Hello, all you lovely people. I hope you are all doing as well as you can be in the current circumstances…if someone is reading this in the future when everything has resumed normality and this is all a distant memory (unlikely, but you never know!)…a large majority of the UK (and actually, the world) are having to stay inside and social distance from everyone to try and limit the spread of a new virus as much as possible.
I say a large majority, there are still some incredibly brave people still at work making sure the world doesn’t come to a stop. NHS workers, carers, supermarket staff, delivery drivers…to everyone still working right now – you aren’t forgotten about and you have my utmost respect.
Anyway, I digress. If you’re in the future reading this, that is our current situation. So. With 23 out of 24 hours being inside (one hour of outside exercise is allowed and I am not wasting it)…this means there is a lot of hours in the day which need to be filled. Besides doing my dissertation and revising for my exam, I don’t really have much else I’m doing. I’m so used to spending so much time at the theatre, which takes up a large chunk of time, and now that’s stopped…I suddenly have a lot of time just going spare. So my love for reading was reignited. I’ve always loved reading and wish I had more time for it, but as I’m not travelling anywhere, working, theatre-watching…this finally gives me the chance to catch up on reading time I have missed.
Something else I have missed doing is writing. Writing theatre reviews, telling stories, whatever it is…writing makes me happy. Which leads to me now combining these two things together – whilst I cannot write about theatre at the moment, I can write about the books I’m reading. Whilst this isn’t my usual content, it’s content I hope you all find somewhat interesting or enjoyable to read, and it’s content I hope to carry on doing even when we do find some form of normality again.
With all that being said, that nicely brings me onto the book which is the focus of today’s blog post. My first book review I have written in what must be at least 5 years! If this is not the best writing I have ever produced, you’ll have to kindly forgive me, as this is some new writing territory forme, an area I haven’t written about in a long time and I’m not too familiar with. But alas, here we go.
Book: The Girl of Ink and Stars
Author: Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Year published: 2016
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3 stars
The premise of this book is beautiful and unusual. Isabella is a 13-year-old girl who lives on an island that she and anyone else is forbidden to leave. When her closest friend goes missing into the forgotten territories of the island, Isabella takes the lead on the search. As a cartographers daughter, she has extensive knowledge of maps, the stars and how to navigate, and she is very keen on exploring unknown areas of the island she has lived on all her life. It quickly becomes clear the unknown areas the search party is exploring is full of dangers – from strange wolf-like monsters to a fire demon living deep underground. What started off as a search to find her friend soon becomes a mission to save the island too.
Initially, when I picked up this book to read, I was under the assumption it was a young adult short story with magical realism. I did not realise it was aimed more at children’s – I.e. 12 years. However, upon reading it, the language is so basic and simple that it feels like it was aimed at a much younger audience.
The book has some beautiful descriptive language, bringing the island which Isabella lives on alive, however, the development of the characters is lacking. By the end of the book, I found I knew nothing more about any of the characters than when I had started the book, meaning I simply couldn’t care for any of them, and therefore some parts of the book which were clearly intended on being very emotional, fell short with me.
The start of the book really pulls the reader in, laying out the premise and having perfect pacing where the reader is not left bored, quickly moving the plot along into the hunt to find Isabella’s friend. This is when the book falls short. The beginning is attention-grabbing and interesting, and yet the middle of the book – where a reader should be gripped – dragged on for longer than necessary. There were pages and pages of writing, where nothing was actually happening. As the book came near its conclusion, the pace picked up again and there was a rather emotional ending. However, the ending sadly did not have the impact which was intended, at least with me. I felt relieved something was finally happening at all, let alone something of interest. The lack of character development only added to this.
There was magic interwoven throughout the story, which had it been touched on more would have been exactly that – magical! Instead, the magic was mentioned once and then never again – it’s unsure if this is normal for this world and the characters, or if it’s not normal and the characters simply do not care.
The writing describing the island, the maps and the memories Isabella has of cartography and map-making were the highlights for me, providing some really beautiful imagery, and I feel if I had read this book when I was younger, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Sadly, I did not realise I was not the target audience! The theme of myths and the discussion as to whether they are ever real or not is also something I particularly enjoyed – especially as myths and ancient stories is something I thoroughly enjoy.
Overall, ‘The Girl of Ink and Stars’ is a book with a beautiful premise that is just not followed through. There are interesting parts but not enough to redeem the whole book itself. Having said this, with the simple magic and adventures written throughout, I am sure a much younger reader would enjoy this book thoroughly.
One Show at a Time 