Book Review (Canon): Wings

Wings

Written by Aprilynne Pike in 2009

The Raccoon: After moving to a new city and entering public school, fifteen-year-old Laurel anticipated some discomfort.  However, developing a bump on her back which blossoms into a giant flower and learning that her old house guards a supernatural gateway is a bit more than she bargained for.

UNMASKED: My discovery of Wings could very well have been the beginning of its own fantasy novel.  I found a tattered, brown book, without a cover, seemingly abandoned, on a piano at my school.  The first three pages were empty, and the fourth only held one word: Wings.

Ultimately, I left the book where it lay for fear that I would be stealing it, which completely ruined my moment of magical immersion.  Yet, when I bought and read Wings for myself two weeks later, I felt the same sense of hidden enchantment as on the first day.

Wings is the ultimate fantasy novel for people who are disenchanted with fantasy novels.  Its supernatural elements are well-crafted and fit snugly into a world that is otherwise like our own.  The reader becomes comfortable enough with Pike’s ideas that the verisimilitude is not lost when Laurel learns of another dimension or any of the book’s other surprises.

However, brilliant concepts on their own are not enough to keep a reader’s attention, and it was the characters in Wings that really glued my eyes to the book.  Laurel and David, the novel’s two protagonists, are much more realistic than your average teenage heroes.  Laurel especially has a personality clearly shaped by her homeschooling; she is shy and a little naive, yet has a strong sense of right and wrong.  She reacts in a relatable, emotionally stirring way when other characters confront her or overwhelm her with information about the supernatural.  For the first time in years, I found in Wings someone who makes sense and who I would want to have in my life, and I mean the book as much as I do Laurel.

Strengths:

• Every character stays true to his/her personality and background.
• Differing from the trope of a new recruit being able to stop a world catastrophe more effectively than his/her colleagues who have trained for life, the threat of disaster is not inconceivably above Laurel’s capacity to solve it.
• Pike creates a unique and slightly humorous idea of faeries.

Weaknesses:

• There does not seem to be any reason for Laurel’s attraction to Tamani and how close the two of them become.
• It is difficult to swallow the feeling of immaturity when the book discusses trolls.

Rating: 18/20 breaths

Ideal Setting: Read this whenever one of your behaviors makes you feel isolated or a new environment causes you to think that you don't belong. Perhaps you have simply been a plant this whole time.