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Vogelherz (2014)

by Katherine Catmull(Favorite Author)

3.63 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Fischer Sauerländer

review 1: There's so much here that's good. All the bird images/symbolism were beautiful, the writing is fantastic (although there are some stylistic nit-picks -- sometimes it was just TOO much, or language was used with an eye more for effect rather than sense). I think this is quite dark for middle grades, to be honest -- this strikes me as a middle grades book for adults, rather than for actual middle grade students. What kept me from loving it was the pacing -- it was really uneven, and the shifting between different characters was choppy, so the multiple storylines didn't fit together as nicely as they could have. There's a lot of potential with this, though, and while I was firmly in the 3 stars camp, the depth of the story in the last 1/4 of the book bumped that up fo... morer me.
review 2: This is probably the most beautifully written book I've ever read. Each sentence, each word, was so obviously chosen precisely and importantly. The story was intricate and beautiful, seriously, I mean, there's only so much I can say. Go read it, it should be a classic.Summer and Bird are sisters, but one day they wake up and their mom and dad are gone. They set off to try to find them, but soon fall into the Down. A kind of alternate reality of sorts, the alternate reality of the birds. Soon, they learn about the Queen and Puppeteer and the Phoenix and it's beautiful, go read it. SPOILERSSSSSSSSSSSS DISCUSSION!!!!I don't really know what I can say, each plot point and idea in here was almost overshadowed by the beauty of the words conveying it. I feel like I can only say that so many times, so go into this knowing that every single word and idea was beautiful but if I said it every time there would be no space to write about the actual story.The Puppeteer was really cool (and the descriptions of her knowing their weaknesses and attaching strings and then moving them, gorgeous.) She was eerie and creepy in a kind of clean cut way. When she was pulling Bird up with her and was going to throw her off, I could hear Bird's screams echoing my ears. My heart is beating faster just thinking about it. And then the fact that she told Bird her parent's story so that Bird began to hate her father. I hated that. I felt so horrible for the father the whole time, he loves this world and these people that he just can't fit in with. I don't think that he deserved that kind of hatred, he made a bad decision, but he tried to right it and I'm so angry with the Puppeteer for ruining his chances of reconciling with one of his own children.I liked how there was two protagonists. Summer and Bird were both equally important and prevalent in the story. They were also individual and I really like the way that the story was told in that their flaws and strengths were just kind of put out there really obviously. We know these things about each of them from the beginning and we see how they change and morph as the story continues.Ben/ Bensbird/ Ash was definitely one of my favorite characters. I loved him from the beginning where he was taking care of Summer (I have a soft spot in my heart for Summer, she is me far more than Bird is and I understand her plight and all the difficulties far more easily than I do for Bird) and then when I slowly figured it out when they were talking about the Phoenix being locked up in the tree, but not anymore, that whole thing I figured it out and that was a beautiful moment. And how everything important has more than one meaning and he helped her into the Down, kind of, helped her learn to enjoy it and be a part of it. Argh, I really adored Ben.I loved the raven with the black and blue eyes (not bruised, you know what I mean.) I liked that Summer had another someone taking care of her, and I really liked the relationship that developed between the two of them. As I write I find more that I want to discuss but I think that part of the beauty of the book is all the layers and I kind of want some of those layers to remain only in my head so I can rediscover them when talking about the book with others or rereading it. This book needs to be one of those books that you have to analyze in English class. I'm sure it has so many "also"s and so many meanings because it feels so important to me. FFFFFIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNN!!!!!!!Beautifully written book with amazing characters and ideas: 98% less

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