Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi
Series: N/A
Published by Dutton Books for Young Readers on August 30, 2016
Genres: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Pages: 393 : ARC edition
Source: Received through on #booksfortrade on Twitter
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There are only three things that matter to twelve-year-old Alice Alexis Queensmeadow: Mother, who wouldn’t miss her; magic and color, which seem to elude her; and Father, who always loved her. The day Father disappears from Ferenwood he takes nothing but a ruler with him. But it’s been almost three years since then, and Alice is determined to find him. She loves her father even more than she loves adventure, and she’s about to embark on one to find the other.
But bringing Father home is no small matter. In order to find him she’ll have to travel through the mythical, dangerous land of Furthermore, where down can be up, paper is alive, and left can be both right and very, very wrong. Her only companion is a boy named Oliver whose own magical ability is based in lies and deceit—and with a liar by her side in land where nothing is as it seems, it will take all of Alice’s wits (and every limb she’s got) to find Father and return home to Ferenwood in one piece. On her quest to find Father Alice must first find herself—and hold fast to the magic of love in the face of loss.
If the story of Alice in Wonderland and the Inkheart trilogy got together and had a child, it would be this book.
That being said, I absolutely can not stand the story of Alice in Wonderland (something about it REALLY creeps me out, and always has) and it slightly pains me to even bring up the Inkheart trilogy because I hold that series so near and dear to me.
That’s me holding Inkheart. Not Furthermore.
So let’s just get it all out in the open. I didn’t like Furthermore. I thought the plot was…fine, nothing extremely original, and the characters talked like they were either really prim British people, or were way too old for their ages. The writing was so pretentious that at times I skipped over paragraphs full of descriptions because I really didn’t need to know the exact color and shape of ever flower that our main character, Alice, was seeing.
That being said, I do think that the magic idea of the plot and how it was implemented was pretty cool. Though the whole thing felt a bit rushed and I was constantly caught in this whirlwind, wondering what the hell was actually going on. Maybe I’m just getting too old for children stories (that’s a depressing thought)?
I had to read the ending twice to make sure I got what had happened because it was all resolved in about ten pages. TEN PAGES for a 400 page book. So while we are left with pages and pages of descriptions, there was also an extremely rushed ending that had me putting down the book and realizing I probably won’t pick it up ever again.
It does have a gorgeous cover though. I will give the publishers credit for that.
And I do have to admit that this is my first Mafi book that I’ve ever read, but that just makes me even more hesitant to try her Shatter Me series if the writing is going to be similar. And not in a good way.
What do you think? Are you still going to try this one? Have you already read it? Tell me your thoughts!
Giveaway!
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Ha! You are going to love the Shatter Me series! I mean, if you love pretentious writing, that is! I read all three books because I had to finish it but the writing was really pretentious and odd (I know a lot of readers love this sort of thing) that it took out all the fun out of reading the book. Plus ehemm yeah, I hated THAT part of the trilogy. Ugh!
I was intrigued by Furthermore, though. Mostly because of the gorgeous cover. But now, I’m really not so sure anymore. Sigh*
Ohh that’s disappointing, but oh well, I can’t say I’m surprised because I believe the hype surrounding this book came mainly from people falling in love with the cover haha
Kidding aside, I hate a rushed ending, so I’ll be skipping this one. Thanks for the honest review 😉