Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow
Author: Jessica Townsend
Hardcover: 544 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, Hatchette Book Group
November 13, 2018
Trigger Warnings: Bullying, Minimal violence and threatening
About the Author: Australian author Jessica Townsend follows her Nevermoor debut with the second installment, Wundersmith, in her middle grade fantasy series. Although she has been a copywriter for 8 years and an editor for a children’s wildlife magazine, Townsend has been working on this magical series for over ten years and was inspired by her move to London. Her hard work and beautiful stories has led to contracts for a three book series and a preemptive movie deal with 20th Century Fox.
“In joining the Society, Morrigan knew she was gaining not just an elite education and a world of opportunities, but also the thing she had craved above all else: a proper family.”
After 11 years of feeling ostracized and blamed for any misfortune, Morrigan Crow is ready to take on the Wundrous Society with the eight others who passed the Trials alongside her. They’re supposed to be a unit – brothers and sister for life – but when they find out Morrigan is a Wundersmith, they see her not as their sister and friend, but as a monster. Knowing Jupiter has faith in her, Morrigan tries to show that she is truly good, which proves harder as the group divides under anonymous threats and Nevermoor faces mysterious disappearances. When her teachers at the Wunsoc are only interested in proving how evil all Wundersmiths are, Morrigan needs a family more than ever.
Townsend continues to deepen the world of Morrigan and Nevermoor. While maintaining the whimsy of the first novel, she further explores character relationships as loyalties are tested within a diverse group of talented scholars that are supposed to be a family unit. Morrigan continues to struggle with her own worth and others’ acceptance, even after she’s left the Wintersea Republic and her “curse” behind. Suppressed by a prejudice against her powers, Ezra Squall, the banished and evil Wundersmith, might be the only one who can help Morrigan reach her full potential. There are still doubts and uncertainties, even people working against her, but she comes to know who she is and the Wunder that surrounds her. While the ending might be a little more predictable than the first, it beautifully sets up the rest of the series.
PRR Writer: Anna Gerwig
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