Book Review of Deep is the Fen
The Children’s Book Review
Written by Lili Wilkinson
Ages: 12+ | 416 Pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press (2024) | ISBN-13: 978-0-593-56270-3
What to Expect: Magic, Relationships, Acceptance, Family, Authoritarian government.
All Merry wants is one more perfect summer with her two best friends, before a big decision needs to be made about whether she’ll leave home for college next year. More than anything, she wishes nothing would ever change—with her home, her family, and her friendships. However, her perfect summer is not to be.
There are rumors that the Spitalwick Hag—the witch whose curse killed her mother—has escaped from the rehabilitation center where she was imprisoned, and far from falling for her, her best friend Teddy has instead insisted on joining the Toadmen. Merry’s suspicions about this pervasive men-only club run deep, as she’s sure there is something sinister about the semi-legal magic and wealth-based power they wield.
When Carraway, son of one of the Toadmen’s elite leaders, insists that she be his consort at an important Toad ceremony, she sees an opportunity to rescue Teddy from the Toadmen’s clutches and get her perfect summer back on track. However, Merry is about to learn more about magic and power than she ever wanted to know…
In this original and satisfying fantasy novel, readers will discover an alternate reality in which the United Kingdom is an authoritarian state, ruled by corporations that brutally control access to magic for political power and commercial profit. Merry is an endearing combination of bright, curious, and gullible, and her fierce resistance to change—both to her life and her perceptions of reality—is a powerful driving force in the novel.
Readers will enjoy watching the hate-to-love relationship between Merry and Carraway develop, and the novel does an expert job of presenting the complexities of gender identity and friendship-group romances with sensitivity and realism.
The best part of this novel, however, is a setting so real you feel like you’ve lived in it all your life. From luscious descriptions of exotic comfort food (white fudge and apple cake with an ambrosia and greengage filling) to quirky reimaginings of Welsh and English mythology, fantastic creatures (fen worms, Onagadori roosters), and futuristic magics (glamor patches sold three-for-ten-quid at the supermarket), Deep is the Fen offers a world that feels both magical and deeply familiar. This is a fantasy adventure you won’t be able to put down until the very last page.
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About the Author
Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of eighteen books for young people, including The Erasure Initiative and After the Lights Go Out. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it, establishing the Inky Awards at the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria. Her latest book is A Hunger of Thorns (Delacorte, Allen & Unwin).
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