Editorial Content for Furthermore
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FURTHERMORE --- Tahereh Mafi’s debut into middle grade --- follows 12-year-old Alice Alexis Queensmeadow, who lives in a world full of vivid color and yet she has none. Ever since her father left home and never came back, Alice has been determined to find him. Alice’s one chance to leave her unhappy home with her mother is the Surrender. She must surrender her best talent to receive a quest, but when Alice surrenders the wrong talent she loses her chance to leave Ferenwood. Except she gets a proposition from a boy named Oliver, a boy who used to bully her. Oliver needs Alice’s help to complete his own quest --- that is very much tied to Alice --- which will lead them to a place called Furthermore.
"If there’s one thing you can expect from Tahereh Mafi it is beautiful writing. FURTHERMORE is decadent and vivid; it truly is magical and imaginative."
If there’s one thing you can expect from Tahereh Mafi it is beautiful writing. FURTHERMORE is decadent and vivid; it truly is magical and imaginative. The narration is excellently executed. The novel is written with an omniscient narrator who uses free indirect discourse --- essentially the narrator is present in the story and takes on a personality. It is quirky, funny and heartwarming. It reads like Jane Austen’s writing, but it is in a fantasy middle grade novel.
Tahereh Mafi cemented the fact that she is an incredible world builder with this novel. She has created not one but two world in this story. You are first introduced to Ferenwood --- Alice’s home --- which is a world full of color and magic and then you are exported to Furthermore, which is also full of magic but it is completely wacky and like nothing you have ever read before. From paper foxes to books filling people’s pockets, FURTHERMORE shines for its strangeness which will surely make you fall in love with it.
The novel’s pacing is the only problematic part of it. The middle did drag on for a bit without much clear direction, while the end wrapped up too quickly. It seemed like this was going to be a series because the major conflict had not been resolved, but then it was wrapped up in about two chapters. It wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been it was was expanded upon in the detail of the rest of the novel.
FURTHERMORE is a fun and colorful adventure that is both beautiful and uniquely imaginative. This story feels familiar, reminiscent of ALICE IN WONDERLAND and other fantasy stories, but Mafi brings new life to it. Fans of the Shatter Me series will not be disappointed in her newest novel.
Teaser
It's been almost three years since Father disappeared and Alice is determined to find him. In order to find him she’ll have to travel through the mythical, dangerous land of Furthermore, where down can be up, paper is alive and left can be both right and very, very wrong. Her only companion is a boy named Oliver and in a land where nothing is as it seems, it will take all of Alice's wits (and every limb she's got) to find Father and return home to Ferenwood in one piece. On her quest to find Father, Alice must first find herself --- and hold fast to the magic of love in the face of loss.
Promo
It's been almost three years since Father disappeared and Alice is determined to find him. In order to find him she’ll have to travel through the mythical, dangerous land of Furthermore, where down can be up, paper is alive and left can be both right and very, very wrong. Her only companion is a boy named Oliver and in a land where nothing is as it seems, it will take all of Alice's wits (and every limb she's got) to find Father and return home to Ferenwood in one piece. On her quest to find Father, Alice must first find herself --- and hold fast to the magic of love in the face of loss.
About the Book
The bestselling author of the Shatter Me series takes readers beyond the limits of their imagination in this captivating new middle grade adventure where color is currency, adventure is inevitable and friendship is found in the most unexpected places.
There are only three things that matter to 12-year-old Alice Alexis Queensmeadow: Mother, who wouldn’t miss her; magic and color, which seem to elude her; and Father, who always loved her. The day Father disappears from Ferenwood he takes nothing but a ruler with him. But it’s been almost three years since then, and Alice is determined to find him. She loves her father even more than she loves adventure, and she’s about to embark on one to find the other.
But bringing Father home is no small matter. In order to find him she’ll have to travel through the mythical, dangerous land of Furthermore, where down can be up, paper is alive and left can be both right and very, very wrong. Her only companion is a boy named Oliver whose own magical ability is based in lies and deceit --- and with a liar by her side in a land where nothing is as it seems, it will take all of Alice's wits (and every limb she's got) to find Father and return home to Ferenwood in one piece. On her quest to find Father, Alice must first find herself --- and hold fast to the magic of love in the face of loss.
