The Language of Ghosts by Heather Fawcett is a great MG for kids! This didn't disappoint. I loved everything about it. Thank to you NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley for granting this ARC, super good and fast read. The story was intruiging and the characters had an interesting back story.

This was actually my second attempt at this book. The first time around I wasn't in the right headspace to appreciate Noa and her siblings, and so I set it aside for later reading. Fast forward to this year, and I was so in the mood for some middle grade shenanigans! I picked this story back up, and dove straight in. If you're new to my blog, I should premise this review with the fact that I truly love Middle Grade books. In fact, I feel like there are so many gems here that people generally miss out on because they go straight into the YA realm. So it should come as no surprise that I had pretty high expectations for this Fantasy realm and its quirky characters.

First off, big kudos to Heather Fawcett for the wonderful world that she has created here. While Noa's reason for fleeing to her moving island home is a tragic one, the picture that Fawcett paints of Noa's new home is just magical. A crumbling castle. Invisible cats. A sea serpent! What's not to love? Despite its faults, Noa finds her new home rather charming and that pulled me right in too. Add in a stellar, easy to understand magic system and you have my heart. This is absolutely a story that younger me would have loved, and I enjoyed it even now.

Similarly, I thought that the big focus on family in this story was really lovely. Julian isn't the easiest big brother to take care of. As a mage of vast power, with a fiery temper as large as his talent, Noa has her hands full trying to keep him from getting himself into trouble. However her love for him just shines off the page. Noa's constant worry that her big brother will go "bad" is so understandable, and downright sweet. The lengths that she'll go to in order to make sure he stays on the right path made me smile. I also loved how much Noa's affection for her littlest sibling, Mite, radiated off the page. We all know our younger siblings can drive us nuts. Mite is no exception, and it was so giggle worthy and realistic to watch their banter. There was love there too though, and I ate it up.

Now to the part that I had a bit of trouble with. While I loved a lot about this story, there were a few parts that just didn't hit for me. Noa is a bit hard to handle as a narrator at times. I fully understood that she was a young teen, and so I took a lot of what she said and did with a grain of salt. Still, there were portions of the story where it felt like she was just being stubborn to further the plot, and not like it was an intentional aspect of her character. Same goes for the constant miscommunication between the siblings. Do I love that Fawcett showed that siblings do indeed argue, sometimes constantly? Absolutely! I also loved they were able to grow, learn and make up at some point. The frustrating part was that a lot of their arguments felt wholly manufactured as a way to generate drama. Add in a few frustrating plot holes, and I was admittedly a bit frustrated at times.

I think that the ending definitely rounded things out, and did the book justice! Books like The Language of Ghosts always make me smile because they show the beauty of family togetherness and perseverance. That's ultimately why I settled on a solid three-star rating. While this wasn't my favorite book of the year, I did indeed enjoy it! I'll be adding more of Fawcett's writing to my TBR this year!

I thoroughly enjoyed Heather Fawcett's new standalone novel, The Language of Ghosts!

In the land of Florean, many are born with the ability to understand the language that makes up certain magics. As they age and educate themselves, they are usually able to control a single element based on their natural abilities,. Few are born with the ability to speak more than one language and those who can are considered to be dark mages, as their stronger powers can corrupt weaker minds.

Julian Marchena was born with the ability to speak not only one, but all nine of the known languages at once,

The Marchena children are forced to go into hiding on the day of their mother's funeral. Queen Marchena's kingdom has been overthrown by a usurper named Xavier who had previously served on her council. As the new head of the family, and therefore rightful king, Julian manages to escape with his two younger sisters Noa and Mite to a small island. There he uses his abiities as the world's most adept magician to pilot their new island home as if it were itself a ship, freely sailing the sea in search of a way to get back to their rightful of royalty. On the way there his sister Noa, though born without magic, will do everything in her power to ensure that Julian does not become corrupted by the very powers that could save them all.

Honestly, this is the first time in ages where I was disappointed that there *wasn't* a sequel! The plot swept me in pretty quickly, imagine Game of Thrones with more magic, and a whole lot more whimsey. I also thoroughly enjoyed Fawcett's world building and character development.

All in all, I think this book stands out as a gem amongst the rest.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for the opportunity to read and review,

I absolutely loved reading this book. It was a great book. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

Thank you Harper Collins and NetGalley for sharing an eARC in exchange for an honest review. This book was the fantasy book I needed. It had excellent world building, powerful characters, unique magic, and suspense. I loved this book.

Noa has a lot on her plate: She’s got to reclaim the throne for her family, protect her older brother from his all-consuming dark magical powers, make a home in exile on a mysterious moving island, keep the sea monster protecting the island in line with cake, and baby-sit her little sister.

