Book Review: The Language of Ghosts by Heather Fawcett
The Details
Media Type: Kindle Book
Title: The Language of Ghosts
Author(s): Heather Fawcett
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Pages/Length: Hardcover, 356
Release Date: September 8, 2020
Source: Publisher
Add it on: Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop
Forced into exile on an enchanted, moving island, ex-princess Noa Marchena has two missions: reclaim her family’s stolen throne and ensure that the dark powers her older brother, Julian, possesses don’t go to his head in the process. But between babysitting her annoying little sister, Mite, and keeping an eye on the cake-loving sea monster that guards the moving island, Noa has her hands full.
When the siblings learn that their enemies are searching for a weapon capable of defeating Julian—whose legendary spell weaving is feared throughout the kingdom—once and for all, they vow to get to it first. To everyone’s surprise, the key to victory turns out to be a long-lost magical language.
But what if by helping her brother, Noa ends up losing him?
The Review
This was actually my second attempt at this book. The first time around I wasn’t in the right headspace to appreciate Noa and her siblings, and so I set it aside for later reading. Fast forward to this year, and I was so in the mood for some middle grade shenanigans! I picked this story back up, and dove straight in. If you’re new to my blog, I should premise this review with the fact that I truly love Middle Grade books. In fact, I feel like there are so many gems here that people generally miss out on because they go straight into the YA realm. So it should come as no surprise that I had pretty high expectations for this Fantasy realm and its quirky characters.
First off, big kudos to Heather Fawcett for the wonderful world that she has created here. While Noa’s reason for fleeing to her moving island home is a tragic one, the picture that Fawcett paints of Noa’s new home is just magical. A crumbling castle. Invisible cats. A sea serpent! What’s not to love? Despite its faults, Noa finds her new home rather charming and that pulled me right in too. Add in a stellar, easy to understand magic system and you have my heart. This is absolutely a story that younger me would have loved, and I enjoyed it even now.
Similarly, I thought that the big focus on family in this story was really lovely. Julian isn’t the easiest big brother to take care of. As a mage of vast power, with a fiery temper as large as his talent, Noa has her hands full trying to keep him from getting himself into trouble. However her love for him just shines off the page. Noa’s constant worry that her big brother will go “bad” is so understandable, and downright sweet. The lengths that she’ll go to in order to make sure he stays on the right path made me smile. I also loved how much Noa’s affection for her littlest sibling, Mite, radiated off the page. We all know our younger siblings can drive us nuts. Mite is no exception, and it was so giggle worthy and realistic to watch their banter. There was love there too though, and I ate it up.
Now to the part that I had a bit of trouble with. While I loved a lot about this story, there were a few parts that just didn’t hit for me. Noa is a bit hard to handle as a narrator at times. I fully understood that she was a young teen, and so I took a lot of what she said and did with a grain of salt. Still, there were portions of the story where it felt like she was just being stubborn to further the plot, and not like it was an intentional aspect of her character. Same goes for the constant miscommunication between the siblings. Do I love that Fawcett showed that siblings do indeed argue, sometimes constantly? Absolutely! I also loved they were able to grow, learn and make up at some point. The frustrating part was that a lot of their arguments felt wholly manufactured as a way to generate drama. Add in a few frustrating plot holes, and I was admittedly a bit frustrated at times.
I think that the ending definitely rounded things out, and did the book justice! Books like The Language of Ghosts always make me smile because they show the beauty of family togetherness and perseverance. That’s ultimately why I settled on a solid three-star rating. While this wasn’t my favorite book of the year, I did indeed enjoy it! I’ll be adding more of Fawcett’s writing to my TBR this year!
