The Unexpected Words that move me

Some books I love from the moment I start them, others grow on me, so that by the end I love them.

I have four  absolutely-perfect-best-ever books, and Kate DiCamillo’s The Tale of Despereaux  is one. (I’ll try to talk about the others later.) My love for The Tale of Desperaux began at the very beginning, when the mother mouse declares, “All that work for nothing… It is so sad. It is such a disappointment.” She is a french mouse, and disappointed that her newly born son is alive. Oh my heart. Then she gives her son his name, “Despereaux, for all the sadness, for the many despairs of this place. Now where is my mirror?”

The book only got better from there. It was perfect. It was everything I ever wanted in a story, and more than that – it was everything I never realized I wanted.

I love to discover such unexpected words.

Mini review: Finn Fancy Necromancy

Finn Fancy Necromancy by Randy Henderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I did not know I needed more sasquashes in my life. I was enjoying the book plenty before, but when the sasquashes showed up, then it really got my attention.

I hope its not too much of a spoiler to mention them, because they are kind of a surprise early on, but the sequel has the name Bigfoot in it, so it can’t be too spoilery. There are all kinds of unexpected surprises in this book, in the descriptions, in the characters and the crazy things they get up to.

I tried to explain what the book was about to someone at work today, and it took me a moment to grasp its essence. It’s good, yeah, but what is it about? Well, it’s about a guy who was exiled to another realm and is now returning to our world 25 years later. (It’s our world, but with magic. Sometimes, I believe our world does have a kind of magic.)

Finn is a fish out of water in this modern world, with its fancy cellphones and thin computers and ‘google’ – which he assumes is a children’s game when his niece suggests he ‘google’ something. Poor Finn is two decades behind everyone. Cue some amusing ironic situations. Plus, someone’s trying to send him back into exile.

I only sorta grew up in the 80s -so, I’m just barely kinda familiar with 1980s pop and geek culture – but if I ever needed an expect, then Finn’s got me covered. From Goonies to Star Wars, Star Trek, Prince and Pac-Man, he makes such classic references.

The family dynamics feel real, and I like how the brothers are struggling to relate to each other after all this time, and how their mother’s ghost still lingers around the house. For all the fantasy, and the sasquashes, having the family drama and Finn’s love situation, makes the book easy to relate to.

In the beginning Finn suspects his brother is out to get him, and the big reveal about who the ultimate-arch-enemy is, doesn’t happen until the very very end, which I found frustrating. I wanted Finn to know who his enemy was sooner. It would have been more dramatic. But everything comes together in such a satisfying way at the end, that I was okay with it. Plus, so much fun happened getting to that point. Like when Elvis showed up.

But I won’t say anything more, because I don’t want to spoil that part.

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