Its fair to say that I went into this book with higher than normal expectations. I really enjoyed Wexler's fantasy [b:The Thousand Names|15810910|The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1)|Django Wexler|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1355441268s/15810910.jpg|21536059] and when I heard about this--Readers are Magic!--how could I say no? This is everything I ever wanted as a child to happen to me (well except the deceased parents part). I've been saying for years that reading is magical and this book pretty much just validated every single one of those statements.

That its a middle grade didn't register with me. As I was reading I didn't think of this as a middle grade, I didn't think of Alice's age at all really unless someone made comment about it. Since this is set almost a century ago its very easy to overlook a lot of the liberties and restrictions Alice has as being part of that time.

Admittedly this was a bit more by the numbers then THE THOUSAND NAMES was. There isn't a whole lot of deeper motivation then what is shown. Alice is very upfront about her priorities, Geryon is likewise upfront about his main priorities (whether or not some of his other interests are as important are up for interpretation), Ashes doesn't really mince words (he's half-cat after all) and Issac is just kind of like 'gah! whatever!' as things get tossed at him. So you wind up with a book that follows faithfully from Point A to B to C, that as an adult I can see how one leads into the other. If I was reading at the intended age level? I believe it would be more mysterious to me and thus more engrossing.

As it stood what kept me reading was how Wexler uses the Reader magic. Lovers of [b:The Neverending Story|27712|The Neverending Story|Michael Ende|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327871159s/27712.jpg|1122661] or [b:Inkheart|28194|Inkheart (Inkworld, #1)|Cornelia Funke|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1370972877s/28194.jpg|2628323] will certainly feel this is familiar. As a "Reader" Alice (and Geryon and Issac) are able to make what they read reality. Sometimes this means entering a book. Sometimes this means trapping awful creepies in books. And sometimes it means speaking it into existence. To leave a book the "Reader" has to basically become the hero (or heroine) of the novel or if they're lucky another Reader can read them out. Guess which happens more often?

Since I read an uncorrected proof edition many of the illustrations that are in the final copy were missing from mine, but those that were in the book served to really help give imagination to the book. Such as the image of the fairy which begins Alice's journey into the magical. Wexler's description is rather creepy sounding...and the image is just downright cringe inducing. Definitely not what a fairy looks like from what I read as a child.

The good news is I think this will appeal to both girls and boys. There's something for both in here, as well as a whole lot of snarky good humor (I admit Ashes may have been my favorite character). Entertaining and magical, yep that pretty much sums this book up! ( )

One of my favorite authors gave this a high Goodreads rating, so I took the audio for a spin. The story was imaginative, and the reader, Cassandra Morris, did a nice job with all the different characters. It reminded me of the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde and Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimeous trilogy.
The way the magic worked bothered me—although I suspect that the way the magic worked was supposed to bother me—and I’m undecided if I want to stick around to see how that plays out in the sequels.
Might be a nice choice to listen to on a family road trip and exchange theories about who Alice should and should not trust. ( )

This is a competent middle grade fantasy with some really interesting elements, and yet I can't point at anything that I want to rave about, nor do I have any desire to recommend it to people. I think the 'really interesting elements' is kind of the thing - there are lot of ideas, some great set pieces, and yet it didn't hold together properly as a story. And I can't articulate why, which is frustrating.

It isn't that it was somewhat rambling and the high stakes sections didn't seem any more tense than the low stakes sections of the story, because I kind of like kind of rambling and dislike a narrative form that ratchets up the stress levels. It wasn't that it had rather a lot of chosen one fantasy tropes (although that certainly didn't help), because I get that those are tropes for a reason, and it isn't actually a Chosen One fantasy, although it might develop in to it if there is more of a series ('potential to be the most powerful' is find for a kid; 'suddenly the most powerful' pisses me off).

Having said that, it was interesting enough that I'm planning to get hold of at least the next one in the series. ( )

when a talking cat sneaks you into a forbidden library and introduces you to an arrogant boy who dares you to open a book, it's hard to resist

You had me at talking cat now you throw in an arrogant boy too? Be still my heart :P

Very similar to Alice in Wonderland in that the main characters' name is Alice and she finds herself visiting a magical world full of strange creatures like talking cats and insects in the Forbidden Library.

Alice sees a strange bug like creature talking to her father one night. A few days later he sets sail to try and fix something and unfortunately his ship sinks. Alice has no mother and so finds herself moving to live with a strange guardian called Geryon who tells her to not go into the huge Library in a separate building at the end of the garden of his estate. As well as Geryon, Alice is looked after by a scowling giant of a man called Mr Black and a robot like maid called Emma.

One day she sent to work in the Library for a weird man called Mr Wurms . Alice is sent to fetch books from the shelves for him but she thinks the shelves keep moving and making the Library into a maze. There are cats all over the Library and she soon befriends one of them called Ashes and discovers that they can talk. Alice also sees the same creature that was arguing with her father in the Library, so she decides to sneak in at night to find out what is going on.

Lovely book with some nice illustrations to add to the story. A quest book where Alice must unravel the mystery behind the Library and how it relates to her father's disappearance. ( )