Over the Woodward Wall
3.5/5
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About this ebook
Writing as A. Deborah Baker, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Seanan McGuire introduces readers to a world of talking trees and sarcastic owls, of dangerous mermaids and captivating queens in Over the Woodward Wall, an exceptional tale for readers who are young at heart.
If you trust her you’ll never make it home…
A 2021 Locus Award Finalist!
Avery is an exceptional child. Everything he does is precise, from the way he washes his face in the morning, to the way he completes his homework – without complaint, without fuss, without prompt.
Zib is also an exceptional child, because all children are, in their own way. But where everything Avery does and is can be measured, nothing Zib does can possibly be predicted, except for the fact that she can always be relied upon to be unpredictable.
They live on the same street.
They live in different worlds.
On an unplanned detour from home to school one morning, Avery and Zib find themselves climbing over a stone wall into the Up and Under – an impossible land filled with mystery, adventure and the strangest creatures.
And they must find themselves and each other if they are to also find their way out and back to their own lives.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A. Deborah Baker
A. DEBORAH BAKER is a pen-name of SEANAN McGUIRE, the author of Middlegame, the Hugo, Nebula, Alex and Locus Award-winning Wayward Children series, the October Daye series, the InCryptid series, and other works. She also writes darker fiction as Mira Grant. Seanan lives in Seattle with her cats, a vast collection of creepy dolls, horror movies, and sufficient books to qualify her as a fire hazard. She won the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and in 2013 became the first person to appear five times on the same Hugo ballot. In 2022 she managed the same feat, again!
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Reviews for Over the Woodward Wall
82 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I did know that this was a Seanan Maguire. I didn't know about the connection to Middlegame. I don't think it would change my feelings about the book -- I wanted to like it, and in the past I have very much enjoyed books like The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and Maguire's own Wayward Children series and Alice and Oz and you'd think that would make this appealing, but no. It feels like a story that wants a framework outside itself. It feels like a story that ought to have a point more profound than general unfairness and opposing personalities and it just isn't there. Oh well. I like the idea of Tarot kingdoms and giant brightly colored owls. I have a huge fondness for Crow Girls (even ones that aren't as endearing as De Lint's), so maybe I'll try the next book and see if it improves.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I have nothing coherent to say about this book. The best that I can do is that I felt like I was reading a modernised and less humourous version of Norman Juster's *The Phantom Tollbooth*I wanted a different ending. I wasn't expecting one, but I did kind of hope that it would be tidy and uncomplicated. I was also 'argh, how will I wait for book two', which promptly turned up for me, so off to read that!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5SO fun! I want more of this for sure.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a book that featured in another book written by the same author. This is a pen name for Seanan McGuire and the book was mentioned quite a bit in Middlegame. Two quite different children who live separate lives but live on the same street are both detoured to cross a stone wall on their way to their separate schools one day. Zib is more of a free spirt and Avery is a pressed shirt kind of kid. But they bond on their journey to the Impossible City to be able to return home. This is a middle grade fantasy that the reader doesn’t need to have read anything before it. I’ll keep my eye out for the next one and maybe reread Middlegame to remind myself of how much of this book did show up in it besides the title.
Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mira Grant writes great horror stories. Seanan McGuire writes excellent fantasy. A. Deborah Baker writes excellent YA fantasy.
Not all YA stories work for older readers. This does. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A. Deborah Baker is a pen a name for Seanan Mcguire - I'm bringing this up because I'll be make comparisons to her other works in this review.First, its a really well written modern fairy tale - two kids end up in a fantasy world together and need to depend on each other to survive. Its a fairly standard nonsensical world. There are people who help, people who hinder, and people who harm, and they aren't always known.My biggest issue with this book is it doesn't really cover any new ground. Ms. Mcguire writes the same stories over and over again. Its in a well written package with a beautiful setting - but its always a few kids whose world needs expanding, and they end up in a world fantasy world where they need to work together and ultimately they will succeed. There will be growth and understanding. Its all predictable (but only if you are familiar with the author)And last, this isn't a standalone story. Which is a bit annoying, since I was hoping for a nice conclusion. So, to sum up - it really is a well written book. But fairly derivative if you are familiar with the author.
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