Furthermore (Furthermore #1)

I started this book with a nasty attitude, assuming that I wasn\’t going to like it. (Shame on me I know). With that being said, I loved this book. The world Mafi built was incredible. If I had to compare this book to anything I\’d have to say it reminds me of a happy version of The Series of Unfortunate Events. The writing style was so similar to Lemonys, but the actual world Mafi built gave me some deep Neverending Story vibes. (The book, not the movie.) This story is magical, whimsical, adventurous, and heartfelt. This is a story about love, courage, self acceptance, friendship, family, and embracing the strange and unusual. I would recommend this book to children and adults alike. Bonus review : there is a scene in Furthermore where our main character is having a bath and ultimately being pampered. The purpose of the scene was to make the main character as relaxed as humanely possible. As I was reading this part I actually fell asleep, I was so engrossed into the scene that it gave me the relaxing effect as well. I will honestly remember that warm milky bath for the rest of my life.

Furthermore feels like a mesh between The Secret Garden and an Alice in Wonderland retelling, something only compounded by the main character being named Alice, as well. In the land of Ferenwood, everyone is blessed with an abundance of bright colors, from their eyes, to their hair, to their skin, and the more color they have, the more magic they can command. Alice is almost completely white, except for a bit of brown around her eyes. She has always hated this; hated that she wasnt as colorful as everyone else. And when her father vanishes (three years ago from the story\’s start) she hates her lack of color and her talents even more. With a mother who ignores her and seems to not like her, and with a town that rejects the talent she offers them, Alice runs away with her friend Oliver to bring the only person who ever understood her and loved her just as she was back: Father. Mafis writing in Furthermore is incredibly charming, taking on the role of a classic narrator retelling the story of Alice and Oliver as if the characters had told the story to her themselves. Its sweet and fun and full of personality; watching these two young characters race through amazing, but also richly dark, lands is a treat. Mafi is able to not just write cute characters and a brightly unique world, but she is also able to impart some wonderful lessons in her story for young readers: the importance of acceptance and loving yourself, of embracing the things that make you different and seeing it as something that makes you special, rather than an outcast. She is also able to write some incredibly deep and painful scenes as Alice and Oliver experience loss and despair while they struggle through the land of Furthermore hunting for Alices father. It gets pretty dark at timesextreme bodily harm, threats of cannibalism, hints of drug use, plus just the sadness that comes with a child thinking shes unwantedwhich makes me think this isnt actually a book suitable for true MG readers. Alice is 12, but she doesnt really act her age. That, coupled with the rather adult themes that I mentioned and just the maturity with which Mafi writeseven if it is a fun narrative voicemake me waffle on this book as an actual MG read, which it is marketed as. Im sure with the whimsy and silliness that is inherently part of Ferenwood that this book felt better placed in the MG category rather than YA, but I have mixed feelings about this The recommended age for this book is between 9-12, or grades 4-7, and I frankly dont think thats true. When I read MG, its specifically for the purpose of finding new books for my niece and nephews (shhh, let me have this lie) who range from 2-11. Obviously, the youngest doesnt really count right now because he cant read yet, but I still read this wondering how children will enjoy the story. Will they enjoy Furthermore? Parts, absolutely. But Im an adult and there were parts that just broke my heart, and not in a way where a kid may gloss over it but an adult will see it for what it is. There were also parts that had me literally going well, that escalated quickly! While Im not a fan of the idea that kids books can only be light and fluffy, I do think darker themes need to be presented in a way that wont freak out nine 9 year olds. Also, while the writing is beautiful, after a while it did feel as if the story was just lagging, purposely making the journey longer for Alice and Oliver with no real purpose. This is a long book for a kid, and Im not entirely convinced it needed to be. Overall, Furthermore is a colorfulin every sense of the wordread. Most of its messages are great and Mafi had me feeling all the things: joy, whimsy, loss, heartbreak. I loved the narrative voice; it was refreshing and just a lot of fun. I will be giving this book to my niece and nephew to read, but with a caution that parts may be scary and potentially to read it when they are ready to sit down with something that will take them a bit of time to digest. Ultimately, thats why I have a hard time giving this book 5 stars; I dont think its all that appropriate for the young readers its marketed to. I liked it and will definitely be reading more of Mafis work, but this is isnt quite the 5 star read I was hoping for But it is a very high 4 stars! Id say if you have an older and more mature MG reader, that this book would be perfect for them, and probably the adults in your life, too.

