Mister Monday

When books are written by Garth Nix…they should be devoured quickly, with love, and no small amount of geeking…

****Slight Spoilers Ahead****

I picked this series because I adore Garth Nix’s writing. I held off reading it because I was really worried I would hate it. But I was hooked after the prologue. So good.

My only disappointment about Mister Monday is the age group it was focused on. The Abhorsen Trilogy is one of my very favorites, Lirael being one of my top ten favorite books of all time. The Keys to the Kingdom series, however, is written for a much younger audience. Ordinarily this wouldn’t bother me as when I pick up a book meant for younger audience I keep that in mind, but I was expecting the writing to be more along the lines of the Abhorsen Trilogy and it wasn’t.

Arthur is an interesting character. He is smart, courageous, and kind, but, again, I have to compare him to Nix’s other characters. I didn’t feel that Arthur ‘popped’ for me like Sabriel or Lirael did. He was a cool kid and I enjoyed him, but there was something missing for me, like he wasn’t fully developed.

Then there's Suzy Turquoise Blue, what a fun name! She was pretty awesome, a more full character than Arthur. She has on layers and layers of clothing, and is quite dirty. She also has this infectious happiness about her. I picture her with short, frizzing red hair, a smattering of freckles, and a broad smile on her young face. What I like best about her, I think, is that she isn’t an immediate love interest. Arthur is in the seventh grade, so about the age when girls stop having cooties, but the thought of Suzy like that doesn’t cross his mind. He focuses on the tasks at hand, and he and Suzy become allies, and I think friends. I may want to ship them in later novels, but I’m relieved Nix left them alone for now.

Look at Suzy!! Isn't she cute!? theintrovert over at Deviantart made this fabulous picture of Suzy and Arthur, and has kindly allowed me to use the artwork here. Go over and check out more of theintrovert's artwork: click here!

And there is the Will. At first I really liked the Will in its froggy form with the comic relief of his deep voice coming out of Suzy, but then at the end he got creepily controlling…so now I have some misgivings about whether releasing the Will is the right thing to do…guess I’ll have to read the rest of the series to find out!

The House in which a large part of the book takes place is very Nix. It reminded me of Death in the Abhorsen series. Nix is very good at building places with lots of backdoors and levels and all sorts of crazy things you cannot imagine!

I give this book a four out of five, because while I liked the book I did not love it as much as I had hoped I would. Perhaps if I had not read the Abhorsen Trilogy I wouldn’t have this problem…but it’s just so brilliant and fantastic…I may have to re-read it so I can review it here.

Interested in reading the book? Get it now!

Remember to check out the: