Jessica Townsend’s writing is nothing short of enchanting, a whirlwind of imagination and intricate world-building that makes me wonder how I went so long without it. I’m disappointed in myself for not discovering this series sooner, though there’s something soulfully satisfying about having the first four books ready to binge (Yes, I’ve got Silverborn on its way!). The concept is incredibly compelling and fruitful, making me optimistic that there will be plenty more books to come in the series, and Townsend’s writing ensures every page is doused in literary magic. Immersive, and brimming with the kind of charm, it makes Nevermoor feel like an instant classic.
 
Within this world, Jessica has assembled a delightfully mismatched yet perfectly complementary cast. Morrigan, Jupiter, Hawthorne, Fen, and Cadence each bring something unique to the table, whether it’s Jupiter’s eccentricities or Fen’s sharp-witted sass. Their dynamic makes every interaction radiate off the page, but Cadence’s relationship with Morrigan is a source of particular intrigue for me. She’s prickly and incredibly unpredictable (arguably the most unpredictable character I’ve read all year), yet her growing bond with Morrigan adds an extra layer of complexity that I can’t wait to see develop further.
 
Then there’s Ezra Squall, a villain who sends shivers down your spine in the most unnerving way. He’s not the run of the mill antagonist. He’s charming, charismatic, and, dare I say, almost likable (at least until he does something entirely evil). That makes him all the more terrifying. There’s something incredibly unsettling about a villain who could, under different circumstances, be someone’s greatest ally. His promised lessons for Morrigan in the later books have hooked me in and I can’t wait to see how Townsend weaves that complexity into future books.
 
Finally, I have to sing the praises of Gemma Whelan’s narration, which transforms an already brilliant story into an auditory masterpiece. Her characterisation adds so much dimension to these beloved figures. Her delivery is emotional, gripping, and just the right balance of whimsical and heartfelt. She’s the kind of narrator who could read a phone book and somehow make it captivating (though I doubt kids would use that as a reference these days). Simply put, she elevates Nevermoor to another level for audiobook listeners. If you haven’t experienced the magic of her narration yet, do yourself a favour, get it ordered and get your headphones in.
 
Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow sets a wond- - sorry, I typed it wrong – Wundrously high standard for this series and, given that two of my most trusted bookstagrammers recommended and praised the series to me, I can be assured this continues throughout the Nevermoor series. This is one to buy and read ASAP so you can get out and buy the fourth book in the series this week! The only way to get up to speed is to… START NOW!

The Nevermoor book is so charming, and even more so because of the narration of the audiobook. I've since gone on to listen to every other book in the series (and eagrly await the newest release!) and have to confirm that the audiobook is the way to go every time. The narration and sound effects really bring the story to life and highlight the magic and wonder every step of the way.

I’m several years late to the party but lucky for me, it’s still going strong. I absolutely adored Morrigan. The writing was rich and evocative, the characters expertly drawn. What a ride! I did not see the twists coming and can’t wait to read the next installment(s).
The narration was perfection. Such a delight.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve owned the hardcover & Audible book for a while so when I saw this on NetGalley I thought, what better way to get myself to read the story. None!

I loved it! I burned through it in a day. Morrigan Crow has been labeled a cursed child who will die on her 12th birthday. On her 11th birthday death comes for her but Captain Jupiter North rescues her.

To stay & join an exclusive membership she has to be one of nine winners of a competition including hundreds.

Morrigan growing up in a family where she feels invisible & treated as the cursed child who was responsible for everything that goes wrong is just looking for a place to belong. Here is the story of her leaving one family and finding another.

It’s a little scary/dark but a fabulous story & great audio. Thank you NetGalley & @HachetteAudio for prompting me to bump this story up my TBR!

Fantastic story! Recommend!!

With the upcoming release of Silverborn, I have been dying to reread the Nevermoor series. After listening to Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow for a second time, I am ecstatic to say that it was SO much better than I remembered! I loved it the first time, but I had forgotten how funny it was. Truly the best middle grade series I have read since Harry Potter, and the audiobook is a MUST. Gemma Whelan is one of the best narrators I have listened to, and I loved the different voices she does for the characters.

