Our story began on a frosty night…Laylee can barely remember the happier times before her beloved mother died. Before her father, driven by grief, lost his wits (and his way) and she was left as the sole remaining moordeshoor in the village of Whichwood, destined to spend her days scrubbing the skins and souls of the dead in preparation for the afterlife. It’s become easy to forget and easier still to ignore not only her ever-increasing loneliness, but the way her overworked hands are stiffening and turning silver, like her hair. But soon, a pair of familiar strangers appear, and Laylee’s world is turned upside down as she rediscovers color, magic, and the healing power of friendship. Lush and enchanting, critically acclaimed author Tahereh Mafi weaves a magical adventure in this dark, Persian fantasy, a companion to the bestselling Furthermore.
So!
This book is a DNF for me (did not finish).
It’s not because this was a horrible book. Believe me, the idea is interesting and I wanted to read more, but I couldn’t find the motivation to dive back in and immerse myself in the story. Before I tell you why, though, let me tell you what I loved about the ~100 pages that I read (out of 360 pages, so I didn’t quit in the very beginning of the book).
I loved the whimsy, fantastical nature of the book. The worldbuilding was beautiful and I wanted to learn more about each of the other villages mentioned in the book.
Laylee had a distinct personality that I greatly enjoyed. She was sulky, lonely, exhausted, but determined to do her job. She was used to being alone, especially once her parents went their separate ways, and didn’t like asking for help even though she needed it. Even when Alice and Oliver entered, she didn’t look at them as rays of hope, she looked at them as if they were a problem.
The cover of the novel was gorgeous. Full of color, beautiful art, winter colors, and subtle details that I’m still noticing now. Though the cover is a bit cluttered, the clutter makes sense and doesn’t detract from the novel. Not only that, but the focal point is very obvious, as Laylee and her outfit do not blend into the background.
For my dislikes, I think that it was more of the pacing and Tahereh Mafi’s writing style for this novel that kept me uninterested in continuing. I enjoyed her novel Shatter Me, but the way that she wrote this novel was completely different from the aforementioned novel. In Shatter Me, it was almost stream of conscious, which was intriguing and found me ready to read the next book (of which I don’t own yet.).
Whichwood was very reminiscent of live-action children’s movies where the narrator is very involved and has a distinct personality. While I liked parts of that, I found it mildly irritating. It added too much exposition and, while I like exposition, what was explained didn’t make me care more for the book at all and just slowed down the action.
The book was slow. Nearly one hundred pages in and while I knew a little about Laylee, there wasn’t enough in the book to keep me going. Alice and Oliver, the two characters that entered the book early on, didn’t feel as fleshed out for me and even though they added a bit of conflict, I didn’t care for them at all.
So I didn’t hate this book, I just didn’t like how slow it moved. That, in turn, made me uninterested and ready to get to the action, which hadn’t started at the time that I stopped reading. And I was a bit disappointed because Shatter Me was intriguing and I wanted to see more of what she’s done. The best thing about her writing style, to me, is that she’s versatile and it shows.
If you love whimsical middle-grade novels, then this might be perfect for you or anyone else who likes things like this.
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