fantasy | Lost in a Good Book

Wundersmith (#2) by Jessica Townsend

05 Aug 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, Audiobook, Australian Women Writers, Junior Fiction, Young Adult Tags: Audiobook, aussie, aussie books, australian women writers challenge, fantasy, five stars, gemma whelan, jessica townsend, junior fiction

Published: 30 October 2018 (print)/26 November 2018 (audio)
Publisher: Lothian Children’s Books/Hachette Australia
Pages: 467/11 hrs and 50 mins
Narrator: Gemma Whelan
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Junior Fiction Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

Wunder is gathering in Nevermoor …

Morrigan Crow may have defeated her deadly curse, passed the dangerous trials and joined the mystical Wundrous Society, but her journey into Nevermoor and all its secrets has only just begun. And she is fast learning that not all magic is used for good.

Morrigan Crow has been invited to join the prestigious Wundrous Society, a place that promised her friendship, protection and belonging for life. She’s hoping for an education full of wunder, imagination and discovery – but all the Society want to teach her is how evil Wundersmiths are. And someone is blackmailing Morrigan’s unit, turning her last few loyal friends against her. Has Morrigan escaped from being the cursed child of Wintersea only to become the most hated figure in Nevermoor?

Worst of all, people have started to go missing. The fantastical city of Nevermoor, once a place of magic and safety, is now riddled with fear and suspicion…

I loved Nevermoor and Wundersmith exceeds it by being even more amazing. I loved seeing Morrigan’s growth as a person, in her abilities and this new world she has become a part of. The same fun and flighty characters are there but in new ways as more of the world and school is explored. Not to mention as new dangers arise.

There is a darker theme running under the story, but with this strange world Morrigan’s in there was always the capacity for darkness given we start off the series with her having a curse. It’s a dangerous world and seeing Morrigan try to understand it and navigate it is wonderful.

Jupiter is always a brilliant character, his erratic nature is balanced by his desire to protect Morrigan, but per usual he always knows more than he lets on and isn’t as flighty as he appears. There’s new and returning characters to fall in love with and the different knacks of the other people in Morrigan’s unit are creative and it shows that everyone’s abilities are diverse but can always have a use.

The lead up to the ending was absolutely divine. It brings together so much and plays out so brilliantly it was hard not to admire this book for those moments alone. I am so keen to see where Townsend is taking Morrigan’s story because I’m certainly hooked so far.

You can purchase Wundersmith via the following

QBD | Dymocks | Booktopia

Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

In an Absent Dream (#4) by Seanan McGuire

22 May 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Audiobook, Fantasy, Fiction, Novella, Wayward Children Tags: Audiobook, cynthia hopkins, fantasy, four stars, novella, seanan mcguire, Wayward Children

Published: 8 January 2019 (print)/8 January 2019 (audio)
Publisher: Tordotcom/Macmillan Audio
Pages: 204/4 hrs and 57 mins
Narrator: Cynthia Hopkins
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

This fourth entry and prequel tells the story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should.

When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she’s found her paradise. Alas, everything costs at the goblin market, and when her time there is drawing to a close, she makes the kind of bargain that never plays out well.

I love the pattern of a group book, a solo origin story, another group book, and then another solo origin. It breaks up the main story, and gives the characters a chance at their own history without needing it threaded into the main plot, either successfully or unsuccessfully. Giving them space to have a book to themselves is amazing and I love McGuire’s respect to these characters. That isn’t to say some characters have their history interwoven, but these feel like extra special origins we need to give special attention to.

Lundy is a character we have of course met before, but now we get to see her story. How she found her door, how she ended up at the Wayward School with Eleanor West.

From the dark world of Jaq, to Nancy’s world, and the sugary nonsense of Confection, Lundy comes from a world of logic and reason, but also debts and bargains. I loved the Goblin Market and I loved the variation on everything having a price in the form of fair value. While Lundy gets it to work for her, there is also a reason she is no longer in her perfect world and seeing her adventure was fascinating. It is mystical but somehow also more suited into the real world in a way, especially compared to the other worlds we’ve seen.

There is a tragic past in Lundy’s story and I loved how intricate McGuire’s imagination is to create something so logical to the point of absurdity. It’s fascinating and I loved Lundy’s navigation of this world.

Like the other origin stories you can read it as a standalone, and could also skip it, but it is a great insight into a character we’ve met and tells their story and role in the Wayward world.

You can purchase In an Absent Dream via the following

QBD | Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Beneath the Sugar Sky (#3) by Seanan McGuire

04 Mar 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Audiobook, Fantasy, Fiction, Novella Tags: Audiobook, fantasy, fiction, four stars, michelle dockrey, novella, seanan mcguire, Wayward Children

Published: 9 January 2018 (print)/9 January 2018 (audio)
Publisher: tor.com/Macmillan Audio
Pages: 174/4 hrs and 11 mins
Narrator: Michelle Dockrey
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest – not when she has an entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.) If she can’t find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is well-acquainted with quests…

A tale of friendship, baking, and derring-do. Warning: May contain nuts.

I love how we get introduced to characters in book one, and then as the series progresses we get their own individual stories, but scattered in between the original story arc keeps going as well. It is incredibly clever, and all the while revealing more about the rules of the worlds and the understanding of the system.

With the second book devoted to Jack and Jill’s story I was curious to see if the next book would pick another character we’d met and show their origins but I was delightfully surprised. We are back in the school as Rini literally lands at their door on a mission to save her mother, a character who died in book one.

This is why McGuire’s books are so fantastic, her rules on Logic and Nonsense, not to mention life and death are fascinating and primed for storytelling when put in the right hands. The nonsensical world works well with the nonsensical mission. Rini is as wild as her mother and the random nature of events only support the irregular world she’s come from.

I was delighted we got to revisit Nancy, especially in her own element, and it was great seeing characters deal with different land so unlike their own or their desired places. Given the world of Confection is a sugary light-hearted delight, there isn’t a lot of darkness or heavy themes, even with Rini’s possible demise. That isn’t to say there aren’t some wonderful things explored like understanding other people’s experiences and tolerance, but it is a much lighter story. Coming from Down Among the Sticks and Bones having something so sugary and nonsensical was probably the best call, and it is certainly a great reminder of the variety of doors and alignments people can be.

What makes these books so fantastic is they are relatively short reads but McGuire packs so much amazing story into so few pages. It’s truly a gift to be able have such real and complicated characters with such an involved plot and world while still keeping the page count short.

You can purchase Beneath the Sugar Sky via the following

Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

27 Feb 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, Audiobook, Fantasy, LGBTQIA, Wayward Children Tags: Audiobook, fantasy, five stars, lgbt, LGBTQIA, seanan mcguire, Wayward Children

Published: 24 March 2015 (print)/ 13 June 2017 (audio)
Publisher: Macmillan Australia/Macmillan Audio
Pages: 187/4 hrs and 4 mins
Narrator: Seanan McGuire
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

Twin sisters Jack and Jill were seventeen when they found their way home and were packed off to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.

This is the story of what happened first…

Jacqueline was her mother’s perfect daughter—polite and quiet, always dressed as a princess. If her mother was sometimes a little strict, it’s because crafting the perfect daughter takes discipline.

Jillian was her father’s perfect daughter—adventurous, thrill-seeking, and a bit of a tom-boy. He really would have preferred a son, but you work with what you’ve got.

They were five when they learned that grown-ups can’t be trusted.

They were twelve when they walked down the impossible staircase and discovered that the pretense of love can never be enough to prepare you a life filled with magic in a land filled with mad scientists and death and choices.

I adored Jack and Jill in book one so seeing them have their own origin book was delightful. This dark story is probably a smidge horror, a bit gothic. Elements of stories like Jekyll and Hyde, Frankenstein, and those from Poe are evident, the dark science and magic combination and testing the realm of possibility. I was surprised I loved it so much given the slight gross moments and how much I hate horror, but the writing is captivating and you’re drawn in by the moors and the politics of those who live there.

