Book Review - A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking


If you're one of those people who is really bummed out about J.K. Rowling going off the rails, there is a new and wonderful alternative out there that you MUST read.

And if you're one of those who is not bummed about Rowling, read this book anyway.

It's called "A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking." And it's awesome.

T. Kingfisher is the pen name of Ursula K. Vernon, a wonderful and relatively new writer (since about 2005, or so), who started out as an illustrator and then branched out into literature. She adapted the pen name of T. Kingfisher to distinguish her more adult literature from her children's literature, taking a page from Ursula K. LeGuin (who once joked that the "K" in her name stood for Kingfisher).

Like Harry Potter, this is a YA novel, but it appeals to adults as well. It's about a young girl named Mona, a fourteen-year-old girl with what seems to be a minor-level magical talent. She can work magic with bread. It's a useful trick for making cupcakes nice and fluffy, making sure biscuits don't burn, or making little gingerbread men get up and dance, but surely such a low-level skill couldn't defend an entire kingdom from attack. Could it?

Indeed, it could. And when Mona comes to work one morning to discover a dead body in the kitchen, she slowly learns that it has to.

An assassin has been going around town killing mages. And with most of the major ones killed off or exiled, Mona is next on the killer's list. What's worse, the Duchess who rules the city is being targeted by the same anti-magic conspiracy, and young Mona discovers that she is the only wizard left who can help save her. Can she, and a sourdough starter she accidentally brought to life, rise to the challenge?

The book is brilliantly written, with baking puns found in virtually every page, and funny situations becoming even funnier - even as the plot grows more and more dark. It's the sort of thing Terry Pratchett might have written - if he had twice the talent.

My review could really be boiled down to four words: pick up this book! You won't regret it!


Eric

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