A review by briarrose1021
The Language of Ghosts by Heather Fawcett
5.0
Noa and her sister Mitia "Mite" Marchena have been living with their brother Julian on an island that he's enchanted to move for the last two years while Julian works to regain the kingdom and the throne that were both violently taken from their family with the assassination of their mother by a traitorous council member. While Mite is focused on collecting bugs, Noa is focused on her secret mission of making sure her brother doesn't go bad the way other dark magicians - those who can speak more than one magical language - have gone bad, all while trying to help him defeat Xavier and retake his rightful place as King of Florea.
This book had such an interesting way for its characters to use magic. Each type of magic, whether it be earth magic, water magic, ice magic, blood magic, etc., had its own language, and magicians who were capable of using that type of magic were born knowing the language - though they still had to study and practice to be proficient. Most magicians only knew one language. So-called "dark" magicians knew more than one language. Julian knew all 9 of the known languages. This, of course, is why Noa was so concerned about ensuring that her brother didn't go bad. The idea of each type of magic having its own language, and that those languages cannot be learned by anyone but only by those who are born knowing the language.
Throughout the book, I also really enjoyed the sibling interactions. With the three siblings being orphaned at a young age, Julian at 16, Noa at 11, and Mite at 5-6 (I don't remember her age ever being specified), they clearly had to band together to look out for each other, but the larger gaps between their ages made for some interesting dynamics. I thought Fawcett captured those dynamics well, along with the jealousy that Noa felt for being the only sibling to not have any magic.
Of the other characters - because of course the siblings aren't alone on their wandering island - I think my favorite one is Beauty. She is such a snarky sea serpent and though it is clear that she's unhappy with Julian trapping and tethering her to the island, she also has a begrudging respect for him. Then watching the relationship between her and Noa develop was also fun to see. I almost want a series of stories with Beauty as the main character; I think it would be a lot of fun to read those.
The plot moved along at a great pace, neither too fast nor too slow, though I would have liked the final battle to go on for a few more pages, but I think that has more to do with me wanting more information than there actually needing to be more information. I loved the overall pace of the book and I have now put the rest of Fawcett's books on my TBR list. If they are even half as good as Language of Ghosts (and of course I know they will be more than half as good), then I know they will be great and I will enjoy reading.
As a final note, I know that we're not supposed to judge books by their covers, and I do try really hard to not discount books because of their covers, but I have to admit that I totally picked up this book because of the cover. It is a beautiful cover! Props go out to Julia Iredale for a beautiful cover!
This book had such an interesting way for its characters to use magic. Each type of magic, whether it be earth magic, water magic, ice magic, blood magic, etc., had its own language, and magicians who were capable of using that type of magic were born knowing the language - though they still had to study and practice to be proficient. Most magicians only knew one language. So-called "dark" magicians knew more than one language. Julian knew all 9 of the known languages. This, of course, is why Noa was so concerned about ensuring that her brother didn't go bad. The idea of each type of magic having its own language, and that those languages cannot be learned by anyone but only by those who are born knowing the language.
Throughout the book, I also really enjoyed the sibling interactions. With the three siblings being orphaned at a young age, Julian at 16, Noa at 11, and Mite at 5-6 (I don't remember her age ever being specified), they clearly had to band together to look out for each other, but the larger gaps between their ages made for some interesting dynamics. I thought Fawcett captured those dynamics well, along with the jealousy that Noa felt for being the only sibling to not have any magic.
Of the other characters - because of course the siblings aren't alone on their wandering island - I think my favorite one is Beauty. She is such a snarky sea serpent and though it is clear that she's unhappy with Julian trapping and tethering her to the island, she also has a begrudging respect for him. Then watching the relationship between her and Noa develop was also fun to see. I almost want a series of stories with Beauty as the main character; I think it would be a lot of fun to read those.
The plot moved along at a great pace, neither too fast nor too slow, though I would have liked the final battle to go on for a few more pages, but I think that has more to do with me wanting more information than there actually needing to be more information. I loved the overall pace of the book and I have now put the rest of Fawcett's books on my TBR list. If they are even half as good as Language of Ghosts (and of course I know they will be more than half as good), then I know they will be great and I will enjoy reading.
As a final note, I know that we're not supposed to judge books by their covers, and I do try really hard to not discount books because of their covers, but I have to admit that I totally picked up this book because of the cover. It is a beautiful cover! Props go out to Julia Iredale for a beautiful cover!