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Breadcrumbs (2011)

by Anne Ursu(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0062015052 (ISBN13: 9780062015051)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Walden Pond Press

review 1: "The boys wouldn't come to save him. Only Hazel would. And maybe that's why the boys would win."This book sat on my bookshelf for a long time, being read in fits and starts. It didn't grab me, take me by the throat, and pull me in the way the books I love best tend to do. That being said, when I did reach the end I felt almost as if Anne Ursu had written it just for me.This is a story about being a strange, imaginative child who does not quite belong in her everyday world. It is a story about frozen hearts and fortresses of solitude, about craving the cold because it has consumed those we love and about fighting through it to find the love it has taken from us. It is kindly woodsmen who will lie to you and wolves who will lead you astray. It is a story about losing a... more part of yourself and knowing that you might never get it back, and fighting for it anyway.The bipartite structure (first half in the 'real world, second half lost in a fairytale wood) is interesting and serves the main themes of the story well, but I did fall down a bit in the transition. While Hazel is a very well-developed character, and Jack is compelling despite being offscreen a fair bit, the other characters did feel a bit thin to me, but that is going to be a hazard in a standalone novel of this length, especially given the hero's journey/fairytale plot structure. Not an easy read, not a story to come back to again and again, but one that I will not soon forget.
review 2: A story about friendship and growing apart. Jack and Hazel have been the best of friends, both possessing great imaginations. Their friendship has been full of adventures and dreams, until one day Jack stops talking to Hazel preferring his football friends instead.The story then turns to fantasy. A full measure of Hans Christian Anderson, fold in the Ice Queen from C. S. Lewis, and add Hazel, a nontraditional heroine. The tale winds-up a little to quickly but is a fun read. less

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