Jenn ReeseRezensionen

This isn't a book I would have typically picked up (animals in the title and the cover), but it was a listen. While the a lot of the fantasy aspects about the book appeared to be related to a game and quest, it also was a metaphor for the realizations of healing from the mindset of dealing with an abuser. The fox and Sam's dad seem to maybe have a lot in common.
Taken from their home in LA after Caitlin has a broken arm which somehow her dad seems responsible for even though the incident is never clearly described, the sisters end up with their aunt and her wife in far away Oregon. At first Sam just wants everything to go back to how it was before. But as she unpacks her life to date and has a chance to adjust to something new, she wonders what is really best for her and her sister.
A moving story with a mix of realistic and some magical realism/fantasy.
Gently handles a really tough topic.

Honestly one of the impactful children's books I've ever read.

This was delightful.

Narrated by Hope Newhouse. The frostfang is a wolfish creature attempting to dominate the animal realms, and is encroaching on humans by manipulating their doubts and weaknesses. Eren has been designated a champion by a bird prince to help save the forest kingdom and battle the frostfang. Eren is plagued by her own doubts and doesn't believe she can be the champion they need. It will take finding her inner truths to shore up her confidence and save the kingdom. Notably in this work, the birds use the prounoun "they," and "prince" is merely a title, not a reference to male royalty. Also, Eren learns the term that best describes her and how she regards the middle school romance scene: "aromantic." I felt there were a bit too many convenient plot points and characters managing to guess correctly what is happening and what to do when things go south. Ehhh...½

I received an advance copy via NetGalley.

With this book, I can officially say Jenn Reese is one of my favorite middle grade authors. I adored A Game of Fox and Squirrel for its poignancy and heart, and Every Bird a Prince is likewise deep and powerful in its own way. It is imbued with a message of self-acceptance and empowerment that will resonate with kids (and adults, too).

Eren is a 7th grade girl who is trying to figure out a lot of stuff. Her two besties are going boy crazy and are hyped about an upcoming school dance, while she just wants to ride her bike through the Oregon woods. She’s out riding when she saves a bird that is weirdly icy—and who actually speaks to her, proclaiming her a chosen champion. The world is in danger, and Eren has been called upon… and she’s as unsure of that as she is about most everything else. One thing becomes clear, though: the threat is real. Her mom is in danger. When the boy she's pretending to have a crush on gets embroiled in the mess, too, things get especially awkward as they need to save the woods and the world, together.

This is such a good book. It’s going to cause kids to think, wonder, and maybe look in the mirror and see who is really there. I’ll be including this book on my Norton nomination list for 2022.

11-year-old Samantha has recently moved into the care of her aunt, along with her sister, after being removed from their parents' home. A series of magical, but frightening, experiences around a card game gifted to her by her aunt serves as an allegory, and helps Sam process what has happened within her family.½

The story opens with Sam and her sister, Caitlin, arriving in Oregon to stay with their Aunt Vicky and her wife. Sam is quiet, reserved, and jumpy while Caitlin is a people-pleaser and the transition to this new life is especially rough for Sam who wants only to return to the life she left behind in Los Angeles.

Aunt Vicky gives Sam a well-loved card game and Sam finds herself drawn to the characters: the charming fox and the sweet squirrels. When the characters appear in her real life, Sam is at first thrown, but as the fox makes her promises, she gets wrapped into his game. Her quest to find the golden acorn that will allow her to return to the life she left behind leads her to make choices she never would have made, hurting those she loves. But, as the game goes on, Sam must decide what it is she really wants.

Books in which magic appears in our real world are among my favorite, and this one is superbly done. Reese uses magic, and the game, to slowly reveal the past abuse that led to the sisters being relocated to their aunts' house. The fox himself is a trickster and an abuser, charming one moment and cruel the next, allowing Sam--and young readers--to gain needed perspective on her situation.

Sarah Franco reads the audiobook, bringing all the characters vividly to life and capturing Sam's longing perfectly.

I read this as part of my Norton finalist packet.

There's a reason this middle grade book has garnered so much buzz and a Norton nomination: it's a beautifully-done fantasy story in a modern setting with a young girl working through the repercussions of domestic abuse. There are no graphic depictions, but plenty of nuance.

