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conulyI read Witchlings by Claribel A. Ortega and The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat.
So, Witchings first - it's lacking as a book, mostly due to the thorough lack of worldbuilding. I got the impression that the author didn't really think about how the world works at all, which means it doesn't work, and in ways I think even the intended audience will note.
The plot depends on us believing that their cosmic sorting hat (don't ask me why there are different covens or what they do or how personality comes into it at all, because these and other questions will never be answered) deliberately refuses to sort anything other than exactly five kids per coven per year, and the remainder are doomed to be permanently discriminated against due to their poor luck in being unsorted "Spares" - because if you have a group of less than five you're less powerful, but more than five would make some groups more powerful than others.
Question: What if the population of twelve year olds has a remainder exceeding five? Does that mean the "Spares" that year would be collectively more powerful than any group of their same-age peers? What if the population is less than the number of covens x 5? Does one coven not get any new members? Do people ever move around to maximize their kid's chance of not ending up a reject?
Don't ask these questions either.
Also, the town populations are entirely too small to support the infrastructure shown, which... doesn't help. "Spares" aren't a religious or ethnic minority. They're fully integrated into the surrounding community until puberty. And it's not like LGBTQ+ people either - they make up a much larger percentage of the population, while also being totally unable to pass as normal after the age of twelve. I suppose it's possible that every town is just a-okay with the collective abuse of 15% of their former classmates or their own children and siblings... but really? Again: The population is *really small*. All these people know each other *really well*, because they live in a small number of small towns.
But sure, I buy it. Okay. So... apparently all the Spares are not sufficiently fed up to say "Screw it, I'm gonna start my own town somewhere else" or, alternatively, go live in the non-magical world that is just suddenly exposited in the middle of the book for no reason. Seriously, other than three random paragraphs sprinkled through the second half of the book there is no reason to think that they don't exist in an all-magic world. So why mention it at all?
Lack of coherent worldbuilding, that's why. Plus, the author clearly read Harry Potter. Well, so did I, which is why if I ever write a book I intend to not replicate JKR's mistakes but instead make new ones of my very own. I will have worldbuilding! My numbers will make sense! And no sorting, because that's ridiculous and also much too obvious, even if I wanted to do an homage, which I really wouldn't.
The Last Mapmaker is a vastly superior book which avoids all those mistakes. The worldbuilding exists, and is interesting AND coherent. The prejudice that main character experience actually makes sense - well, inasmuch as prejudice ever makes sense, but you know what I mean. The plot twists are properly foreshadowed.
No, my only complaint here is that at some point the author clearly looked at her wordcount, said "Welp, time to wrap this up!" and crammed what ought to have been another four chapters into what amounts to an extended afterword. Not only does this mean she recaps over a lot of the action and character development, but also some of the social development is implied to move a heck of a lot faster in real world time than, even optimistically, it would. Changes that would take at least one generation seem to have happened in just a year or two.
But this is a kid's book, so maybe we want to leave them on a happier ending than they can actually expect.
So, Witchings first - it's lacking as a book, mostly due to the thorough lack of worldbuilding. I got the impression that the author didn't really think about how the world works at all, which means it doesn't work, and in ways I think even the intended audience will note.
The plot depends on us believing that their cosmic sorting hat (don't ask me why there are different covens or what they do or how personality comes into it at all, because these and other questions will never be answered) deliberately refuses to sort anything other than exactly five kids per coven per year, and the remainder are doomed to be permanently discriminated against due to their poor luck in being unsorted "Spares" - because if you have a group of less than five you're less powerful, but more than five would make some groups more powerful than others.
Question: What if the population of twelve year olds has a remainder exceeding five? Does that mean the "Spares" that year would be collectively more powerful than any group of their same-age peers? What if the population is less than the number of covens x 5? Does one coven not get any new members? Do people ever move around to maximize their kid's chance of not ending up a reject?
Don't ask these questions either.
Also, the town populations are entirely too small to support the infrastructure shown, which... doesn't help. "Spares" aren't a religious or ethnic minority. They're fully integrated into the surrounding community until puberty. And it's not like LGBTQ+ people either - they make up a much larger percentage of the population, while also being totally unable to pass as normal after the age of twelve. I suppose it's possible that every town is just a-okay with the collective abuse of 15% of their former classmates or their own children and siblings... but really? Again: The population is *really small*. All these people know each other *really well*, because they live in a small number of small towns.
But sure, I buy it. Okay. So... apparently all the Spares are not sufficiently fed up to say "Screw it, I'm gonna start my own town somewhere else" or, alternatively, go live in the non-magical world that is just suddenly exposited in the middle of the book for no reason. Seriously, other than three random paragraphs sprinkled through the second half of the book there is no reason to think that they don't exist in an all-magic world. So why mention it at all?
Lack of coherent worldbuilding, that's why. Plus, the author clearly read Harry Potter. Well, so did I, which is why if I ever write a book I intend to not replicate JKR's mistakes but instead make new ones of my very own. I will have worldbuilding! My numbers will make sense! And no sorting, because that's ridiculous and also much too obvious, even if I wanted to do an homage, which I really wouldn't.
The Last Mapmaker is a vastly superior book which avoids all those mistakes. The worldbuilding exists, and is interesting AND coherent. The prejudice that main character experience actually makes sense - well, inasmuch as prejudice ever makes sense, but you know what I mean. The plot twists are properly foreshadowed.
No, my only complaint here is that at some point the author clearly looked at her wordcount, said "Welp, time to wrap this up!" and crammed what ought to have been another four chapters into what amounts to an extended afterword. Not only does this mean she recaps over a lot of the action and character development, but also some of the social development is implied to move a heck of a lot faster in real world time than, even optimistically, it would. Changes that would take at least one generation seem to have happened in just a year or two.
But this is a kid's book, so maybe we want to leave them on a happier ending than they can actually expect.
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Date: 2022-09-26 04:36 am (UTC)This week I read a pretty good middle grade book: Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, by Xiran Jay Zhao. Twelve-year-old Chinese American videogaming kid and (distant descendant of China's first emperor) gets involved in a plot to save the mortal realm (and China) with two other kids, who are possessed by the spirits of two other emperors. Lots of Chinese myth and magic and spirits and ancient Chinese history. In the acknowledgements, the author refers to it as a "bonkers book", but it's bonkers in some very excellent ways. Maybe add it to your TBR list?
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Date: 2022-09-26 04:48 am (UTC)