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juushikaTitle: The Tale of a No-Name Squirrel (The PetPost Secret)
Author: Radhika R. Dhariwal
Illustrator: Audrey Benjaminsen
Published: New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016 (2014)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 380
Total Page Count: 178,425
Text Number: 524
Read Because: book sent to me by author in exchange for an honest review
Review: Squirrel has been a slave his entire life—but when he unearths a hidden memory, he begins a quest to free all slaves, forever. There was a point in reading Grahame's The Wind in the Willows when I had to stop ask myself: is this a man-sized toad with a full head of hair riding a horse? (I'm still only approximately certain that the answer is yes.) The Tale of a No-Name Squirrel is suffused with that same playful but immersion-breaking confusion, because these anthropomorphic animals are particularly ill-defined (the squirrel has blushing cheeks, a dog marries a cat) and a similar humor pervades the text, filling it with puns and strange bits of worldbuilding. This doesn't always mesh well with the darker elements, but it makes for lively pacing and consistent readability. Squirrel's tale is primarily a travelogue, and the overarching plot is hampered by flat supporting characters and an abundance of coincidence—but Squirrel's character growth is rewarding. This is a frivolous, exuberant novel; too silly for me, but readers who appreciate humor should have better luck.
My ARC had some incomplete and missing illustrations, but what I saw of the art is lovely—if not quite as silly as the text.
Author: Radhika R. Dhariwal
Illustrator: Audrey Benjaminsen
Published: New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016 (2014)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 380
Total Page Count: 178,425
Text Number: 524
Read Because: book sent to me by author in exchange for an honest review
Review: Squirrel has been a slave his entire life—but when he unearths a hidden memory, he begins a quest to free all slaves, forever. There was a point in reading Grahame's The Wind in the Willows when I had to stop ask myself: is this a man-sized toad with a full head of hair riding a horse? (I'm still only approximately certain that the answer is yes.) The Tale of a No-Name Squirrel is suffused with that same playful but immersion-breaking confusion, because these anthropomorphic animals are particularly ill-defined (the squirrel has blushing cheeks, a dog marries a cat) and a similar humor pervades the text, filling it with puns and strange bits of worldbuilding. This doesn't always mesh well with the darker elements, but it makes for lively pacing and consistent readability. Squirrel's tale is primarily a travelogue, and the overarching plot is hampered by flat supporting characters and an abundance of coincidence—but Squirrel's character growth is rewarding. This is a frivolous, exuberant novel; too silly for me, but readers who appreciate humor should have better luck.
My ARC had some incomplete and missing illustrations, but what I saw of the art is lovely—if not quite as silly as the text.
