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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Lily Grim’s life is a mystery.
She’s lived with her guardian, Gabriel, in the city of Undone for as long as she can remember. It’s a dark and dangerous place, especially if you’re an Other like they are.
When the cruel Master of the city suddenly captures Gabriel, Lily has to escape. She’s hidden by an Other boy called Dekka, who knows that Lily is in grave danger. The Master seems to want her dead - but why?
Can Lily unravel the mystery of who she is?
And can the new friends rescue Gabriel before it’s too late?
12-year-old Lily Grim has spent her whole life living with her guardian Gabriel, who owns a second-hand shop in the City of Undone. She was left in a basket outside Gabriel’s shop when she was a baby and knows nothing of her parents or where she came from, although they did leave a silver necklace with a triangle pendant on it.
Undone is governed by the Master, a cruel and unpleasant man who stalks its streets with his pet lion searching for Others (terrifying people with chalk white skin and red eyes) who he says are responsible for all the poverty and problems in Undone and who are believed to have special powers. Those Others who the Master captures he keeps in the Ring but he also holds public executions, displaying the Others before the people of Undone and telling them how the Others are infiltrating Undone so that they can hurt and kill its citizens.
Lily has spent her life exploring the different areas within Undone but she has never visited the Ring before until Gabriel agrees to take her so that she can see exactly what Undone is really like and why she needs to ensure that she remains hidden. But something goes wrong and the Master suddenly spots them and Gabriel is captured while he and Lily try to get away. Now Lily is on the run from the Master and her only ally is Dekka, an Other boy who has friends who can help her.
But the longer Lily stays with Dekka and his friends, Tawni, Scammel, Jonah, Toby and Parmo the dog the more she begins to wonder why the Master is so keen to find her and just what that has to do with her past …
Andy Ruffell’s debut fantasy novel for readers aged 9+ sensitively addresses the serious theme about how fear and hatred are used to turn people against each other. However the plot is predictable, the villain is under-developed with non-sensical motives, Lily’s super powers develop too quickly and feel unearned and Ruffell bottles a character death in a way that feels cheap. It’s not a bad book, but I wouldn’t rush to read a sequel.
I’m going to start this review by saying that I don’t think this is a bad book. My issues with it all boil down to the fact that there’s just not a lot here that’s original and as such - and reviewing this as a 40-something adult - there’s a lot that seemed cliche. This is not, however, to say that a reader in the target age bracket would feel the same, although I think if you have a young reader who consumes a lot of books and films, then they too will see a lot of the twists and developments coming.
The main reason to read the book is that the over-arching theme is how fear and hatred can be used to turn people against each other and control them. Ruffell handles this pretty sensitively given the age group and uses literal “othering” as the Master deliberately makes up the Others to look unusual and frightening to control Undone’s population. There’s also an interesting link to how environmental issues are affecting the island on which Undone sits, making things more precarious and driving Others into the city as they try to make a living.
The story itself, however, feels overly familiar. Lily is apparently an orphan, abandoned as a baby only to discover that there are things in her past that she needs to know. The revelation that she is an Other is not really a shock (there are a number of points where it’s telegraphed in advance) and nor is the fact that she’s remarkably quick to develop her Other powers and the fact that she has some special ones made me roll my eyes a little. She is likeable enough - devoted to her guardian, Gabriel - but the link that emerges with her mother was to overplayed for my taste and I’d have liked a bit more grit in there as it comes across as quite saccharine.
The Master is initially quite a sinister character, prowling around Undone with his lion. Unfortunately the longer the book goes on, the more two-dimensional he becomes and when the two key revelations about him finally come, not only are they not a surprise but they also don’t make a huge amount of sense. A revelation about a double agent within the Other group helping Lily is similarly telegraphed and the link between them and the Master also doesn’t make a huge amount of sense given that none of the Others seems to recognise them or guess that there may be an issue.
The Others who help Lily are thinly sketched. The most developed is Dekka who Ruffell gives a Mockney accent that really grated for me given that none of the other Others or people in Undone have the same affection. What did disappoint me is that in the final quarter Ruffell decides to kill one of the characters in a way that seems pretty final, only for them to come back in the final pages having been remarkably saved. That’s a big pet peeve for me - if you’re going to go with a character death then you need to stick with it, otherwise any emotional goodwill you’ve built up is wasted.
To stress, this is not a bad book. If you have a young reader who’s new to fantasy as a genre then they will probably find things to enjoy here, but for me it was too predictable and ho hum for me to want to read on, notwithstanding the set up for a sequel.
The Verdict:
Andy Ruffell’s debut fantasy novel for readers aged 9+ sensitively addresses the serious theme about how fear and hatred are used to turn people against each other. However the plot is predictable, the villain is under-developed with non-sensical motives, Lily’s super powers develop too quickly and feel unearned and Ruffell bottles a character death in a way that feels cheap. It’s not a bad book, but I wouldn’t rush to read a sequel.
LILY GRIM AND THE CITY OF UNDONE was released in the United Kingdom on 11th May 2023. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
She’s lived with her guardian, Gabriel, in the city of Undone for as long as she can remember. It’s a dark and dangerous place, especially if you’re an Other like they are.
When the cruel Master of the city suddenly captures Gabriel, Lily has to escape. She’s hidden by an Other boy called Dekka, who knows that Lily is in grave danger. The Master seems to want her dead - but why?
And can the new friends rescue Gabriel before it’s too late?
12-year-old Lily Grim has spent her whole life living with her guardian Gabriel, who owns a second-hand shop in the City of Undone. She was left in a basket outside Gabriel’s shop when she was a baby and knows nothing of her parents or where she came from, although they did leave a silver necklace with a triangle pendant on it.
Undone is governed by the Master, a cruel and unpleasant man who stalks its streets with his pet lion searching for Others (terrifying people with chalk white skin and red eyes) who he says are responsible for all the poverty and problems in Undone and who are believed to have special powers. Those Others who the Master captures he keeps in the Ring but he also holds public executions, displaying the Others before the people of Undone and telling them how the Others are infiltrating Undone so that they can hurt and kill its citizens.
Lily has spent her life exploring the different areas within Undone but she has never visited the Ring before until Gabriel agrees to take her so that she can see exactly what Undone is really like and why she needs to ensure that she remains hidden. But something goes wrong and the Master suddenly spots them and Gabriel is captured while he and Lily try to get away. Now Lily is on the run from the Master and her only ally is Dekka, an Other boy who has friends who can help her.
But the longer Lily stays with Dekka and his friends, Tawni, Scammel, Jonah, Toby and Parmo the dog the more she begins to wonder why the Master is so keen to find her and just what that has to do with her past …
Andy Ruffell’s debut fantasy novel for readers aged 9+ sensitively addresses the serious theme about how fear and hatred are used to turn people against each other. However the plot is predictable, the villain is under-developed with non-sensical motives, Lily’s super powers develop too quickly and feel unearned and Ruffell bottles a character death in a way that feels cheap. It’s not a bad book, but I wouldn’t rush to read a sequel.
I’m going to start this review by saying that I don’t think this is a bad book. My issues with it all boil down to the fact that there’s just not a lot here that’s original and as such - and reviewing this as a 40-something adult - there’s a lot that seemed cliche. This is not, however, to say that a reader in the target age bracket would feel the same, although I think if you have a young reader who consumes a lot of books and films, then they too will see a lot of the twists and developments coming.
The main reason to read the book is that the over-arching theme is how fear and hatred can be used to turn people against each other and control them. Ruffell handles this pretty sensitively given the age group and uses literal “othering” as the Master deliberately makes up the Others to look unusual and frightening to control Undone’s population. There’s also an interesting link to how environmental issues are affecting the island on which Undone sits, making things more precarious and driving Others into the city as they try to make a living.
The story itself, however, feels overly familiar. Lily is apparently an orphan, abandoned as a baby only to discover that there are things in her past that she needs to know. The revelation that she is an Other is not really a shock (there are a number of points where it’s telegraphed in advance) and nor is the fact that she’s remarkably quick to develop her Other powers and the fact that she has some special ones made me roll my eyes a little. She is likeable enough - devoted to her guardian, Gabriel - but the link that emerges with her mother was to overplayed for my taste and I’d have liked a bit more grit in there as it comes across as quite saccharine.
The Master is initially quite a sinister character, prowling around Undone with his lion. Unfortunately the longer the book goes on, the more two-dimensional he becomes and when the two key revelations about him finally come, not only are they not a surprise but they also don’t make a huge amount of sense. A revelation about a double agent within the Other group helping Lily is similarly telegraphed and the link between them and the Master also doesn’t make a huge amount of sense given that none of the Others seems to recognise them or guess that there may be an issue.
The Others who help Lily are thinly sketched. The most developed is Dekka who Ruffell gives a Mockney accent that really grated for me given that none of the other Others or people in Undone have the same affection. What did disappoint me is that in the final quarter Ruffell decides to kill one of the characters in a way that seems pretty final, only for them to come back in the final pages having been remarkably saved. That’s a big pet peeve for me - if you’re going to go with a character death then you need to stick with it, otherwise any emotional goodwill you’ve built up is wasted.
To stress, this is not a bad book. If you have a young reader who’s new to fantasy as a genre then they will probably find things to enjoy here, but for me it was too predictable and ho hum for me to want to read on, notwithstanding the set up for a sequel.
The Verdict:
Andy Ruffell’s debut fantasy novel for readers aged 9+ sensitively addresses the serious theme about how fear and hatred are used to turn people against each other. However the plot is predictable, the villain is under-developed with non-sensical motives, Lily’s super powers develop too quickly and feel unearned and Ruffell bottles a character death in a way that feels cheap. It’s not a bad book, but I wouldn’t rush to read a sequel.
LILY GRIM AND THE CITY OF UNDONE was released in the United Kingdom on 11th May 2023. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
