Liesl & Po Book Review

The Blurb

"Liesl lives in a tiny attic bedroom, locked away by her cruel stepmother. Her only friends are the shadows and the mice,until one night a ghost appears from the darkness. It is Po, who comes from the Other Side. Both Liesl and Po are lonely, but together they are less alone.

That same night, an alchemist's apprentice, Will, bungles an important delivery. He accidentally switches a box containing the most powerful magic in the world with one containing something decidedly less remarkable.

Will's mistake has tremendous consequences for Liesl and Po, and it draws the three of them together on an extraordinary journey.

From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver comes a luminous and magnificent novel that glows with rare magic, ghostly wonders, and a true friendship that lights even the darkest of places."

My Thoughts

This is a beyond beautiful book! Yes, it's middle grade, but please don't dismiss it for that as that would be a huge disservice to this dark, magical and deeply moving tale! Their are big themes in this book, in a way a 9-12 year old could understand them yes but that does not diminish their impact at all! It deals with loss, love, life, and death. It invoked powerful feelings in me, to the point a couple times I had to take a breather and there were several tears. For a book to get that big of a response out of me says quite a bit! I may get teary eyed usually but not full on tears, or choked up to the point of needing to put the book down to get myself together, but this book did just that!

It was beautifully paced, the writing was great, all the characters were developed. The main characters are Liesl (a strong 11 year old girl), Will (a brave young boy), and Po (a genderless ghost with his cute cat-dog ghost companion named Bundle). The other characters also got their moments, in fact several of them got their POV and normally that might make it confusing for me but that wasn't the case here, instead it sucked me into the story even more!

I didn't expect to get so much out of a middle grade book, it made me feel, sucked me in, gave me tears and even made me think on several occassions. I was pleasantly surprised!

This story is a truly magical adventure and I highly recommend it!