Review by Booklist Review
Dare Coates is feisty, unkempt, and opinionated, and she doesn't care who knows it. These qualities don't earn her many--make that any--friends on her island home, so she's beyond heartbroken when her father, the only person who understands her, dies in a suspicious accident. She's barely begun to grieve when her mother marries the governor, who literally ships Dare from Barrow's Bay to her estranged great-aunt Emily's home in City-on-the-Pike. Wishingrad (The Verdigris Pawn, 2021) dreams up a rich fantasy setting akin to a magical Victorian London, but don't confuse magic with whimsy. City-on-the-Pike is overpopulated, starkly divided by class, and rife with crime, the filth of industrialization, and--whether people want to admit it or not--monsters. While Dare gets her bearings, she endeavors to figure out the truth about her father's death and, in so doing, exposes a dark ring of corruption that goes all the way to society's top. Colorful characters and genuine friendships make the mystery's darker themes easier to swallow as Dare confronts what actually makes something a monster. Hand to fans of Thomas Taylor's Eerie-on-Sea series.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Wishingrad (The Verdigris Pawn) tackles themes of exploitation, perception, reality, and trust in this high-stakes tale. Everyone on the island of Barrow's Bay is convinced that the monsters that once plagued the community were killed off years ago. But when 11-year-old Dare Coates's father, the Captain of the Guard, is killed, Dare believes it was by monsters, not humans. Not long after, her new stepfather, the island's manipulative governor, sends her to the mainland City-on-the-Pike to stay with her retired actor aunt. The city proves full of mysteries, and Dare soon discovers that the monsters are still very alive. She finds herself caught between two warring factions: those who wish to kill the monsters and those who want to save them. As she works to puzzle out the truth about her father's death, she uncovers information that makes her question everything she knows not only about the creatures, but about her father as well. Bouncy prose builds toward an engaging and optimistic exploration of how power and privilege can be wielded for both good and bad, as observed by one take-charge heroine who seeks to define her place in the world. Main characters read as white. Ages 8--12. Agent: Victoria Marini, Irene Goodman Literary. (Sept.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
After her father dies, a girl must harness both her temper and innate abilities to find his killer and prove it's a monster. Dare Coates is willful, surly, and unrepentantly nonconforming: "an awful girl." Only her father truly understood and loved her, but he was often busy patrolling for monsters on the island where they live, even though one hasn't been seen there for over 20 years. After his violent murder, her mother marries the island's pompous and secretive governor, who then sends Dare to the mainland to live with her father's aunt. From the moment her journey begins, Dare finds connections to her father through his past associates and the guild emblem on his special wooden box. The more she learns about him, the more peril Dare finds herself in, especially as she realizes the connection both she and her father have with so-called monsters. Dare has an outwardly cantankerous nature that hides a desire for acceptance. This works to endear her to readers even as her thorny exterior provides entertainment. Dare's true nature reveals itself piece by piece, like the clues dropped in every so often that help expand the worldbuilding as well as the moral conundrums Dare becomes embroiled in. Questions of what constitutes a monster and who decides what's true add depth to an already feisty caper. Characters read white. A quirky examination of true monstrousness with a memorable protagonist. (Fantasy. 9-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
