The contradictory themes in the Brume series never cease to amuse me. From Brume's constant hearing the opinions of others and then repeating them as if they were her own to her giving advice or scolding someone and then doing precisely what she told them not to do or admonished them for doing. Or even to something as simple as someone who is clearly the messiest of people saying they've become "a bit of a neat freak in [their] old age." And this is honestly just the beginning.

I've come to the conclusion that I absolutely adore these characters and their misadventures. They're quirky and clever and oh so much entertaining fun. Brume: The Forest of Lost Souls by Jérôme Pélissier brings us right back into the wildness experienced by our exceptional pig narrator, Hubert. Illustrated beautifully once again by the brilliant Carine Hinder, the second installment in this series begins with our overconfident Brume deciding, now that she's clearly become a grand and powerful witch but no one believes she's actually killed the dragon and instead attributes that feat to Naïa, that it's high time she find this legendary witch and figure out why she left Brume with her spellbook.

Thus she drags her friend poor Hugo—a boy quite spellbound in his reverence of her, something I imagine is fueled largely by his lack of confidence and her extreme overabundance of it—and poor Hubert on another unfortunately extremely dangerous adventure. They learn about the last actions of Naïa during her final visit to the village and Brume immediately takes it upon herself to insist that they must travel through the forest of lost souls to find her. But, as this is the forest of lost souls and everyone who enters it fails to ever leave, the fatal danger that fills the forest is awaiting them.

The adventure, as a whole, is deeply adorable. Brume's self-aggrandizing character traits persist alongside Hugo's admittedly unearned admiration of her. And, as with the previous book, these two would be hopelessly in danger if not for Hubert. Though Brume manages to play a surprisingly larger role in the protection of the group than she managed to last time, the fact still remains that despite Brume's insistence that it's her competence and brilliance that gets them out of any pickle they find themselves in, more often than not she is actually the cause of the trouble and Hubert is exceptionally smart with his problem solving.

He may be our brilliant narrator, but it's not like he can explain any of this to the kiddos.

I laughed so much while reading this book; I can't recall if I laughed nearly as much when I read the first one, but it is without a doubt to me that this latest installment was pure perfection. I especially adored the silent little acts in the background that portrayed more of Hubert's role, with Hugo and especially Brume completely oblivious to what's happening, instead falsely attributing certain events to her own success and brilliance. Watching this incompetent little girl sort of fail up as a result of dragging along more competent characters is one of the more entertaining reading experiences I've ever had.

Highly recommend this series for a read. It's excellent.

This is too cute, and Brume is a hilarious character. I love her over confidence and lack of awareness-- she manages to still be adorable while blundering through her adventures and unknowingly being saved by her pig companion. This is the kind of story that will be funny with every read.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this