Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley

TL;DR Laputa from Castle in the Sky 2.0

TBR #1150, added Nov 24 2014

finished 4/3/16

For some reason, I thought Magonia took place on another world. I'm not really sure why.

Anyway, I really liked the concept of the story! I'm not sure I'm happy with how exactly it was implemented, but I thought it was really cool how it was done. I think a lot of my hesitation is because I read my copy during a long car ride, and the library copy had pretty big pages, so it was harder for me to make progress than with other books. I alternated between reading and sleeping / looking out the window and I think breaking up my progress like that had an affect on how I feel.

There were also a lot of unanswered questions over the course of the book since Aza wasn't told much about what was going on.

I managed to kill all but 50 pages of the book during a 6 hour car ride, and I finished it off the next morning. My grandmother read it on the way back home and made some pretty good progress, and she seemed to like it. Which is actually really promising, since I don't think she's ever read YA before and I didn't realize she was reading it in order to explain the plot.

Aza's voice was distinct and she was a really resilient character. I feel like I don't know as much about any of the other characters, Jason included, but I'm hoping that Aerie will elaborate on everyone. The book was more plot-directed than character-directed so I can understand the focus on Aza.

Also, I understood Jason a lot better after reading The Rest of Us Just Live Here. I appreciate that Jason wasn't treated as any different, but I wouldn't have understood the implications of his characterization without reading about Mikey's experience. Of course, it's possible that I missed cues or explanations in Magonia due to my strange reading pattern.

I don't really agree with how the book ended -- I think it worked out a little too well considering the rest of the plot -- but I'm excited to see how Aerie will pick up from where Magonia left off.

TL;DR It's a good start to a series with a unique premise. Try to find time to read purposefully instead of reading bit-by-bit like I did.