Well, I said I had 2 book reviews to publish on their pub days today, then my calendar gave me a surprise by popping up another one – whoops!
The final (hopefully!) review of the day is The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louise Sachar. Recognise that name? If you were into books about adventure published in the late 90s, famous in the 2000s, I’m sure you’ll remember Holes by Louis Sachar – maybe even just from the film that was later made based on it. It was a brilliant book of its time and still now.
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So here’s what I thought of Louis Sachar’s new book The Magician of Tiger Castle:
This was a nice fairytale-esque fantasy that was a good read, but just didn’t click 100% for me.
Anatole is a court magician in the now-famed Tiger Castle in the kingdom of Esquaveta. The story is excellently framed from his perspective of visiting the castle in modern times and looking back on it 500 years in the past to when and how it got its name. He gives us hints of what’s to come in the story as he hears it from a tour guide, including the Whispering King, a treacherous queen who killed one king to marry another, and a beautiful princess who was abducted on her wedding night. And he mentions the great magician himself, who the tour guide neglects to include! Anatole then leaps back into his past and tells the story from his perspective.
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Anatole’s character is brilliant. Rather than having a story told from a hero’s perspective, although in some ways he could be considered that, Anatole is a bald man (thanks to an experiment gone wrong, he has no hair on his entire body) who describes himself as “short and dumpy”. We are constantly reminded of his flaws as he falls in manure and out of carriages.
The only downside was that I struggled to get stuck into this book. The story had more of a rambling quality with a series of events which, though they are of course linked, didn’t flow as well as you’d expect. I actually think this book would benefit from a second reading, especially as I went back to the initial set up chapter that I’ve described above to remind myself of it before reviewing, and it made much more of an impact when I knew what was to come. On first reading, it felt like it was going to be a big grand tale, but as you read on and the characters become more clear, it’s a lot more of a fumbling series of events which are far more fun that the mythical quality you expect.
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Like many others, I initially picked this book due to the author who wrote the iconic book, Holes. I always loved this book, but it made more of an impact as being one of the only books that my sister, who is not a reader, actually enjoyed! This one is a different piece of work, although I do think you can feel the author’s signature underneath it in the way it’s framed and told.
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Overall, a tricky one to rate and review as I enjoyed it and will probably remember the story, but while reading, I did struggle to pick it up as I wasn’t invested in continuing it. I think I may reread in future to see how I feel about that again!
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for a review copy of this book.
And if you’re interested in the reviews of the other two books that were published today (5th August), here are the links:
Book Review: Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta
Romance Book Review: CEO Not Welcome by Mandy Sawchuk
