because she wants to, but because the magical crow who she unleashes in the same box as the monster is certain that telling others will be bad - and that magical crow guide isn't some helpful guide Rosa ignores, but rather a being that makes his own mistakes as you might expect from a magical crow (he likes his shiny objects). And even Rosa's best friend Serena isn't really growing too old for Rosa or being selfish but is dealing with her own insecurities, boredom, and jealousies and becomes super helpful once the two of them realize that and have to deal with bigger problems.
In short, like a lot of Kingfisher younger age works, this is a story with a lot of supportive characters and basically no true evil antagonist, which understands both the importance and uniqueness of families - Rosa's family is different from Serena's family, but that's okay and totally normal, even if Rosa's family is different for being a bunch of oddballs. There's a struggle here with boredom which is again totally normal and a recognition in the plot that everyone has their own capabilities that work in their own way that are all equally valid, whether that is painting elaborate model-drawn murals or drawing cartoon fanged radishes. And the story once again has Kingfisher's often snappy and hilarious dialogue to go along with its enjoyable and real feeling characters, which will make the novel highly enjoyable for kids of younger ages - I talked a lot above about lessons, but this is not preachy as much as fun reading with underlying themes and morals.
Again like I said against the jump, the biggest issue with Illuminations isn't an issue at all, but a case of reader mismatch - Kingfisher's other younger age group reads had enough in them for older readers to really still appeal to them, especially in how creative they were with concepts like magical baking. Illuminations on the other hand doesn't really feel like that, it feels like something that could easily have been published under Vernon's real name (Hell, there's no violence here at all or death unlike some of those books). And well that's totally fine and I would happily give this book to say my 9 year old niece - it's just a different kind of book.
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