Amulet 7: Firelight: 05/08/16

One of my reading goals for 2016 is to read and review more books published this year while it's still this year. I'm always about six to eighteen months behind the release date for books. While I don't want to get back to reading egalleys so I can publish reviews before release dates, I am trying to be more current for my own personal knowledge of what's out there.

I'm certainly ahead of my usual curve with fourteen books read as of May and nine reviews published, I'm not keeping up with my stated goal of a book and review a week. I should be at 18 books read and reviewed.

There's also the problem of self sabotage, namely in the forgetting to add read books to the list of reviews I want to write. That is what happened to Amulet 7: Firelight by Kazu Kibuishi. I have adored this series since I was first introduced to it with Amulet 2: The Stonekeeper's Curse for the 2009 CYBILS. I keep current with the series because it's one of my favorite tween graphic novel series. So imagine my surprise and chagrin when I noticed I hadn't yet written, let alone, published a review for the newest book.

The farther into this series the further apart the ensemble characters get. More locations means more drop dead gorgeous double page spreads. My favorite from Firelight is a cutaway of a restaurant ship that two characters talk their way onto by getting jobs in the kitchen.

There is also more opportunity to explore the story behind the stones. Originally the focus had been on the brother and sister trying to find a cure from their mother while dealing with being in a new world and being chased by the Elf Prince. Then it moved onto what was happening with the Elf King. From there it has expanded to the underlying curse of the stones, in the same way that the ring that Bilbo finds in The Hobbit takes on a whole new, sinister meaning in The Lord of the Rings. Now we're getting into the truth behind the stones just as Emily is starting to lose her grip on her stone's voice.

Kazu Kibuishi has mentioned that book nine will wrap up the Amulet series. It's exciting to be close to the end of an amazing story arc. The better news is that he's signed a book deal with Scholastic Graphix for three new books. I don't know what they will be, but I know I will be reading them.

Five stars

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