Goodmorning fellow booknerds!
How are you all? I am currently in another lockdown here in Melbourne, so I am feeling incredibly unmotivated to do any sort of work! Whoops.
But what I am slightly more motivated to do is read all of the books. All of them. Ones that I’m not even reading!!!!!
Please tell me I’m not the only one!
But I digress. Today I am coming to you with a review for ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ฎ๐ซ๐ธ๐ป๐ท: ๐ฃ๐๐ฎ๐ต๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐๐ป๐ธ๐๐ฎ๐ท ๐๐ป๐ธ๐ผ๐ฝ ๐ซ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ผ๐ต๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐๐ธ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ป. I literally finished this last night and I had so much fun reading it! Before I begin my review, here is the synopsis:
๐๐ช๐ฃ๐. ๐๐ฆ๐๐ช. โ๐๐ฃ๐๐ช. ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ฅ๐๐ ๐, ๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ค ๐จ๐๐ ๐ค๐ ๐ค๐ฅ๐ ๐ฃ๐ช ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ค ๐ฃ๐๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ค ๐จ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐๐จ๐๐๐.
๐ญ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ย ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฏ๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐๐ ๐ด๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ป๐๐ ๐บ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐–๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ป๐๐๐๐๐.
๐ฌ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐.
๐ป๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐–๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐. ๐ป๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐: ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐.
๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ป๐๐๐๐๐’๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ , ๐๐๐’๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐–๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ .
๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ฎ๐ซ๐ธ๐ป๐ท: ๐ฃ๐๐ฎ๐ต๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐๐ป๐ธ๐๐ฎ๐ท ๐๐ป๐ธ๐ผ๐ฝ is a wonderfully engaging story about a young girl named Twelve, in training to be a Hunter. In this world, a Hunter is one who keeps the peace of the realm, by slaying in monsters who work to do harm. Twelve, a Huntling, is plagued by the memories of her life prior to coming to the Lodge (the Hunter training Academy, essentially) and is determined to seek vengeance on those who did her family wrong.
But nothing is what it seems.
I slightly consider this book to be a fantasy coming of age story in that, Twelve really grows as a character across the span of the entire book. It is a naturally occuring type of development – it doesn’t happen immediately, but we see Twelve grow as her perspective grows of the world, of her tightly held prejudices.
If I sound vague it is deliberate! Purely because so many things that I want to say about the plot are incredibly spoilery! So, vague it must be.
Reading this book, I had a lot of fun. I don’t typically read middle grade but this sounded like the pure escapism I wanted. Action-packed with an unpredictable plot, it literally has everything you could ever want in a story. I found that the writing was wonderful and the care that was taken to showcase Twelve’s character as she is. She is not perfect at all. She is flawed, traumatised and lonely and I adored that Aisling Fowler did not run away from portraying a young main character in this way.
Can we also appreciate that one of the side characters, Five, is queer? I smiled so hard when I realised because representation in a middle grade is so freaking fantastic and something that I wished I had when I was growing up!
In terms of the story, when I say it was unpredictable, I am not even exaggerating. I did not expect the twist and turns of this story, when Twelve and the gang were surprised, I was surprised! It was as if I was with them, finding out betrayals and realising how everything links. Also learning about the world and the different types of monsters, as well as starting to find out more information about the different clans and the way that this world is governed, was quite interesting. I think the monsters were so imaginative and exciting as well as terrifying!
When reading this however, I knew that I was not the target demographic so the small issues that I had was mainly me. I found the exerpts from the beastiary slightly annoying and information dumpy as these excerpts interspersed throughout the story was the only way we really got information about the monsters which felt clunky to me. However, for younger readers, this is fantastic. See? These issues stem from me being me. I also thought that the way that some of the Elders of the Hunting Lodge would just bow to the demands and strategy of Twelve. Twelve I believe is 13 years old with very little actual Hunting experience, only that which occurred throughout the story. So we have these Elders who have years upon years of battle experience, listening to a 13 year old girl. It was one of the only aspects of the story that I was a bit doutbful about.
But other than that, I really enjoyed it. I highly, highly recommend it for lovers of middle grade! I gave it 4 stars.
And that’s it for today, friends! Make sure to check out the other stops on the blog tour!
Until next time, happy reading!
All the love,
allie
xx
About the Author
Aisling was born in 1985 and wishes that she had grown up in a magical, mountainous kingdom, but was actually raised in Surrey on a diet of books and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Her early โadventureโ stories involved surprisingly little action and her first novel (3 pages long) was politely declined by publishers at age 11. After earning a BSc in Biology and working as a support worker and then a nurse, the idea for her debut novel,ย Fireborn,ย came to her as she moved back and forth between London and the US. Now based in Hackney, when she is not reading or writing, Aisling loves cooking and plotting adventures (for herself as well as her fictional characters).ย Firebornย will be published by HarperCollins in 2021.
๐ฒ๐ท๐ผ๐ฝ๐ช๐ฐ๐ป๐ช๐ถ
โจ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฒ๐ซ๐ป๐ช๐ป๐ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต๐ฎ๐๐ช๐ท๐ญ๐ป๐ช โจ 
Great review!!
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thank you!!!
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I actually liked the little beastiary bits. I don’t read much middlegrade but I like peeks into the world’s literature and things. But I see what you mean by they were infodumpy. Great review!
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