⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
“Morrigan's night held only one possibility. Like every other child born precisely eleven years ago on the last Eventide, when the clock struck midnight she would die-the eleven short years of her doomed life complete; her curse finally fulfilled.”
You know that feeling when you pick up a children's story and think, wow if I would have read this as a kid it would be one of those timeless tales I would want to revisit as an adult. I feel this way with stories such as, "The Chronicles of Narnia", "Mary Poppins" or the forever beloved "Harry Potter". I feel like, "Nevermoor" is in somewhat of the same lane.
"Nevermoor", follows our main character Morrigan Crow who is cursed, because she was born on Eventide, the unluckiest day for any child to be born. Morrigan is blamed for all local misfortunes that happen and because of this she is doomed to die at midnight on her eleventh birthday. But as Morrigan awaits her fate, a strange and remarkable man named, Jupiter North, appears and whisks her off to a magical city called Nevermoor.
Townsend has a beautiful and creative mind. There are a lot of books out there with magical settings, but she took this one to a special place and it felt so unique and whimsical! It's been awhile since a book has made me laugh out loud (literally) and there were several times I found myself doing this; the key component to the laughing was the wonderful character of Jupiter North. He's the sum of all my favorite book characters. Think Haymitch Abernathy meets Jack Sparrow. His sense of humor and whimsy was a pleasure to read; but honestly so were most of the characters: to a talking enormous cat all the way to the wonderful little girl lead; Miss Crow herself!
Even though I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I do think the ending was fairly predictable and the second half wasn't quite as good as the first. It's not necessarily a bad thing though; stories about bravery, self confidence and hope still need to be written and I think children and adults will love the way Townsend weaves these themes into existence.
"There was only one way to find out.
'Step boldly,' Morrigan whispered.
Then she closed her eyes,
and jumped."
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