Monday, August 3, 2015

Wonder at the Edge of the World by Nicole Helget –NOT RECOMMENDED

Helget, Nicole Wonder at the Edge of the World by Nicole Helget  361 pages, Little Brown, 2015. $17.00  Content: Language: G (0 swears); Mature Content: G Violence: PG
In 1800’s Kansas we meet a young girl named Hallelujah Wonder with big dreams. She wants to follow in her deceased father’s footsteps, he was an adventurer, scientist, and famous explorer. A very bad man wants cursed item in her father’s collection and nothing will stop him from getting it. She and her best friend Eustace start a journey across the known world, leaving slavery behind as they head into even more danger.
This is a very long book with a main character that is a challenge to relate to, she is arrogant and mostly not very kind to her friend Eustace, or thoughtful towards her family. The concept of slavery runs through as a theme, but I never felt satisfied with the main characters involvement or conclusion to the issue. Everytime she held the item she felt ill, the entire time on the ship she felt ill, and when it got colder, she was even more miserable. Which led to me feeling awful the whole time I was reading the book. Includes a detailed hanging. Ugh.  

EL  –NO Reviewer: Stephanie Elementary School Librarian & Author.

2 comments:

Ms. Yingling said...

This seemed similar to Lloyd Alexander's Vesper Holly series which I weeded YEARS ago. So tired of so much fantasy!

Stephanie said...

I agree. I really wish they would have left the magical element out completely and just had a good old historical fiction adventure story.