Review: The Sorceress and the Squid; by Emily Mundell

Note: this review was originally written and published on a previous blog of mine.

Genre: Fantasy

Release Date: June 18^th, 2017

Publisher: Self-Published

Length: 282 Pages (Kindle Edition)

Content Rating: YA (Age 13+)

In the magical land of Perth, divisions between the Old Kingdom and the New have waged for centuries. The humans have long harbored a mistrust of the spell-casting Fae and vice versa. In the midst of this conflict, Estrella the Sorceress lays waste to the Training Academy for Human Warriors, making an enemy in the soldier, Jalen. During their standoff, Jalen is turned into a squid and Estrella, unable to restore him to his original form, takes pity on him and travels west across the Sea to bring him to the Wizard. On their journey they face challenges and revelations that will ultimately decide not only their own fates, but the fate of all of Perth.

Well, well! Here’s my first Self-Published/Indie review on the blog, and we’re starting off with a very underrated book: The Sorceress and the Squid; by Emily Mundell.

I read this on the recommendation of a close friend, and as it is a lesser-known book, I didn’t really know what to think.

Plot

To start off with this plot section, I need to talk about this concept. You have a road trip/quest story featuring a sorceress and the man she accidentally turned into a talking squid.

He’s in a jar for most of the book. Being carried in a backpack.

That’s hilarious.

The plot was pretty straightforward, but does have a few neat twists and turns, especially near the end as secrets are revealed. And, honestly, I like reading more straightforward quest books on occasion. It’s not overly complex, and was very accessible and easy to read. There’s something that’s just plainly fun and cozy about reading a plot that’s a bit more simple.

Characters

The characters are a shining point of the book. Jalen and Estrella, our two leads, were really fun to read about and follow as they went about their adventures, with a good amount of depth and complexity to their personalities as well.

The side characters and villains weren’t particularly fleshed out, but in a book of this length I don’t find that to be too much of an issue. The side characters served their purpose, and that is what they needed to do.

Worldbuilding

This was one of my favourite points. The world of Perth has a whimsical, fairy-tale-like quality to it that reminds me of books like The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede (one of my favourite YA fantasies), or The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle in terms of vibe. The magic is soft and mysterious, there are all sorts of magical creatures and mysteries, and the whole thing has a charming quality to it. I always love reading books with this kind of vibe, so this was an absolute pleasure to read.

Overall

Was this book perfect? No. It has it’s small issues—the occasional plot point that could have been foreshadowed better, a bit of clunky writing here and there—but these issues are easily eclipsed by the charm of the rest of the book.

If you want a fun, light self-published read with a whimsical atmosphere and a classic adventure plot, I highly recommend giving The Sorceress and the Squid a try.