When Sam and her older sister Caitlin are sent to live with their aunt and her wife up in Oregon, Sam is upset at leaving her southern California home and her parents--even though her sister has a broken arm, and it's her dad's fault. Sam is working through a lot. She's mad that their family secret came out, mad at her sister for getting her arm broken, mad at being away from her best friend, mad at her aunt and her wife for being so nice that it is hard to hate them. Amidst all this, Sam encounters a dapperly-attired fox in her room who says that if she can complete his challenges, she can win a Golden Acorn that will enable her to grant a wish. She can go home! But this fox is a trickster and the rules keep changing and the challenges make her do terrible things, and it becomes more and more apparent that this is a game she can never win.

The parallels between the fox's cruel challenges and Sam's father are incredibly well done. There's a heavy message to the book, but it is handled with eloquence. It is an uncomfortable read at times, as well it should be, and contains an overall spirit of hope and resilience that is much needed for kids (and for adults, too). I really think this will become a classic in the middle grade genre.

Ah, this was so good. Sweet and sad and hopeful, and just great writing. Actually cried a little bit at the end. SO GOOD.

Ooh, wrapped up nicely.

Damned racist centaurs.

I found this story underwhelming, to be honest. I was hoping it would gradually reveal more about both the world and about the fictional TV show, via the "episode ranking listicle" format. Instead, it was just one joke, over and over, without really committing to the format. At least the prose successfully conveys the alien-ness of the narrator and audience.

I think this is going to be a fun series. It was a little slow getting started figuring out the world. There is a lot of violence but not descriptive. I'm not sure what the overall message is going to be or if I agree with it. In the future, the world is inhabited by colonies of genetically altered humans who have changed their bodies to adapt to otherwise inhospitable habitats such as ocean, desert, and mountain top.

I read this on the beach, which was quite appropriate. Looking forward to see what happens next.

Horizon by Jenn Reese is the conclusion to the Above World trilogy, a mix of sci-fi and fantasy middle grade that has continued to incorporate more and more cool ideas and messages throughout! If you don’t want to be spoiled, check out my review of Above World instead ;-). If you’ve enjoyed this series so far, then you have to read the final book since it continues to deliver all the fun and magic that Above World and Mirage started. We even get chapters from a few new points of view, yey!
Note: I received Horizon from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Some things may have changed in the final version.



Horizon by Jenn Reese (Above World #3)
Published by Candlewick Press on April 8th, 2014
Genres: Fantasy, MG, Sci-fi
Length: 400 pages
How I got my copy: Publisher

Aluna and Hoku, Kampii from the City of Shifting Tides, and their friends, Equian Dash and winged Aviar Calli, are determined to stop a war. The maniacal ex-scientist Karl Strand is planning to conquer the world with his enormous army of tech-enhanced soldiers . . . unless the four friends can get to Strand first. Aluna’s plan is dangerous: pose as Upgraders and infiltrate the army. But the enemy isn’t what they expected and the strategy begins to crumble. When the friends are torn apart by conflicting allegiances, their slim chance of avoiding war seems to disappear completely. For Aluna and Hoku, what began as a quest to save their own people has become a mission to save the world. But do Aluna and her friends have any hope of defeating Strand if they can’t take him on together?

Strengths:
Horizon really challenges all of our four main characters and they rise to those challenges in different ways. There is just so much character development is so many different directions and I was so happy that Aluna, Hoku, Cali, and Dash really started to grow into the people they were meant to be!
There are some great messages both in the previous two books and in Horizon and it made me so happy. This series in general has some great themes about people with disabilities still being cool people, about how stereotypes about a group of people being evil don’t make much sense once you get to know some of those people, and about acceptance of all sorts in general. There is also a point at which Aluna realizes that if other people, her father especially, are disappointed in her, then that’s their problem, not hers. Love this!
Horizon delighted me by its casual addition of acceptance of homosexuality in this future world. Aluna’s sister asks if she’s interested in any “boys or girls” and when Dash says “fathers” instead of “parents” no one bats an eye. Awesome!!
One of the fun things about this series is the sci-fi spin on all of the typical fantasy creatures, and Horizon introduces a new type of humanoid critter along with giving us a better understanding of some of the ones only touched on previously.
Middle-grade romances are so adorable when the kids get to the holding hands and kissing on the cheek stage *giggles furiously*.

