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Title: Matchbox Girls
Author: Chrysoula Tzavelas
Genre: Urban fantasy
Thingummies: 4.5
Synopsis: Marley's longtime friend/crush mysteriously disappears out of his house, leaving her with the custody of his twin nieces. But she quickly discovers that everyone is out to get these girls--lawyers, angels, demons, fairies...
Thoughts: Urban fantasy with angels and halfbloods running around the world is nothing new, but Tzavelas manages to bring some fresh energy to the genre. Marley is a mess of social anxieties and aimlessness, and her two best friends are only slightly more on top of their game. Watching Marley pull herself together as she puzzles through situations that she would have sworn would have broken her has a poignancy and an urgency that keeps the pages turning.
The twin girls are particularly well written--it's really hard to write small children convincingly, and I think Tzavelas pulls it off without making them too precocious or too condescended to. The girls are crazy powerful, but have no idea how to use that power or what it means. They stumble around as blindly as Marley does, alternating being endearing and kind of terrifying. It's the right balance.
We end the book with a lot of questions left. It's clear that we're being set up for a sequel, and I'm eager awaiting it. I'd like to see more of Marley and her world, and find out a little more about what the heck is going on. That said, I think a little more info at this stage would have been nice--there are just too many threads dangling. Still, the worldbuilding is solid, the characters are engaging, and the action is inventive. A great start to what I hope is a series.
Author: Chrysoula Tzavelas
Genre: Urban fantasy
Thingummies: 4.5
Synopsis: Marley's longtime friend/crush mysteriously disappears out of his house, leaving her with the custody of his twin nieces. But she quickly discovers that everyone is out to get these girls--lawyers, angels, demons, fairies...
Thoughts: Urban fantasy with angels and halfbloods running around the world is nothing new, but Tzavelas manages to bring some fresh energy to the genre. Marley is a mess of social anxieties and aimlessness, and her two best friends are only slightly more on top of their game. Watching Marley pull herself together as she puzzles through situations that she would have sworn would have broken her has a poignancy and an urgency that keeps the pages turning.
The twin girls are particularly well written--it's really hard to write small children convincingly, and I think Tzavelas pulls it off without making them too precocious or too condescended to. The girls are crazy powerful, but have no idea how to use that power or what it means. They stumble around as blindly as Marley does, alternating being endearing and kind of terrifying. It's the right balance.
We end the book with a lot of questions left. It's clear that we're being set up for a sequel, and I'm eager awaiting it. I'd like to see more of Marley and her world, and find out a little more about what the heck is going on. That said, I think a little more info at this stage would have been nice--there are just too many threads dangling. Still, the worldbuilding is solid, the characters are engaging, and the action is inventive. A great start to what I hope is a series.
