A review by heatherbermingham
The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by Eugene Yelchin, M.T. Anderson

5.0

For some reason, I couldn't wrap my brain around what this book was based on the descriptions I read so I kept picking it up and putting it down, but after it showed up on pretty much every best-of-the-year list I read, I decided I had to at least try it. Turns out that hey, sometimes people know what they're talking about because I loved it. On one hand, it's a silly elf-goblin buddy comedy. On the other hand, it says a lot of interesting (and true) things about how we often cling to our preconceptions or what we've been taught about others, even in the face of evidence that tells us otherwise. One of the characters mostly narrates the events while the other sends communications back to his land in visuals and the visuals he's sending back often don't match the story being told which is a great storytelling device that could start a lot of discussion if read with kids. I'd be really interested in reading and discussing this with a class or small reading group.