I received an audio version from Hachette Audio | Little, Brown Young Readers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Morrigan Crow is cursed because she was born on even tide and all the children who are born on even tide die at the age of 12. So she and her family are waiting for her to die. Nobody loves her because she is cursed. Everybody blames her when anything goes wrong. She gets rescued on even tide by a person named Jupiter from a different world and now she has to go through trials to get accepted in wunderous society to stay in that world otherwise she would be deported back where death is waiting for her.
We get to see how Morrigan is living in the beginning which validates her desperation of getting accepted in wunderous society.
The trials are set in different seasons so you can read it in any season. We meet other candidates, Morrigan also makes a friend and he is such a fun side kick. The trials were entertaining. The magical system is vague and its intriguing. I guessed the small mystery of wundersmith. But there were still some other revelations which shocked me.
I'm super invested in the story and excited to read the next book.

This is probably my second favorite middle grade series of all time (cough cough after Harry Potter of course)
Love seeing Morrigan crow overcome her sad start at life and ultimately find a group of people she can call family and friends.
I truly believe this is a series that is going to be just as popular as Harry Potter one day and im so glad I was about be here for the start of it. Love getting to see Morrigan grow each book and over come new challenges. Cannot wait to see where Jessica Townsend takes this and book four is coming out soon!
A must read and this audio book was AMAZING!!

I love this series and it's even more amazing in audiobook. A great middle grade fantasy that can appeal to middle grade age range and up.

A cursed girl escapes death and finds herself in a magical world…

Nevermoor released in 2017 and has been sitting on my shelves for a few years now. Why I waited I do not know haha. I love throwing a middle grade book in every once in awhile to revisit my earlier reading memories and get lost in its enchanted magic.

@gemmawhelan narrates and OH. MY. GOD. 100/10. Highly recommend. This is a fantasy book and the voices and accents she uses immediately transport you INTO the story. I adored it! What an absolutely perfect narrator for this type of story.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Hachette Audio for the audiobook in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Although the Nevermoor series was released past my main middle grade novel days, I have always been intrigued by the trope of a preteen being whisked away to a magical land, so have had it on my tbr for a while. I was so excited to see the audiobook on NetGalley, and am so happy to have received a copy from Hachette Audio!

The story of Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow is so fun and whimsical and slightly dark. This is exactly the type of story I sought out growing up!

I also thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook. I love Gemma Whelan’s voice (though some character voices were a little too Mad Hatter for me) and loved the little musical interludes between chapters. It really added to the story’s whimsicality.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (for the audiobook narration)

I recently listened to Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend, and while my feelings about the story itself were mixed, I feel it's important to highlight just how exceptional the audiobook narration was.

First, let’s talk about the story briefly: personally, I didn’t find the plot particularly engaging. Despite its whimsical setting and imaginative world-building — which I can see would appeal to many readers, especially younger ones — I struggled to stay interested. The pacing felt slow in places, and there were stretches where I found myself losing focus. Morrigan Crow’s journey, while filled with magic and adventure, just didn’t connect with me the way I hoped it would. I kept waiting for that moment when I would feel fully drawn in, but it never quite arrived. That said, I understand why the series has a strong following; it simply wasn't my cup of tea.

However, what absolutely stood out to me — and deserves all the praise — was the narrator’s performance. The audiobook narrator Gemma Whelan, did a phenomenal job throughout the entire production. She brought each character to life with distinct, carefully crafted voices that felt natural and fitting for the characters’ personalities. Her ability to shift between different accents, ages, and tones made it easy to tell who was speaking without ever feeling forced or exaggerated.

One thing that really impressed me was how well she handled voicing male characters. Often when female narrators attempt male voices, it can come across as either overly theatrical or unintentionally cringy — but that was absolutely not the case here. Her male voices felt authentic, balanced, and never pulled me out of the story. She captured nuances in emotion and dialogue so smoothly that I sometimes forgot it was the same person performing every character.

Additionally, the narrator's sense of timing, humor, and dramatic delivery enhanced scenes that otherwise might have felt flat if I had simply been reading the text. There’s a musicality to her voice work that added a lot of dimension to the world Townsend created. Even when I found myself less than engaged with the story itself, the narration kept me going. Without her skillful performance, I probably would have set the book aside much earlier.

In the end, although Nevermoor as a story wasn’t a personal favorite, the audiobook version is truly worth noting for its outstanding voice work. If you’re someone who appreciates a great performance — or if you have a child or friend who enjoys magical stories and audiobooks — I would definitely recommend experiencing Nevermoor in audio form. It might just make all the difference!

