Whichwood

Whichwood by Tahereh Mafi

“She was not lesser for being younger; her hurts were no less important; her feelings no less relevant…She was all alone in the world now, and save the kindness of her new friends, she had no one upon whom she might rely except herself.” --324

In the icy midwinter of the magical country Whichwood, a teenage girl employed by birthright as the country's shepherd of the dead, or mordeshoor, is struggling both to finish her work and stay alive. Laylee is a tragic character: her mother is dead, she's been abandoned by her father, and the work she's destined to do is grim and overwhelming. To top it all off, she is a societal outcast, impoverished, and falling prey to a fatal disease brought on by her work with the dead. Thankfully for Laylee, deus ex machinae come hard on each other's heels to move the plot briskly along, introducing an unlikely crew of devoted companions who aid Laylee in her plight. While the book's setting is enriched with Persian elements (such as the solstice celebration of Yalda and Rumi's poetry) the narrative style strikes an old-fashioned "British" note (think "Take my hand, dear reader, as we make our way into our tale") which, while admittedly fussy, invokes an appropriately magical feel and lightens up the book's darker themes and images. Whichwood is written for a middle-grade audience, and the vivid descriptions, transporting, richly-imagined setting, and likable characters will be sure to delight, as will the high-drama, fast-paced plot and swirl of burgeoning romances between the young teen characters. Whichwood is a companion book to Mafi's earlier work Furthermore, but mostly stands on its own. Subjects this book includes that some readers may be sensitive to: Death, abandonment of a child by their parent, descriptions of corpses.