Magical, fantastical and very very intriguing. Great book.

I'm feeling emotionally wrung out after reading this book. What a deceptively simple, multi layered story about love, loss and ultimately hope it is. I loved the message that imagination trumps all exams and was willing it to have a happy ending with every fibre of my being - but it was not to be. The characters, especially Mouse, will haunt my mind for a long while and the tale will stay with me as all good stories should.

An ending I hadn't expected for poor Mouse.

Wow.

The story starts with a car crash on Christmas Eve; from here it splits into two: Mouse, a daydreamer, escapes the wreckage and is aided by a sheep, a sarcastic talking donkey and a cumbersome T-Rex, while back in reality, Violet (Mouse's sister), tries to work out how to save her family from freezing to death on the snowy hills.

To be honest, the first few chapters didn't grab me - I thought it was a little silly and a bit *too* childish. But once I understood the direction the story was going, it was enormously powerful. Mouse's bravery and determination see him make important decisions that could change everyone's lives forever...

Just wonderful.

(There is a major spoiler at the end of this review for parents, for some reason I can’t get the spoiler tag to work.) This is a beautifully written book about a boy whose family is involved in a car accident on a bitterly cold Christmas Eve. He is thrown from the car, and lost in a dreamlike imaginary world, must figure out how to save himself and maybe his family, too. His scenes alternate with his brave funny sister’s scenes, trapped with her mom and baby sister in the car. It’s quirky and intelligent and sometimes downright weird. If you’re an adult that wants to read it, that’s probably all you need to know, but if you’re going to read it with your children, or if you’re going to hand it to a child to read, you should know (major spoiler ahead)

Spoiler

the boy dies at the end. I think we underestimate children’s ability to deal with dark, difficult issues, so I don’t think that should keep you from reading this book. But still as a parent, if I was going to read this as a bedtime story, I would want to know this in advance. It is beautifully handled and there are many positive, hopeful elements in the epilogue, but there is also the death of a major character.

Still sobbing uncontrollably, shall review when I have pulled myself together... it may take a while.

[2.5 stars]

I've loved Torday's previous [b:The Last Wild|18079596|The Last Wild|Piers Torday|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1380495703l/18079596._SY75_.jpg|24068971] books and I did enjoy the first third of this novel, but after that I got bored. The tiptoeing between reality and fantasy is too obvious, the slightly medieval fantasy setting is a cardboard cutout that not even the giant dinosaur and the snarky one-eyed horse can save (also knights and jousts just aren't my thing), and the protagonist, Mouse, is confusing. He's prone to daydreaming but hates books and made up stories? That didn't add up for me and his constant complaining makes him slightly unbearable. The regular mention of social media and electronic devices seems appropriate for a contemporary children's book but also makes the story feel unnecessarily dated. I'm still pondering what to think of that ending.

Spoiler

Mouse dies but he managed to save his mom and sisters.

I didn't see it coming at all and in a way it's a bold move but it doesn't feel like the right ending for this kind of story.

A strange and lovely tale, with a heartbreaking climax. This took me a little while to get into, but OH MY GOSH the payoff. A beautifully written story with power.

I loved this book! It kept me hooked from the first chapter and was engaging the whole way through - it was hard not to skip to the end to find out what happens. On the way to his grandparents’ house, Mouse is in a terrible car accident and ends up on a long and difficult journey in a mystical land.
Many recognisable elements of a fantasy book are included as Mouse meets knights, dragons, talking animals and terrible beasts on his way to the castle and it reminds me of other fables and myths where the characters have gone on difficult quests. The story is told from two different perspectives and changes between the two every couple of chapters. One perspective tells the story of Mouse and his journey to the castle the other part is from the perspective of Mouse’s sister Violet as she goes on a journey to her own ‘castle’; her grandparents’ house. Full of lots of links to the power of imagination and great for opening up discussion about death. Would be a great alternative book to base a ‘journeys’ topic off.