Warning: This review contains spoilers for anyone who has not read the first book in the series.
Morrigan Crow spent most of her life knowing that she was going to die on her twelfth eveningtide. After being saved by the charismatic Jupiter North, being whisked away to the whimsical city of Nevermoor, and enduring difficult trials to gain access to the Wundrous Society, Morrigan is ready to start her new life. Finding out that she is actually a Wundersmith should have brought her a new sense of self, but she must keep her abilities a secret, creating conflict among her and her fellow society members. But when people start disappearing, Morrigan must use her newfound skills as a Wundersmith to figure out how to save them and stop the Ghastly Market.
Just as the first book did, this book drew me into a fantastical world filled with so many wunderous things and I loved every minute of it. The writing style allows the imagination to jump right into Nevermoor and explore alongside Morrigan, Hawthorne, and the rest of the Hotel Deucalion crew. This book did nothing to deter my desire to jump into the book and explore the Hotel Deucalion myself, the building with a personality. Since jumping into this world isn’t quite possible, this series will have to be the next best thing. This book takes a look at more of the actual city of Nevermoor. I was entranced with all of the different alleys, festivals, and every location that the friends got to visit.
It was also wonderful to see a glimpse inside the infamous WunSoc. The introduction of Miss Cheery and Morrigan’s classmates added even more flavor to the book. It was interesting to watch as Morrigan grew and changed with the others. Morrigan’s classmates had to go through quite a transformation given that they began the book being blackmailed into keeping her secret. Every interaction that Morrigan had with the other students helped develop the story in some way. It was well paced enough that although some passages were slower than others, it was never boring.
While Jupiter North remains my favorite character in the novels, it was slightly annoying that he was less involved in this novel than the previous one. The lack of sharing information between Morrigan and Jupiter was maddening at times. I appreciated though that the lack of communication was due more to a lack of time together rather than the most annoying of all tropes, miscommunication. I think the one misstep of this novel is that the relationship between Morrigan and her sponsor did not grow much. There was never a moment where I thought “wow! What a breakthrough!”.
Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow deals with some heavy topics. The author manages to do this in a way that is meaningful for many different age groups without losing the fun and whimsy of the world. I said this about the first book, and I’ll say it again here, I appreciate that I never felt that the author was talking down to the reader. She understands that, while the book is a middle grade book, children can comprehend more than some adults are willing to admit.
5/5 stars and recognition as my favorite book in this series!
The Novel Llama 