Aza Ray is drowning in thin air.
Since she was a baby, Aza has
suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to
breathe, to speak—to live.
So when Aza catches a glimpse of a
ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her
medication. But Aza doesn’t think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone
on the ship calling her name.
Only her best friend, Jason,
listens. Jason, who’s always been there. Jason, for whom she might have
more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea,
something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another.
Magonia.
Above the clouds, in a land of
trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can
breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—and as she navigates
her new life, she discovers that war is coming, Magonia and Earth are on the
cusp of a reckoning. And is Aza’s hands lies the fate of the whole
humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?
I am actually astonished by how much
I ended up enjoying Magonia. When the
book initially began, I thought it was going to be one of those stories that have
way too much extra fluff. A few chapters in, however, and I realized it was
fluff but rather voice. Maria Dahvana Headley created such a unique and raw
voice in this story that roped me in and didn’t let me go. The premise was
gorgeous and ne: a girl drowning on Earth from the air because she belongs in
the sky with a race of birdlike creatures straight out of Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal. It was beautiful and
poignant and I’m gasping for breath waiting for the next book.
While the voice and imagery was
brilliant, the story did go off on some tangents a little too much. While I
loved Aza and Jason (actually just all of the characters and creatures), I
thought there could have been a little less randomness and a little more plot.
I think more could have been done with the development of Aza’s life in
Magonia. It just felt like she accepted the world too quickly. I would have
liked for her to try and escape or plot her return to Jason somehow.
While I loved the addition of Aza’s
Magonian love interest, there was nothing there. It felt like there should have
been a little more chemistry between them or just something. I felt him change,
but I didn’t feel anything from Aza. Also, Aza welcomed her birth mother back
into her heart way too easily. For a smart girl, Aza was not nearly suspicious
enough about Magonia and this war brewing between it and Earth. While the
synopsis told me of a war in Aza’s heart over which side of this war to be on,
the book didn’t give me any of that tension.
The last thing that saddened me was
the lack of emphasis and beautiful writing on Aza’s ability to finally breathe
again. I expected that moment to be lush and vivid considering the beauty of
the rest of the book, but I was a little let down. She’s down on Earth,
drowning, and then she’s in Magonia, breathing. There was not excitement and
that’s what I wanted for our previously dying protagonist.
Yes, I can go on and on like so many
other reviewers about the amazingly fresh history and mythology of this book,
but I won’t. Anybody who has read this can tell you it was an amazing book (me
being one of them), but you’ll just have to read it for yourself. Now excuse me
while I go find my heart, because some bird just gobbled it up and flew away.
XOXO Tia
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