The Language of Spells by Garret Weyr, Katie Harnett (Illustrator)
Expected Release: June 26th 2018
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Source: NetGalley
The Language of Spells Synopsis:
Grisha is a dragon in a world that’s forgotten how to see him. Maggie is a unusual child who thinks she’s perfectly ordinary. They’re an unlikely duo—but magic, like friendship, is funny. Sometimes it chooses those who might not look so likely. And magic has chosen Grisha and Maggie to solve the darkest mystery in Vienna. Decades ago, when World War II broke out, someone decided that there were too many dragons for all of them to be free. As they investigate, Grisha and Maggie ask the question everyone’s forgotten: Where have the missing dragons gone? And is there a way to save them? At once richly magical and tragically historical, The Language of Spells is a novel full of adventure about remembering old stories, forging new ones, and the transformative power of friendship.
Review:
A BIG Thank You to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for providing me a copy of “The Language of Spells″ by Garret Weyr in exchange for my review. Before I begin, I would like to say that I have read some of the other reviews for this book, where readers criticize it for not doing justice for WWII and Jewish people. I am not basing my rating on that aspect as I didn’t have these expectations when reading the story. Having said that, this book was a mixed bag for me. While I enjoyed some aspects of the story, I had a few problems reading it.
Let’s start off with the pros that stood out in the story. Firstly, I loved the plot and the concept, and actually enjoyed reading the first half of the book. It starts off as a fairy tale and talks about a magical world where dragons and men coexist. Secondly, I simply adored the main protagonists, Grisha and Maggie, and their unusual friendship. Some scenes were intriguing, like when Grisha turns into a teapot, not knowing what would happen next. Grisha also has some memorable moments like facing self-esteem issues because he feels that he hasn’t done anything worthwhile. I also enjoyed the special friendship that is formed between Maggie and Grisha. It’s very gradual and innocent and comes off as a true friendship between the two. Even the secondary characters like Yakov, and his daughters Ella and Rachel are very charming.
However, the second half of the book didn’t hold my interest as I hoped. Mainly, I found the villain of the book, Leopold Lashkovic, to be very boring. The authors give him a big buildup and make him scary and powerful. But, when Maggie comes face to face with him, he seems like such an old weakling who hardly has any powers. There is no closure given as to what happens to him either. Assuming that this is a standalone, it’s very frustrating when things are left open ended. Moreover, things run very smoothly for Grisha and Maggie on their quest and they hardly face any dangers. With a weak villain and the characters not facing any dilemmas, this was pretty much boring in the second half.
Furthermore, I felt that the pacing was haphazard towards the climax. The story is slow for the most part and suddenly rushes to a conclusion. It felt like the characters are aimlessly wandering, and just stumbled upon clues that magically solved all their problems. I also had trouble with the concept of who could see dragons and who couldn’t. For example, when they go to see Ella and Rachel, Ella can see Grisha but Rachel cannot. However, when they go to London, how can nobody see Grisha except Maggie? This didn’t make sense and I dad trouble connecting to the story-line. I feel like the authors had a great idea going but didn’t know how to steer the story and patched it in places to conclude it.
Katie Harnett has provided nice illustrations, but they are a bit rough on the eyes. As I have read the advanced copy, I hope the illustrations are cleaned up in the final version, and makes the book stand out. Overall, this was a good attempt to try something different but it didn’t have the impact on me as I imagined it would. I rate “The Language of Spells” 3/5 stars.
