This charming book swept me away! I fell right into the world of shapeshifting crows, mysterious mist and starlight magic. The mystery at the heart of the story is spellbinding and kept me turning pages as fast as I could. Rona and Ignis are amazing characters with such sparkly fun interactions that leap off the page. I loved all the twists and turns, and the ending is just perfect (though I won’t spoil it!)

The premise was interesting, but I found the narrative style and pacing dull. I can imagine the reader who would love this, but that reader is not me.

The premise of this was so interesting but the too-fast pacing made it hard to care about the stakes. An ice dragon that envelops a city in mystical mist is cool…but loses a lot of its luster when the description is barely-there and rushed through.

The Prince of Nowhere is a fantastical, intricate, fast-paced, and incredibly vivid journey! Hassan's wholly new and magical world feels innovative and incredibly fresh, and yet there are so many emotional touchstones, that I always felt grounded in Roda's quest. I love how this story challenges our ideas of time/space/reality while keeping us guessing through numerous unexpected and incredibly gratifying plot-twists.
Thank you to HarperCollins and Netgalley for the opportunity to read the e-arc.

A magical story in myriad ways! What a wonderfully written debut that follows the protagonist, Roda, on a high-stakes, fantastical journey. Rochelle Hassan's mysterious story is beautifully written and full of vivid descriptions, details and twists, but the pace still moves swiftly along in a manner that will pull in middle grade readers. I'm so taken with this story--I think kids will absolutely love it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

This is an intricate, fast-paced, vivid debut MG novel with some serious Miyazaki vibes! The number of plot twists make writing a non-spoilery synopsis nigh on impossible, so instead I'd like to gush about the world-building. "Whimsical" doesn't quite describe it, and neither does "refreshing," even though it's ultimately both of those things. It's more like... magical cloudy steampunk? Cloudy trains, dragons, and bird friends? Dragons with cloudy friendly trains and steampunk bird-magic shenanigans? The fact that I can't categorize it off the top of my head is a pretty good indicator of how original this story is.

Ultimately, THE PRINCE OF NOWHERE is the kind of novel that begs to be turned into an animated film. It's cinematic in a way that will certainly appeal to young audiences, with enough dark moral complexity to allow for some lovely character development.