This book is for a younger audience, probably ages 9 to 14. I am an adult and I thought it was a beautiful story. Young Gwendolyn is 13, but does not want to grow up because adult life is so boring. She lives in a world of sameness and no color. Everyone has hair that is black or washed out blonde. Her whole world is in shades of black and white Gwendolyn is bullied because she's is different. She refuses to use her lambent, and instead let's her imagination run away with itself. She has no friends and so she talks to inanimate objects. Until one day her imagination makes things real, and that's when her life starts to change. This story gives the message that being different isn't always bad. You can to anything you set you mind to. This book is a great read, worth all 5 stats in my opinion.

"Creepy!? Do you mean creepy good, or creepy bad?" (H. Wolowitz)

I mean creepy very good.

If this were an adult novel it would start as "1984" with a touch of the movies "Dark City" and "Metropolis", and proceed to an extended series of fantasy/action sequences. Since it is in fact an ambitious middle grade book it just has hints of "1984", and an opening touch of dystopia, but then a generous helping of sly fantasy that drifts into magical realism steampunk. Actually, in order to really get a sense of the wonder of this book I'd also add some "Wizard of Oz", a touch of "Peter Pan", a hint of "The Matrix", and the progressive symbolic colorization of the movie "Pleasantville". How's that for a list of ingredients?

The setup is that Gwendolyn is something of a rebel and free thinker. Everything, and I mean literally everything, around her comes in shades of grey. (There's a great joke to the effect that her most prized possession is a drawing pencil set that consists of every possible shade of grey.) Gwen's a red-headed, green-eyed non-conformist who fantasizes that there must be more out there somewhere beyond her strictly regimented city, ringed in as it is by class specific circles of housing and a limitless supply of rules. One day Gwen daydreams about a mean girl growing rabbit ears. The girl in fact does grow rabbit ears and is whisked to the principal's office, where she is disappeared/disintegrated by two creepy truly unnerving men in black suits and bowler hats, and then erased completely from everyone's memory. Wow, this isn't just Alice-in-Greyland anymore. The balance of the book moves Gwen through the multi-verse as she tries to avoid the black men and bring life and color back to her world. The book gets pretty magical steampunk power-of-the-mindy by the end, but everything is racketing along at such a pace that you don't mind that we aren't on the rails anymore.

There is a lot of dry and deadpan edge and vinegar, but the odd spoonful of sugar makes it easy to digest. Gwen is neither always right nor always wrong, and the challenges she faces and the choices she makes feel authentic. I suspect that almost any young reader will respond well to the general tone, and more advanced readers will get some of the more adult themes. Doesn't that sound interesting?

This is also one of those books that subtly subverts a lot of middle grade fiction cliches. Gwen's parents have their rough and their smooth sides, and are treated sympathetically, which I found refreshing. The author has no problem exhibiting the fact that this is a story. In fact, the idea of the power of stories and storytelling is central to the book. So, the author will offer dry observations and chummy asides that are aimed directly at the reader. The reader is almost collaborating with the author, and it sometimes feels like the author is asking the reader for advice on what should happen next. This is not off-putting but rather is quite engaging and strikes me as likely to have the effect of making the reader feel comfortable and welcome.

The upshot is that while this book appears at the outset to be a conventional sort of fantasy adventure it actually zigs and zags unpredictably and invites and challenges the reader's imagination. That struck me as a solid plus.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)