In a Nutshell: A middle-grade fantasy-adventure about friendships, mistakes, and magic. Interesting characters, great plotline, some cool magic. A bit confusing in some segments and some unanswered questions. Overall though, it kept me hooked. Recommended.

Plot Preview:
It’s tough to preview this book without spoiling anything. The GR blurb also reveals too much. So this is just a barebones hint of the storyline and its key elements. (I’ll keep my review equally vague so that I don’t inadvertently leak out key plot points.)
Land of Magics – friends – egos – libraries – danger – exile – Wasteland – amnesia – rebellion – adventure.
The story comes to us in two voices: one in first person from a narrator who has lost her memory and one in third person from the character who initiates the chain of events.

Bookish Yays:
🔮 The very first section of the book, titled “Before”. Outstanding! It established the personality of one of the key characters excellently.
🔮 The characters – none perfect, but each memorable with their strengths and weaknesses. I particularly loved “H”, as beautiful in her deeds and talents as her name. All key characters are children.
🔮 Did I mention that two of the characters are invisible? What fun! (Not for them but for me!)
🔮 The themes – friendship, ego, selfishness, sacrifice, courage. All worthy topics for a MG book and all handled well.
🔮 The fantastical content. Though it is not as much as I would have liked, what’s there in the book is fabulous.
🔮 The magical books and the depiction of the power of reading – subtle but cool. I’d have loved to see more of the books and the library.
🔮 The locations, especially in the Land of Magics. Reminded me of Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree.
🔮 The visual contrast established between the three key places through their atmospheric descriptions.

Bookish Mixed Bags:
🛶 After the aforementioned “Before”, the story shifts to the first-person POV of a character who has amnesia. As such, her narration starts off very vague and confusing to follow. The vagueness is justified by her memory issues, but I am unsure of how well this would work for younger middle-graders.
🛶 Though the GR blurb mentions the Land of Magics and the book even begins with it, it is hardly there for most of the plot. Anyone who reads the blurb would expect this land to be the main setting for the story. A bit unfair to us readers that it is not so.
🛶 There’s too much secret-keeping in the middle section. While the characters’ justifications are made clear after a while, it does get annoying to see so many “I can’t tell you” conversations.
🛶 The ending is apt for the story, but I would have liked the story to continue for at least a couple of chapters more to offer better closure on what’s next for the characters.

Bookish Nays:
🚫 A few things stay unexplained till the end. Though the story is complete and there’s no apparent sequel. As such, I wish the background detailing and the ending would have plugged in all the gaps.
🚫 No illustrations. ☹

All in all, despite some doubts that linger on, I had fun reading this book. The start was awesome, the next section begins a bit shakily due to the character’s impaired memory, but once we get used to it, the plot amps up again. After a point, I simply couldn’t keep the book down.

This isn't my first book by this author. I had absolutely loved “Shoo!” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4944250334) and “The Dangerous Life of Ophelia Bottom” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4916122427) While this book didn’t offer me a similar high, the intriguing storyline and the main characters ensured a darkly entertaining ride.

Definitely recommended to fantasy-loving middle-graders who enjoy darkish plots.

3.75 stars.

My thanks to author Susie Bower and Pushkin Press for providing the DRC of “The Invisibles” via NetGalley at my request. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

After getting through the somewhat confusing first few paragraphs, I really enjoyed this magical adventure. Since our main character loses her memory, we are left to try and make sense of things in this strange world along with her, hence the sometimes confusing moments.
However, once you get past this, the unique magic system and the adventure the characters embark on is brilliant! I especially liked the magical library and wished that there was more on that, but that is purely my own dream to have!
I loved the contrast between the dreary world of the adults and the whimsy of the world of children, as well as the power of friendship.
This is the first book that I have read by Susie Bower, but I would definitely be interested in reading more of her works now. I would also recommend this to my pupils, especially reluctant readers as the chapters are quite short and there is lots of action throughout!
3.5 stars
Thank you to Susie Bower, NetGalley and Pushkin Children’s for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was a fantastical middle grade adventure story, following our main character who wakes up in a strange world with no memory of who she is or how she got there. She finds herself lost and confused, and it's only when she bumps into two invisible children who seem to know who she is that she can start to work out what's going on.
Since we are following a main character with lost memories, the start of this book is somewhat confusing, as the reader is forced to put the pieces together as much as she is. However, as this is a younger-leaning middle grade, I feel that a bit more world-building at the beginning in the prologue would have helped the story make more sense for younger readers.
After reading this book, I'm keen to read more of Susie Bower's backlist, as her world-building was very whimsical and descriptive, I just wanted more of it! Plus, there is a library island in this magical world?! We definitely needed more than 1 scene there!

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Children's Press for the eArc of this book!

The moment we finished reading this book we were on Amazon looking for more books by this talented author. The tale is completely entrancing and adored by all of the family. Bought all the other books to add to our family library.

There are a few things I’m good at, but names are something that I really struggle with – those that belong to people in particular, but also things like book titles. Covers, however, I am usually good at recognising and having seen this upcoming title mentioned several times by its author on my socials, when it appeared on NetGalley I immediately requested it and was delighted to be granted a read very speedily.

Perhaps I should clarify that I didn’t choose to read this based on the artwork alone – having read and really enjoyed Susie Bower’s The Three Impossibles when it was published a few years ago, her name had stuck in my head and very much liking the sound of this, I thought I’d give it a whirl. Full of mystery and magic, this is a great story that at 240 pages is much shorter than most middle grade titles, something that in combination with that brilliant cover will, I hope, make it a popular choice with 9+ readers.

When Merlin sets out to row to the Island of Darkness to prove to best friend Vincent that the tales of the monster that lives there are nonsense, little could he imagine that he will set in place a chain of events that will almost lead to complete catastrophe for him, Vincent, his other friends and the Land of Magics in which they reside.

Some time afterwards, Grace wakes up in the Wasteland – a place full of adults and constant grey and rain – having lost her memory. After a series of unpleasant encounters with a few of its residents, Grace finds herself at the door of Mr Smith, who has been advertising for Help and who takes her on in exchange for food and lodgings, but insists she always tells the truth and doesn’t tell stories about ghosts.

When Grace starts to hear strange singing inside the house, she asks Mr Smith about it, but he refuses to be drawn as to who is producing it. This is nothing though compared to the invisible presence that tries to prevent Grace cleaning the graffiti from his wall outside. As she becomes increasingly aware of not just one, but two invisible children connected to the house, Grace is drawn into the mystery of who they are, who she is and what they are all doing there. Can she uncover the clues that will identify who she and the Invisibles are? And if she can, will she be able to regain her memory and escape from the Wasteland forever?

The prospect of being a stranger in a strange land is a frightening one and for poor Grace, having no recollection of who she is when she wakes up is just the start of what is a truly terrifying adventure. Not used to adults, or the way things work in the Wasteland, she immediately sets about trying to be practical in order to survive the experience but is initially unable to find even one kind soul who will take pity on her and help her out. Although Mr Smith seems to offer Grace at least a temporary safe haven, he shows her no warmth and between his and the Invisibles’ treatment of her, she is hard pushed to motivate herself to carry on. As she does, we gradually start to see how she, the unseen children and Mr Smith are connected to the events of Merlin’s boat trip, in a story that is filled with twists and turns.

Perfect as a solo read for confident readers in Year 4 upwards, I very much enjoyed this and would like to thank publisher Pushkin Children’s Books and NetGalley for my advance virtual read. The Invisibles hits the shelves on June 5th.