Weaknesses:
I get annoyed when there are multiple points of view and they switch at cliffhanger moments. Horizon started doing this a lot towards the end because there are two major fights that happen. These sorts of switches just make me want to skip ahead, finish one battle, and then go back to read the other.
A lot of things need to be wrapped up in Horizon and it really started to feel like too much. I could easily have seen Horizon being two books instead of one and it might have worked better.
This is a typical problem with middle-grade, but it really became a hinderance to my enjoyment of Horizon: it seemed unrealistic for these kids to have so much respect so easily. There are a lot of adults who treat the main characters like adults, even though they are young teens and in no real way qualified to be bossing anyone around.

Summary:
Horizon by Jenn Reese was a great ending for the Above World trilogy and I really wish that it wasn’t over! The great mix of sci-fi and fantasy elements is just so much fun in Horizon. Add to that the really heartwarming messages woven into the story and I want to pass out copies of the Above World trilogy to every preteen I meet. If you enjoy middle-grade that is a bit on the older side of the age range or are looking for a really fun sci-fi/fantasy trilogy for a preteen or young teen, definitely check these books out!

The book Horizon by Jenn Reese, is about two Kampii, an Aviar, an Equian, and a Kludge of Upgraders. The team of Hoku, Aluna, Calli, and Dash have to dress up as captives and upgraders, Calli and Aluna Are to play as the captives while Hoku and Dash must act as the Upgraders. They meet up with a kludge whose members are Mags, Pocket, Odds, Squirrel, and Zeelo gladly let them join because they need the extra help defending the kludge. Aluna’s horse doesn’t like being a captive the next morning and she throws a rock at her horse. Later they get attacked and survive, then get attacked by human- tree- man thing and are “saved”. Then they split up Dash goes back to the kludge while Hoku, Aluna, and Calli go back to the Kampii beach. Then Calli splits off to go save her family and Hoku is sad to see her leave and they are mad at Octo guy still lives and that his army came and saved him, destroying hydro tech in the process. Then Hoku and Aluna Break up and go their separate ways, Aluna to the surface and Hoku to the Old underwater lab. Then Aluna, Hoku, and Calli go to save Dash, who got captured to save his family then they destroyed Karl Strand and his curse of clones.
I like this book because it has all the same characters and a somewhat happy ending. I like the Author’s previous books, and her writing style is good. I like her characters and the Enemys.

Above world is a fanstacis stor about a underwater kampii, who discovers that thebreathing shells that allow them to breath underwater is being tampered with and Aluna is the one that goes to the above world and later find hoku (her friend) that are taken to the sky world and taken to be prisoner. Where instead she is taken up there to train and become a warrior. But she can't because she gave up her breathing shell to a deepfel ( an underwater serpent) and gave her chances of ever going back in to the water. when they escape they are escorted to the sky dome they are confortented by a boy from the sater clan and is beaten up by Aluna and escape to the forest where they saw hokus crush from the sky world. Then they are found by the hal robot half human people and is chased down in to the ocean . Where they are taken underwater and Aluna was giving back her breathing shell. Then she swims to the hydroTek. Then she tries to save her home and she does.

This book is amzing and ever since I saw this book in the libray I thought it was love at first sight. I never thought that this book was bad and i think everyone should read it.

I loved this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know how Aluna will be able to help the Equians now that she did what she had done. Hoku is your normal smart one, but he isn't a smart-aleck, he's nice.His smartness is helpful. Dash is an Equian gone wrong. He is an Equian with no horse body, so he looks like a human. This science fiction fantasy is awesome in every way and i recommend it to all ocean lovers and sci. fiction fans. GIVE ME MORE ABOVE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XDXDXD

I totally loved this book it was filed with action and suspense and mostly trusting your friends and not under estimating your self.½

From my blog: On Starships and Dragonwings

Mirage by Jenn Reese is the sequel to Above World. In Mirage we continue adventuring with our favorite merpeople (but call them Kampii to be safe!), centaur and bird-girl. Mirage takes place mostly in a desert setting, but I’m definitely still counting it for my Mermaid Summer Reading Challenge because it is pretty darn tough to write about mermaids in the desert (even when they have two legs). Reese continues to amaze with her blend of fantasy creatures and sci-fi world. The Above World series may be middle-grade, but I highly recommend it to anyone who is interesting in the premise because I don’t normally read middle-grade/early YA but this series continues to impress me. There may be some spoilers for Above World given that this is a sequel, so if you don’t want to be spoiled, check out my review of Above World instead!

Note: I received Mirage for review from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you to Candlewick Press for the opportunity!

