Irving Wishbutton and the Questing Academy by Brian Clopper
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really, really, REALLY enjoyed this book… until I got to the end and realized it was a cliffhanger and there was no resolution. It was SO GOOD. Now, I’m super upset & here’s why…

Plot: What a unique and fascinating story premise: a school for W.I.P. characters. Sure, the boarding school idea has been used plenty of times (H.P. anyone?), but that’s pretty much the only obvious similarity. The rest is (for me, at least) refreshing and exciting and believable and new.

Characters: I loved Irving- really. I loved seeing him develop as his writer tries to create Irving’s story. He’s supposed to be a hero but he’s kind of a putz and only accidentally does he occasionally do something heroic/get things “right”. He’s flawed, but hey, that’s cause he’s not fully developed yet; just like the rest of the characters at the Questing Academy… clever really, of the Real Author (Clopper) to have this “excuse” for flawed and/or under-developed characters. I personally think it’s genius and wish I’d thought of it.

The Writing: Switches from 3rd person POV (Irving’s author, present-day, real-world with real-world situations that inspire his creative experience) and 1st person POV (Irving Wishbutton, a student newly arrived at the “mysterious” Questing Academy) seamlessly and reads like butter. Writing style alone would merit 5 stars.

In Case You Wanted to Know: There’s nothing extreme or unfriendly in this book that needs any forewarning, with the one exception THAT THE ONLY (SUB) PLOT RESOLVED is Irving getting fleshed out!!! Everything else you “think” you’ll get an answer to- you don’t. Sorry, that should’ve come with a “spoiler alert”, but see how mad you are now? Glad I could share my ire.

Overall: 50-100 more pages and this book would’ve gone from exposition/world building to an actual finished product. But, at 290 pages, all of the beautiful & imaginative details of Irving’s world are for nothing because I’m too disappointed at being left hanging to even bother reading the next three books in the series, regardless of how much I LOVED the whole damn thing up 'til the “end”.


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Intangible by C.A. Gray
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was an enjoyable read from beginning to end. I’m a sucker for stories that give nods to other stories/worlds that I love, but unfortunately for this book, too many nods took away from me rating it higher than a three.

Plot: Okay, with no spoilers, let’s just say that plot-wise--- totally believable, in the way that Harry Potter/Narnia, etc. are believable. In fact, although this story isn’t “exactly” a cookie-cutter version of those series, there are plenty of eh-hem “stolen” elements that made this book fun & interesting and easy to read/follow, but also easy to predict and definitely cliché.

Characters: So, you know how I just mentioned this book’s similarities to other well-known/loved series? Yeah, the biggest, most-glaring-est nod is the characters’ names. The M.C. is Peter, his friend is Lily (side note: I’m kinda over girls in books being named Lily at this point, personally. But who am I to judge? I really wish authors would stop this. There are a million other nice female names, JS). There’s also a Polly and a Eustace, and a ghostly thing whose name and persona reminds me of Mundungus Fletcher. There are character arcs here, some more extreme than others; and although I wouldn’t use the phrase “strong character development” to describe these characters, I would at least say each one was unique and distinguishable, enough.

The Writing: The story is written in 3rd person POV, mostly from Peter’s perspective. I didn’t notice too many errors/mistakes, so that was nice. The style & flow of this author made the book readable in one sitting.

In Case You Wanted to Know: As a YA novel, there weren’t any aspects of this book that’d warrant any kind of warning label; I would, however, like to say that although these kids are in high school and subjects like chemistry & physics are portrayed in some detail, the actual story-- plot-wise/overall theme/tone is and feels more Juvenile than Y.A., IMO. The author did an excellent job of mashing together so many stories. She even managed to include the King Arthur Legends making (it) a huge part of the back story. I also (honestly) liked her magical take on science because really--- isn’t that all magic is; science that hasn’t been understood yet?

Overall: The storyline/premise was great. The world-building and writing were enjoyable. I finished the book wanting to read more. This review comes after having read it a second time since I honestly remember very little from reading it only about 5 months ago. I did remember however from my first read-through noting how much this book combined a bunch of well-known/loved series (H.P., Narnia, His Dark Materials), and I remember getting the impression that the author tried too hard to produce an epic classic. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy reading the story, but the lack of originality left me feeling (twice now) like I’d read a sort of fan fiction. Regardless, I would still recommend this book to anyone who needs more of “that type” of book--- like a celebrity’s favorite cousin, Intangible fits right in.

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