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Claws (2012)

by Mike Grinti(Favorite Author)

4.1 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1908435127 (ISBN13: 9781908435125)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Chicken House

review 1: Claws follows Emma Vu, a twelve-year-old girl whose sister Helena has been missing for months. Emma lives in a world not so different from ours, but in her world, there are creatures that live alongside humans in a tentative truce. These creatures are called Crags.Crags are all the mythical creatures we associate with fantasy books. Selkies, Hags, Incan snake shifters, Nagas, and of course, cats.Cats are the most magical of all creatures- they hold the magic to transform themselves into any other creature. Not put a glamour on themselves like the fae, actually physically change their shape and nature. For instance, if a human changes to a lion she also gains all the instincts of a lion.Emma's father moves their family to a small town on the edge of the Deep Forest, a magic... moreal place that suddenly grew to overwhelm part of the city years ago. He tries to ally himself with the Crags in hopes that they can help him find his daughter.Little does he know that his daughter Emma has already met a Crag- a cat named Jack- and has forged a deal of her own to find her sister. She knows Jack has an agenda of his own, but she is willing to do almost anything to find her sister and return her to her family.Even become a Crag herself.I loved this book! I feel like it's the first in a series though. The ending doesn't seem very final. I don't want to spoil, but Emma's future is left uncertain, and Jack hints at more to come. If a sequel to this book is released then I may up the rating to five stars. As it is, it is a terrific book, but the lack of a sequel is driving me crazy! You can't just hint at more like that and not give me a sequel!!!
review 2: As far is my experience goes, this is quite original. I liked the faerie concept, and the Cragwiki.org idea. They're clever. And despite the fact that the characters are not drawn in a very complex or sophisticated way, and the dialogue is pretty run of the mill, the storyline still offers plenty of thought provoking material. It had me thinking about teens and drug addiction, teens and cults, religious groups and anyone's desire for a feeling of belonging. (Also, of course, the idea of saving someone who doesn't want to be saved. That's a double-sided question if anything is. Personally, I have no desire to be saved by religion. And generally religious people have no desire to be saved by me.)The feeling of belonging to a group; being part of something, whether its beautiful/glamorous or strongly musk smelling and dirty, is a powerful lure for most people, and this book explores that concept very eloquently using story. I guess you could say the writing is simple, but eloquent. The more I think about this, the more I'm impressed by it. less

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