Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Sorry!


I know, I know, I haven't been on in forever. You know how summer is when you're a high schooler, all you want to do is laze about. XD

So here, I'll review a book. ^^

The Thirteenth Child was absolutely wonderful.

Now, this book takes place in the 1800's Frontier of America, a setting that I've found many times before to be dull for me. This book was anything but boring. Patricia Wrede spices thing up with saber tooth cats, wooly mammoths, steam dragons, sphinxes, and a plethora of creatures, magical and non, that kept me fully entertained.

Then there's Eff, the main character. She's patient and perhaps a bit timid due to her status as a thirteenth child, known for bad luck. While her brother, the seventh son of a seventh son, receives most of the praise and attention in the pair for his natural talent for magic that comes with his lucky birth.

Born with the stigma of being thirteenth, and considered bad luck, Eff considers their family's move to the frontier from the east to be a new start, one where no one has to know in which order she was born. There, the reader is able to watch her grow up and observe how her own viewpoints on herself and her magic change. More than anything, this book was one of her journey for self knowledge and her ability to use different forms of magic to become just as praised as her older brother.

Perhaps it is just me, but I found the book a bit slow at first. But as I went on, the story became more and more enthralling until I was hiding it behind my science textbook to read during class! I definitely recommend this. Ef is easy to like, and she's surrounded by a cast of marvelous characters who draw you in and snag you're attention. Although the book is a tad bit light on plot, focusing more on Eff's journey from childhood into adulthood, the story of the frontier and the struggles to protect its settlements from the animals I mentioned before is both engaging and entirely unique.