Review: Beast of Stone

Beast of Stone (Wing & Claw #3) by Linda Sue Park, illustrated by James Masden.
Harper, HarperCollins, New York, 2018, my edition 2019.
MG fantasy, 360 pages.
Lexile: 700L .
AR Level: 5.3 (worth 9.0 points) .
NOTE: This review will contain spoilers for previous books in the series.

Raffa finds himself imprisoned and separated from his friends – even worse, his parents are frustratingly close but in danger. Feeling alone except for his beloved bat friend, Raffa wonders how he could possibly escape in time to prevent the Chancellor from using botanicals and wild animals to attack the people of Obsidian, let alone figure out why she’s doing such evil deeds.

Beast of Stone by Linda Sue Park.

Linda Sue Park sets the standard high for what a fantasy trilogy should be. The first book was very good, the second stronger than most mid-series installments. I didn’t love that Cavern of Secrets ended with a cliffhanger, but after reading this book I can understand why Park ended at that point.

Review: Cavern of Secrets

Cavern of Secrets (Wing and Claw #2) by Linda Sue Park, illustrated by James Madsen.
Harper, HarperCollins, New York, 2017.
MG fantasy, 312 pages + excerpt.
Lexile:  700L .
AR Level: 5.3 (worth 8.0) .
NOTE: This review will contain spoilers for the previous book in the series.

Having narrowly survived the adventures of the last book, Raffa and his human and animal friends now have important decisions to make about what to do next – about the Chancellor and her animal captives, about the families waiting for them, and about their own relationships.

Cavern of Secrets by Linda Sue Park.

Park wisely skips over the grim struggle for survival over the winter the three children spent in the mountains and opens her story as most of the trio’s animal menagerie are awakening from hibernation. Echo does not, which propels Raffa to consider returning home.

I was very impressed with how Park wrote Garith’s hearing loss. At the end of the previous book, we weren’t certain yet how permanent it was, but now we know that it’s long-term if not forever, which means writing a newly Deaf character. And Park does that amazingly well, from Raffa’s irritatingly slow and overly loud talking, to Kuma’s recognition that Garith can still do everything but hear and needs to have tasks and agency just like before.

Review: Forest of Wonders

Forest of Wonders (Wing & Claw #1) by Linda Sue Park, illustrated by James Madsen.
Harper, HarperCollins, New York, 2016.
MG fantasy, 332 pages + excerpt.
Lexile: 700L .
AR Level: 5.3 (worth 9.0) .

At twelve, Raffa Santana is already a gifted apothecary and finds himself increasingly frustrated with his father’s strict rules. First he can’t make his own herbal cures or enter the forest unsupervised, then his father doesn’t want him to go to the city of Gilden, and of course experimentation is not allowed. But treating a severely injured bat leads Raffa to a series of discoveries about his family, his country, and even the natural world around him that soon have him making his own choices… and dealing with the consequences.

Forest of Wonders by Linda Sue Park.

It wasn’t until trying to review this book that I realized just how many characters and how much plot Park manages to fit into this standard length fantasy -she does it so seamlessly. I’ve read and enjoyed several of her novels before but they were all historical fiction, which made me nervous about how she would do in a fantasy novel. Luckily her experience creating an immersive world in the past translates well to fantastical worldbuilding.