Book Review
Title: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (Nevermoor Book 1)
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Mental Health
Rating: 4.5 Stars
After Game of Thrones took up so much time for the book club to read and I also put it down due to my mental health at the time we decided for something easier to read for March and that was the first book in the Nevermoor series. The opening to The Trials of Morrigan Crow was interesting as we are introduced to Morrigan, a cursed child, meaning she is going to die on her 12th birthday and she is also the daughter of an important politician, Corvus Crow but neither he or her stepmother seem to care about Morrigan and her impending death. Despite this her father does let her attend bid day, where children receive bids from the wealthy for further education and she ends up receiving four bids which has never been heard of, especially for a cursed child. Corvus believe this is a prank since no one turned up to interview Morrigan but she was speaking with a man said to representing Ezra Squall, the more important man in the kingdom but this was also a ruse. However, the season is changing which means Morrigan is going to die in a few hours but a mysterious man named Jupiter North turns up to escort Morrigan to her new home as her patron and helps her escape the Hunt for her. Right now things are a little confusing but I have a feeling that things will begin to make sense soon.
Jupiter takes Morrigan to Nevermoor to the hotel he owns and runs where she will be living from now one and she is trying to adjust to this new strange and delightful world that she has been brought to but she is still harbouring fears from her upbringing. When Morrigan learns of the trials she is going to go through to try and gain entry into the Wundrous Society she realises that for Jupiter to bid on her she has to have a knack or talent but she doesn’t believe she has one. One night she encounters to assistant for Ezra Squall in the hotel and realises that Squall’s bid on her wasn’t a hoax and the offer is still open to her but she wants to give Jupiter and chance but she has to know whether or not she has a knack because she doesn’t believe she has one or that her curse is the knack which scares her even more. The following morning she discusses it with Jupiter and we get to see their almost father and daughter relationship and he explains that she does have a knack she just doesn’t know what it is yet and he explains that the Society will provide her with the family she has always wanted and this almost makes Morrigan cry.
Morrigan is really stressed leading up to the first trial but she has managed to make both friends and enemies. The first trial is a combination of a written and oral test but nothing is like it seems and Morrigan who isn’t from Nevermoor actually figures it out before many of the others and secures her entry into the second trial. She has the summer between the first and second trials so she uses this time to relax but there are things happening around Morrigan that she is beginning to question. The first is how she felt burned by the fireblossoms when they haven’t bloomed in a long time and how Squall’s assistant knew things that were happening when Morrigan mentioned nothing about them but she can’t think on it too much since the second trial is coming up soon. The second trial is a chase where they have to locate targets and hit only one to secure their place in the next trail. Morrigan is going to secure one of the easier targets but her “steed” Fen, the hotel’s housekeeper and giant cat decides they are going for one of the gold targets to get Morrigan a place at the secret dinner but Noelle’s minions are trying to prevent her from getting a target since Morrigan is technically illegal because Jupiter smuggled her in to Nevermoor using a loophole in the law.
Morrigan technically fails the second trial and is due to be kicked out of Nevermoor but thanks to another candidate cheating she is given admission to the third trial which again is a few months away. Around Halloween, Morrigan ends up accidently going through the Fright Trial which brings her darkest fears to life and she makes it through that by the skin of her teeth but now her nightmares are coming to life as the final trial looms closer and closer with each passing day. Morrigan has repeatedly asked Jupiter about her knack and he is evasive but when Morrigan overhears a conversation about the consequences for Jupiter and the other if she is confirmed to be an illegal makes her decision for her. During her time in Nevermoor, Morrigan has come to see these people as her friends and family so she asks Jupiter to remove her from the trials and take her back before anything bad can happen and surprisingly Jupiter doesn’t try to change her mind this time as he has in the past.
The final trial and the all the reveals that come with that was amazing as we get to see the true nature of Morrigan Crow and what that potentially means for Nevermoor. This reveal does put some strain on the relationship between Jupiter and Morrigan but I’m hoping that will be mending in the second book. I really liked the way Townsend inserted a discussion on mental health into the story but it didn’t affect the reading if you don’t pick it up. The only downside for me was there was a lack of character development and depth but this is most likely because the book was targeted at a much younger audience but overall was a really solid read.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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