Book Review: The Warble by Victoria Simcox

Greetings and salutations this fine Book Review Tuesday! Today we are heading off on an adventure into a brave new world – with a brave new heroine. My review copy of The Warble was provided by the author, Victoria Simcox. Be sure to check back next week for more from Victoria – she has graciously agreed to provide a guest post on why she writes fantasy. I can tell you this – her insights on writing in this genre will entertain and inform, and might just give you a new perspective on her novel. And if that’s not incentive enough to check back for her guest post, there might just be a surprise opportunity too… 😉

On to The Warble.

The story opens with its fearless heroine – Kristina – feeling neither particularly fearless nor particularly heroic. What she does feel is particularly unpopular, particularly friendless (well, except for Raymond, her pet rat), and particularly picked-on by both the kids at school and the neighbor girl who occasionally babysits her. The high point of her life is the pending Christmas holiday – and the surprise gift she is given by her teacher just as she is leaving school for it.

And what it gift it turns out to be! The Warble is a game changer – both for Kristina and for the world from which it originates.

Before she knows it, Kristina finds herself transported to Bernovem, a world rather in need of a fearless heroine seeing as it is under the spell of an evil Queen who is basically hoarding all of its magic for herself. Kristina learns early on that she has a critical role to play in Bernovem’s future – a role prophesied and long-awaited by the citizens of the dying land. As she does her best to save Bernovem and fulfill the prophecy, Kristina makes a slew of new friends – and frenemies – and runs into a few of her tormentors from her “real” life, who were magically transported to Bernovem as a result of their attempts to appropriate the Warble.

The story is sweet and fairly typical for its genre. There are a few obviously good and obviously bad guys, but way more guys that change alliances or mask their true intentions (and natures). There are rewards for hard work, loyalty, perseverance, and faithfulness; there are punishments for bullying, selfishness, and disloyalty. There are life lessons about not judging books by their cover and believing in yourself. It is, in short, a nice way to provide some sensible (and valuable) life-lessons without preaching or haranguing – wrapped up in an easy-to-follow tale designed to make the misunderstood child in us all feel redeemed and justified.

The stated audience is aged eight and up. Frankly, I’m not sure I’d go that young with this one – if I hadn’t seen that age listed in the amazon description, I would have assumed this was a YA book (usually described as age 12 and up – 12 is, in fact, Kristina’s age in the story). It weighs in at almost 300 pages, and covers topics that include death, self-sacrifice, drunkenness (don’t freak out here – it’s evil adults that get drunk, NOT kids), and kidnapping. It seems to me that it may be a little weighty, a little sophisticated, and little lengthy for kids as young as eight. But that may just be me.

As an adult reader, I found it a pleasant read. There were a few times when I found myself skimming a description or the last sections of a chapter in order to jump ahead to the next spot of action, but all in all it was a fairly easy (albeit fairly typical) read. My lack of exuberant enthusiasm may well be due to my age/experience – by now, I have read literally hundreds of the beleaguered-girl-grows-into-herself-and-saves-the-day stories. I am not the intended audience though – the intended audience would not have, which may mean that my 12-year old step-daughter, who wants to read my copy, would give a vastly different assessment. Perhaps I will ask her… 🙂