This is such a fun series - and the audio version is an absolutely lovely way to access the story. I read the book when it first came out and was entranced by the world building and Morrigan herself. When I saw the audio available, I knew I had to give it a listen, especially since book 4 is coming out soon!

This is a really fabulous and clever series that touches on family, found family, being an outsider, and finding your place in the world(s). There is magic and mystery and a lot of hijinks-type action. It is engaging and entertaining from the opening salvo and watching Morrigan grow into confidence and acceptance of herself is one of the most magical aspects of the story for me.

The narration was excellent, capturing the characters and tone of the story perfectly!

This is my second read of this book, but the first time with audio. WOWOW I was transported back to this world and was completely immersed. I love these books so much and now want to listen to the rest again on audio to prepare for the long awaited new book!!! I also hype this book up to my students almost everyday!!!

Nevermoor is such an endearing story. A love letter to goodness, resistance, found families, hope, love, and remaining true to yourself. This was such a joy to re-read and I can't wait to continue the series.

This time I did it via audio, and I loved Gemma Whelan's narration. She really brought the story alive. I can't wait to do the rest of the series via audio as well.

Thank you to Hachette Audio for a gift copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not a middle-grade reader, but I really loved this. It definitely lived up to the hype for me.

Audiobook notes: There are musical transitions at the end of every chapter. The narrator is British and does several different accents for the characters. She often speeds up her pace when delivering dialogue which can make it harder to understand if you're listening at a high speed. (Though occasionally she will slow down significantly for a dry character.)

So I’m. It sure why this book came up to listen to on NetGalley being several years old but maybe the proposed musical movie is about to be announced!!
I’m not sure but ai am glad it was because I had not experienced this gem of a middle grade book.

I consumed the audio book and while it’s listen as a regular one and not a dramatic audio, you got the best of both worlds!
The narrator Gemma Whelan did a fantastic job! So good that i gave the book 5⭐️ because of it. She brought such life to all the voices and gave a dramatic performance. I actually usually don’t enjoy when voice actors go too far and color my minds world creation but this fully enriched the prose.

The book itself was so much fun and magical. It’s the perfect book for middle grade reader to get exposed to fantasy and stay engaged.
This book as well as several sequels are readily available where books are sold so if you haven’t experienced it yet, this is your sign to do so!

I am thankful to have gotten a complimentary audio ALC from Hachette Audio through NetGalley to read which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

I was HIGHLY entertained, I usually jump into reads blind, but I was so surprised by how much I liked this. It might also be because Gemma Whelan is such an AMAZING narrator too!! All the characters were so uniquely voiced, I was so captivated. This gave very much Harry Potter, but also Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children vibessss.
Overall, this was just so much fun. Esp for a Children’s Fiction - Middle Grade book?! Loved it.
The story, The characters, The WORLD!! 🤍 I literally need to read the whole series now highkey lol.

This was such a fun start to what will hopefully become a new favorite middle-grade series of mine.

This book hit all the right spots - it was fun, quirky, magical and had a super cool cast of characters. I'm also a sucker for the Found Family trope so this book was an instant hit for me. Mog is an interesting main character to follow, as she is brave and curious (though, just as confused as the rest of us at times) and I absolutely adore Jupiter's quirky nature. The city of Nevermoor was also a facinating and whimsical setting that I adored!

Overall, I enjoyed my time with this book - I only wish that we could have learned more about Wunder and what it actually entails (something I'm sure will be explored more in the next book).

I honestly can't wait to jump into Wundersmith!

𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙞𝙨 𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙩𝙚𝙧, 𝙈𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙖𝙣 𝘾𝙧𝙤𝙬, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙄 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪.

Morrigan Crow is cursed: born on Eventide, the unluckiest day, and blamed for all local misfortunes. Worst of all, the curse means she is doomed to die at midnight on her eleventh birthday.

But on her 11th birthday, she is whisked away to a secret, magical city called Nevermoor to compete in trials to earn a place in the city's most prestigious organisation: the Wundrous Society.

Whimsical, magical, imaginative - this middle-grade book is guaranteed to give you warm and fuzzy feelings.
Found family, manic pixie boy energy from the mentor figure, friendships, enemies, dangerous competitions, magic….

This is often compared to Harry Potter!