From the discovery of their door and their journey into the strange land I loved every second of this book. I adored the eerie feel this story envelops you in right away. The moors are dangerous and fascinating places and seeing the twins find their place among the monsters was wonderful. I loved the darkness and the way McGuire doesn’t make it a bad thing, it’s good to have morbidity in a story, especially with how she’s established the types of people and where their true selves lie in the first book.

The best part is we know where Jack and Jill end up, we know they leave their land. So between devouring their story and seeing them blossom on the moors, you’re also keen to see how they could possibly ever leave a land so perfectly suited to them. Seeing Jack become her true self was divine and I loved their escape from their parents and how they were being moulded into what each parent wanted.

Having the knowledge of book one behind you, it is a bittersweet read too knowing what happens and seeing signs and the strain it places on the sisters, especially given how long they got to be in their world. If it’s a bit too dark you probably could skip it, but it’s a beautiful exploration of the way the doors work and an example of the various worlds that I can’t imagine ever not experiencing it, even with the tiny horror factor. It’s also a gorgeous story of falling in love and what it means to be alive and discovering the beauty of the world.

You can purchase Down Among the Sticks and Bones via the following

Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Equal Rites (#3) by Terry Pratchett

17 Sep 2024 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars, Audiobook, Fantasy Tags: Audiobook, bill nighy, discworld, fantasy, indira varma, peter serafinowiez, terry pratchett, three stars

Published: 15 January 1987 (print)/28 April 2022 (audio)
Publisher: Corgi Press/Penguin Audio
Pages: 240/7 hrs and 50 mins
Narrator: Indira Varma, Peter Serafinowicz, Bill Nighy
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

The last thing the wizard Drum Billet did, before Death laid a bony hand on his shoulder, was to pass on his staff of power to the eighth son of an eighth son. Unfortunately for his colleagues in the chauvinistic (not to say misogynistic) world of magic, he failed to check on the newborn baby’s sex…

I love Pratchett’s writing style. It’s a lot like Douglas Adams, even a lot like Michael Ende. It’s serious, has important messages, but is absurd and quirky, funny but also has heart. It’s no wonder he’s so revered.

Equal Rites is third book in the Discworld series and is a refreshing tone form the first two which was good but a bit dull.

The miscalculations of giving the 8^th son of an 8^th son wizard magic, when the baby turns out to be a daughter instead is the initial plot problem. Rules are rules is a great way to deal with this, and I loved the journey Esk, Granny Weatherwax and other characters go on dealing with this fact.

There’s a great introduction to the wizarding world, as well as the overall Discworld which was fascinating to discover. The different regions of the world means there’s always something new to learn and different communities to explore.

I loved how much importance Pratchett places on witches and the good they do in the community to help people, while also acknowledging that belief in the magic of witches goes a lot of the way to believing a herb concoction will cure you through magic and not basic science. And believing something will cure you often will.

Celia Emery is the fabulous audiobook narrator and she brings Esq and Granny to life, her great narration style making Pratchett’s words vivid and lively. I always wondered how the footnotes would work in audio form but there’s wizards in our world too and the subtle little differences in tone, voice, and music let you know when a side bit of information has popped up, never once disrupting the flow of the story.

I really loved Granny Weatherwax and her teachings to Esk, the good and the strict. There is a powerful message through this whole book that despite its age is still very Girl Power and feministic. It isn’t enough to overshadow the phenomenal fantasy story, but enough push back to make you realise yes why are these the rules, and of course this is stupid. Which coming from a Pratchett book set ibn Discworld where a lot of this can be silly and intentionally ludicrous, it was refreshing to see a push back against the more serious stupidity. Of course it ends just as silly as it should, but those sprinklings of moments that make you think are a great inclusion.

With a few more well-known Discworld characters introduced in this book I look forward to continuing my journey through the series and getting to know them all better.

You can purchase Equal Rites via the following

QBD | Dymocks

Wordery | Blackwell’s

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible