Quick Overview: 4/5 stars, removing a star for some prose and plot choices, which I will detail below. Overall, a good story with a good message, but Impossible Creatures is not for your average middle-grade child. I would recommend this book to only your most hardy preteens or teenagers. If you have a mushy heart, beware.
My actual review starts here, spoilers included so read only if you want that. I have a lot of thoughts.
The best parts of Impossible Creatures are its lush world and fun characters. Like some other reviews, the plot was relatively straightforward, but that does not mean it was bad. It was written in a style for children/young teens, but the actual content of the book made me think it was written with an older audience in mind.
Most of my issues with this book stem with its rather bloody execution. For a children's book, there is a lot of violence, killing, and animal death. The FMC saves the world by kamikazeing herself (into a second sun) to destroy the BBEG. The cute, fuzzy animal companion is killed about 60% of the way through the book (the last of his kind). The bodyguard almost loses an arm to poisonous, evil, carnivorous horses. Characters are pretty regularly beat, stabbed, tossed around, and bloodied up.
These things in and of themselves are not deterrents to me reading a book; however, I was not expecting it here, and therefore, my star rating has gone down because it felt out of place with the way the book was framed. In other words, the prose and syntax made me think "beautiful KitchenAid mixer with cookie dough" and what I got was "KitchenAid mixer with meat grinder attachment." Both are beautiful and functional, but one is significantly gorier.
Now, let's discuss Mal's death, and her choices leading up to it. She started as a petulant - but loveable - child, and she had to grow up very quickly after Gelifen's death. I'm not a huge fan of using an animal companion's death as a plot point in the same way I'm not a huge fan of a woman's death serving to further a man's character development in media. It sits as though it is a contrived plot point, considering that many others escape almost certain death from things that may have been far more lethal in normal circumstances. And because of Gelifen's death, Mal gains new resolve in solving the entire world's problem. The narrative essentially then forces Mal to grapple with the entire knowledge of human triumphs and sorrows and existence - as a young girl - after her predecessor did everything in his power but commit suicide to unlearn all that he knew. (So the reader KNOWS how horrible it made this man feel.) Before she kills the Big Bad, and consequently, herself, she tells her new best friend and brother figure that it was all worth it. A child. Forced to understand things that even adults struggle with. Then. Launches herself. Into. THE. SUN.
And sure, Christopher is sad, but he's treated like a hero - and Mal a martyr. I don't doubt Mal's bravery or her newfound understanding. What I do doubt is the author choosing to actively write a child committing suicide for The Plot TM, and then writing a pithy chapter about how it was her choice and how she said "Yes" in the end to her responsibilities.
I am obviously very conflicted on this, because on one hand, the message is very lovely and profound, but on the other, the author could have easily aged this up to avoid, y'know, having a literal child commit suicide. "Oh, she's the Immortal, she'll come back in a new life." I don't know, that seems contrived. I'm going to stop here so I don't remove more stars.
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“Raw milk is better for you as long as you boil it” so true bestie now imagine if we could like. Super boil it. To really get all the bacteria out. And if we could do that quickly and efficiently. Imagine that.
So, the title is misleading. This is not the head of the IRS. It's the head of the IRS Human Resources. A woman with a spotless 21 year record was fired because she told employees that their termination was coming from DOGE and because she refused to onboard DOGE replacements over the weekend.
This is a woman who knows the subsections and clauses of personal policies - and now she is suing for unfair termination.
I decided to do some practice drawings and paintings during February, and this is how it’s going so far. I also recorded all these sketches for others to observe my process while I write articles exploring ideas about creation, style, and techniques, as well as the artistic struggles I deal with, hoping others might find something useful in my words. If this interests you, consider subscribing to my Patreon: patreon.com/ramonn90
Take It All In Stride @imaginesam - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