** spoiler alert ** (4.5 stars) I finally picked up this book (well, virtually because it was on my Kindle) because Ive been wanting to read it for a while now and because Penguin kindly sent me a finished copy of Whichwood. The book introduces us to Alice, an entirely pale girl living in a town filled with color. She wants to have color and, lacking it, causes her to feel like an outcast. She doesnt have a good relationship with her family and she is convinced its because her father has been gone for so long with hardly a trace. The Surrender, an event for kids to show their powers, causes Alice to look for her father with an old childhood enemy, Oliver. Details I knew just from the cover that I would enjoy this book. I love anything colorful. The details of each village that Alice and Oliver go to is astounding. Theres a village where people stay still and go nuts if you move, a world where people and everything are made of paper, a world called Left, etc. Each world was just nuts, but it actually reminded me so much of Wonderland. I dont know this myself of course, but I wonder if Tahereh got some inspiration from Alice in Wonderland. In my opinion, this book is a bit crazier than Wonderland. You cant trust anybody in Furthermore and rightly so until you get right to the end. Taherehs descriptions of each village was very enticing, though. It felt like I was dropped right into Furthermore myself. Just like Alice, I didn\’t want to stay forever either. I hardly think Id survive. Alice Alice is quite a character and very unique. Its not just because she is void of any color. This is what makes her special, adding on to the fact that her ability is, ironically, to change the color of anything around her except for herself. This power, though, is her biggest secret. It causes her so much pain and it was hard not to stay on her side. It got rather annoying when Oliver, while in Furthermore, kept trying to treat her like she was an idiot. She knows nothing about this strange world so she has every right to be confused on its rules, customs, people, etc. I do think that she trusts to easily, but its because she is meant to see through lies. However, it gets her into trouble sometimes since that ability doesnt go through into Furthermore. Her strength to find her father, though, is admirable. She is so dead set on finding him and she knows in her heart she is going to find him. Thats the kind of determined behavior I like to see in a character. Oliver This boy is so annoying. He definitely has an ego all because he has been to Furthermore before. He constantly lies to Alice from the beginning, too. He basically tricks her into going with to Furthermore, saying that he knows exactly where her father is and that he has seen him. He puts Alice down through most of the journey, though he apologizes profusely afterward. His ego and pride get the best of him through most of the book and its so annoying. Of course, like any male character, he is a good guy in the end. I still dont like him. For a thirteen year old, he sure is bossy and immature. Maybe hell learn more respect since the book is done. The Worlds Like I said in the first paragraph above, the different worlds reminded me of another version of Wonderland. Its crazier than Wonderland, but its so enticing. You can eat flowers, obtain magical gifts, enter other worlds. Its never really said that this is Earth, but there is mention of non-magical folk. The crazy thing is that, in Furthermore, the citizens of the different villages can eat you just if you have magic. Its like, to them, magic is a drug. They get one sniff and they want more. Its just crazy that you can\’t not talk about it or think about it afterward. The Bottom Line Im trying my best to get more into middle grade books so Im not stuck in the same social circle of books. I was very pleased with this novel. I was more interested because of the cover, so Im very happy that the story kept me intrigued. Its hard to turn away as Alice and Olivers journey keeps going with humor, sass, and craziness on every page. There are many lessons to be learned in the story, too. For younger readers who arent ready for YA, this is definitely a good starting point before they reach that level.

\’… to be different was to be extraordinary, and to be extraordinary was an adventure. It\’s such a great feeling when you\’ve only just started a book and you know that you\’re in for a treat, this was my experience with Furthermore. There just seemed to be so much happening simultaneously and I was left wanting to know more about aspects that were only mentioned fleetingly. So many reviewers have likened Furthermore to a fairy tale and I concur because it seemed like a mash up of all the fantastic bits of all my beloved fairy tales; I saw a lot of themes affiliated with Alice in Wonderland, some from Little Red Riding Hood and a bit from Cinderella to name a few that I noticed. I am a lover of fairy tales so it\’s not surprising that I loved this about Furthermore, what made things better was that Mafi also made it her own despite the familiar themes. I applaud Tahereh Mafi\’s world-building because I was enthralled with all the locations Alice visited in Furthermore to the extent that in certain places in the story I felt like I was experiencing everything firsthand. There were some parts that just made me happy including the names of certain shops in Ferenwood including Shirini Firini the sweet shop(this made me happy because from the sparse Farsi I know, Shirini means sweets) and Mafi being Iranian-American there was a connection which was very endearing. The description of the center of town alone was fantastic and it made me long to jump into the book and look around alongside Alice. The personification of Ferenwood and Furthermore was executed very well and this was done in so many ways, a particular gem would be: \’Dew had touched the earth and the earth touched back\’ Alice as a protagonist was a joy to read, she made me cry and made me laugh and best of all I could relate to her in some instances while reading which adds something a bit more personal to any book I read. Yes, one would think there can be no realism in a book so embroiled in fantasy but in Furthermore the feelings are incredibly tangible, particularly those of Alice. I loved her character development throughout her journey as well because at the start she seems naive and set in her ways but towards the ends I felt like she was a different character, more mature yet still having some semblance of childishness. I highly recommend this book to anyone who adored fairy tales and stories that engulf you within them until you close the book!

I realise this book is aimed at children rather than so-called \’grown-ups\’ like me, and I also realise that you shouldn\’t judge a book by its cover, but I just couldn\’t help myself – it\’s so pretty! In my opinion, the story is very well written and I was interested throughout. I\’d say it\’s certainly inspired by Alice in Wonderland, but to me it makes a more coherent story. I found myself very interested in the characters and I love some of the fantasy/magical ideas that are woven in, such as \’rainlight\’ – an intriguing idea. I also like the way the author describes people and places, making them very easy to imagine. Highly recommended, I will be reading more by this author. After my daughter (aged 9) has finished Harry Potter, I think she will read this, and I\’m sure she\’ll like it just as much as I did.

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