The Language of Ghosts is a middle grades charmer, and practical, competent Noa is one of my new favorite heroines. When the novel begins, she’s utterly unmagical, but she’s the one who solves problems through observation and critical thinking. Noa’s always assumed that the magic skipped her, and she’s content to keep life running behind the scenes — which is no small task when your parents have been murdered, your family has been forced into exile, and your big brother is working to retake the throne. This requires him to channel the dark side of his magical abilities, however, and Noa becomes more and more worried that the darkness is overtaking him. She’s also worried because it turns out the magic hasn’t skipped her after all, and she has abilities that have been forgotten from magical lore. Her ability may be exactly what Julian needs to win the war — but it may also be the power that pushes him over to the dark side.

I really loved this book — the family relationships feel real, and I definitely identify with Noa, who is managing everything behind the scenes and not getting much credit for her work! In fact, in a lot of ways, this a family story that just happens to take place in a world where magic is real. This gives the story an emotional heft that plenty of middle grades fantasy don’t have — because we’re invested in Noa and her siblings, we genuinely care how the adventure turns out. Cleverly, the author uses these emotions to push toward a finale that is — if not surprising — pretty satisfying. My only complaint: The pacing is a little weird. It takes a long time for the story to get going, and then the ending feels kind of rushed. I liked it, though, and definitely recommend it for middle grade readers who like their magic with an emotional anchor.

The Language of Ghosts is a brilliant intersection between magic, family, and choices. After a coup, three siblings flee to an island where Julian, the oldest, hones his dark magic. Noa learns everything she can about the island, Julian's powers, and discovers her own while trying to save her brother from going evil. All the while, the youngest, Mite, is busy finding all the bugs, spiders, and monsters that live on their island home. This story hits all the right marks for a fantastic middle grade book.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for the opportunity to read an advance reading copy.

Overall I loved this book. I loved that the rightful king was a moody teen trying to care for his little sisters and reclaim his kingdom, and that he happened to be bisexual. My one criticism would be the ending was a little anticlimactic. The scenes with poisoned mangoes and Noa sneaking into a palace full of her enemies were much more dramatic and exciting than the final showdown.

I was a little confused at certain parts of this and it didn’t really pick up until the second part.

After the second part I couldn’t put it down (hoping the typos get fixed).

Noa her little sister Mita and her older brother Julian are the last of the Marchenas. Their mother was over thrown by Xavier who wanted to see the family fail and abolish magic forever.

The 3 must work together to save their kingdom while also on the run.

I really enjoyed seeing the different sibling relationships in this book. The way magic worked confused me a little bit, but it was fun to see the effects it made on the environment.

This felt so original and gave such a great new take on the Middle grade fantasy about orphaned/lost royal children. Gosh, I loved Julian as a character so much (he was so cool and melodramatic) and I loved that Noa had to struggle with her brother being the Dark Lord and maybe evil but still the older brother that both loves and exasperates her. The magic system was pretty basic, but well explained and simple enough to grasp and appreciate as it was used, which paved the way for some awesome magic moments. This book was a ton of fun, but the biggest selling point for me was both the magical island setting (this book had a fantastic sense of place) and the strong sibling relationships between Noa, Mite and Julian.

Princess Noa Marchena and her sister Mite escape a deadly palace coup with their older brother, now king, Julian, a dark magician with command of all nine languages of magic. Since dark magicians have been known to lose themselves to dark magic, Noa makes it her business to act as Julian’s conscience. Hidden away on a moving island protected by a sea serpent, Julian plans his return to his country and his throne. Then he learns that Xavier, the leader of the coup, is killing all dark magicians in his kingdom and is seeking the lost languages of magic in order to find a magician who can use them to defeat Julian. The Marchenas discover one before Xavier; the language of ghosts, which Noa names Shiver. The language of ghosts allows someone who can use it to travel through the land of death, and to see and speak to ghosts. The ability to read and understand it is rare, but Noa, until then without magical abilities, discovers that she is able to understand it.

What with the suspenseful palace coup and dark magicians, at the beginning and a title like The Language of Ghosts, I expected a little more spookiness to the story. It’s been compared to Howl’s Moving Castle, and it does have a magically moving island and a crabby magician, but it doesn’t have the depth or humor of that book. It is more likely to appeal to fans of Jessica Day George than it is to readers of Mary Downing Hahn. The Language of Ghosts is an okay middle-grade fantasy with a few genuinely suspenseful moments, enjoyable but not outstanding and certainly not as ghosty as I expected it to b

This book had great potential but squandered it with achingly slow plot development, boatloads of unnecessary information and asides, and chapters that could be (and often were) summarized with a 3-5 word chapter title. I really wanted to like this one because the world concept was so great, but I couldn't get past the glacial pacing (minus, of course, the excellent opening chapter and the quite simply lazy epilogue). We'll still purchase it for my library, but it won't be anything I take the time to recommend.