The desert is no place for ocean-dwelling Kampii like Aluna and Hoku, especially now that Aluna has secretly started growing her tail. But the maniacal Karl Strand is out to conquer the Above World, and the horselike Equians are next on his list. Aluna, Hoku, and their friends — winged Calli and Equian exile Dash — race to the desert city of Mirage, intent on warning the Equians. When they arrive, Strand’s clone, Scorch, has gotten there first. Now the Equian leader has vowed to take all his people to war as part of Strand’s army. Any herd that refuses to join him by the time of the desert-wide competition known as the Thunder Trials will be destroyed. To have any chance of defeating Scorch and convincing the Equians to switch sides, the four friends must find a way to win the Trials. The challenge seems impossible. But if they fail, the desert — and possibly all of the Above World — will be lost to Karl Strand forever.

Strengths:
I talked about the awesomeness of a male/female friendship that doesn’t turn into a romance in my review of Above World and I am happy to say Mirage continues the awesomeness. The two MC’s are mer-children that have been best friends forever, but that doesn’t mean that they have to fall in love. Turns out boys and girls can be just awesome friends :D.
The romances that are brewing are pretty adorable with the kid love antics though! Remember when you were young and holding hands seemed like a big deal but then you didn’t really know what to do after? Yeah, it’s pretty cute.
There is a really awesome message about disabilities and not being “normal.” There are several characters that didn’t form their human + animal forms normally and they are treated poorly by some members of their species. However in the end it is those individuals using their unique strengths that contribute to beating the bad guys. On a similar note, there is a good message about not hating an entire group of people because they are probably not as bad as you think they are. Yey great messages subtly woven into awesome stories!
The love saving the day story gets a little old for me, so it was exciting to see Mirage going with the honor saving the day message since I think it’s something that fits the younger audience well.
Did I mention there are mermaids in a desert? Not a problem as long as you have legs right? But if you start growing your tail… yeah that’s a problem and it was so interesting!

Weaknesses:
There was a couple of moments where there seemed Mirage would have a love triangle, but then it didn’t, but then it seemed like it again. Let’s just avoid that shall we?
The plot of Mirage was fairly predictable, but given the age range, I understand.

Summary:
Above World built an amazing world mixing sci-fi and fantasy elements. Mirage continues to expand that world, showing us different regions and starting to weave the basis for an epic final battle. The bad guys (and gals!) are getting badder, the good guys and gals are getting freaking awesome. If you are a fan of all of those human + animal fantasy creatures (mermaids, centaurs, naga, harpies), then you just have to read this series. I continue to be flabbergasted at how well Reese takes the fantasy critters we all love and makes them fit perfectly into a dystopian/sci-fi story.

From my blog On Starships and Dragonwings

Above World by Jenn Reese is a Nebula finalist (Andre Norton Award) this year, therefore as soon as I spotted it, I had to read it. I’ve been craving mermaid/underwater books lately (I think they make me think of summer, haha), so I was freaking thrilled to discover Above World. While the Kampii don’t want you to call them mermaids, and a lot of the book takes place in the Above World (ie land), this book had such an original combination of fantasy and sci-fi elements as well as an awesome retelling of the traditional mermaid myths. Think about a world were humans have altered themselves to be able to live underwater (tails, breathing devices and all), or fly through the skies (think harpies, but not evil), or gallop across the deserts (centaurs!). That is the world that Above World is set in :D.
I borrowed a copy of this book from the library. All statements are my own honest opinions.

Title: Above World
Author: Jenn Reese
Length: 368 pages (hardcover)
Genre-ish: Fantasy/Sci-fi hybrid :D (Younger YA)
Rating: ★★★★★- such awesome world-building and characters!

Strengths:
One of my favorite things about Above World were the new phrases that Reese came up with to suit a culture that has been living under the sea for generations. They say things like “still as a starfish” because that’s what they are surrounded by! This level of detail to the world made me really happy :D.
At first I thought Above World was a fantasy with mermaids, then I realized it was a fantasy with sci-fi roots to explain how all the humanoids came to be. This hybridization was freaking awesome to read.
Aluna and Hoku are adorable and I love how they broke various stereotypes. Aluna was a great female character who was a complete tomboy, though her headstrong nature got her into trouble sometimes. Hoku was the one who needed rescuing because he was a complete nerd :D, but his curiosity for technology was quite useful in the end.
Above World is proof that best friends don’t always have to fall in love with each other. This was a huge relief ;-) and sends a good message I think. Turns out girls and boys can be just friends if they want, haha.
Weaknesses:
As with many books of this age range, there were some convenient developments to get the characters out of various pickles.
While Above World at first seems like a middle grade, I would be very cautious about suggesting this to kids. There were some pretty gruesome moments with all the body part switching technology. I would say Above World is more a light YA given the gore-y parts near the end.
Summary:
I may be biased due to my current mermaid addiction, but Above World is hands down an awesome fantasy/sci-fi book. I am in love with this world and can’t wait to find out more about the centaur people in the next book :D. While most of Above World has a MG feel to it, there is definitely a lot of weird and gore-y moments given the nature of the technological enhancements everyone has. If you are looking for a fun fantasy that has tech-mermaids (maybe you didn’t realize you were looking for that, but you should be!), great characters and world-building, and a bit of an edge, you have to pick up Above World like NOW.

I think this is going to be a fun series. It was a little slow getting started figuring out the world. There is a lot of violence but not descriptive. I'm not sure what the overall message is going to be or if I agree with it. In the future, the world is inhabited by colonies of genetically altered humans who have changed their bodies to adapt to otherwise inhospitable habitats such as ocean, desert, and mountain top.

I think this is going to be a fun series. It was a little slow getting started figuring out the world. There is a lot of violence but not descriptive. I'm not sure what the overall message is going to be or if I agree with it. In the future, the world is inhabited by colonies of genetically altered humans who have changed their bodies to adapt to otherwise inhospitable habitats such as ocean, desert, and mountain top.

Fun feminist post-human YA science fiction about two friends, Aluna and Hoku, who have to leave their undersea world to save it and also the world. Great moments of solidarity with other oppressed workers and subjects, nicely realistic boy-girl friendship without romance, strong girls and kind boys, POC main characters - I would definitely give this to a kid!

Originally reviewed on A Reader of Fictions.

In a nice change of pace from all of the young adult dystopias, I read Jenn Reese's middle grade dystopia. Her book was an utter delight, full of clever world building, mixed-up creatures and vibrant characters. Not only that, but her book has become my favorite mermaid book thus far!

Though Above World is categorized as a middle grade by the age of the protagonists and the brevity of the story, I see no reason why adults and teens would not enjoy it as well. The main characters have a maturity and cleverness that keeps them from reading like children. While some middle grade novels can be painful for an older reader because the plot solutions are so obvious, Above World kept me entertained and ready to find out what would come next.

Above World begins under the see with the Kampii, essentially mermaids. However, these mermaids are unlike any others you've ever encountered before. They breathe through an apparatus, a breathing necklace, which plugs into their lungs. They trade their legs for a tail in a coming of age ceremony after taking a pill. Aluna, our heroine, is about to receive her tail and become an adult. She does not get to, though, because she fails her loyalty test, because she asks questions about why Kampii are dying, their breathing necklaces failing so that they drown in their home.

Aluna, though she desperately wanted her tail, does not whine about the fact that her father and the rest of the leaders punished her for trying to save the Kampii. Instead, she sets out for the Above World, the land, to find HydroTek, the company that manufactured the breathers. She will figure out how to fix them, so that no more of her friends have to die. She planned to go alone, but her best friend Hoku, younger and a genius with tech, followed her.

Together Aluna and Hoku go on a number of adventures, making new friends and allies along the way. Aluna is an amazingly powerful girl, gifted with fighting. Hoku's skills run toward planning and electronics. All of the characters are bursting with life. My personal favorite, an adorable little scene stealer, is Zorro, a raccoon/computer. He reminds me a lot of R2-D2, which basically means he is the most adorable and totally reliable in a crisis.

The forces of evil and the dystopian elements, which I wish I could talk about more, but won't because I think they'll be more fun for you to discover on your own, are captivating too. I will say that one of the bad guys reminded me a lot of the scary neighbor kid in Toy Story.

There is some romance, but that's not the focus, which is a good thing considering how young the main characters are. What is there is pretty freaking adorable. Hoku's a bit girl crazy, which just adds to his cute, nerdy persona. There are some hinted romances for the future, but there's been no rush for true love or anything like that. Oh, middle grade, thank you for this wonderful break from romances that progress too quickly.

Writing dystopian fiction for younger readers can be quite tricky, but Reese pulls it off masterfully. I will be eagerly anticipating the next installment!½