Filip’s Year in Books

What did you read this year?

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2024

1,343

pages read

books read

Filip

Shortest Book

208

pages

Longest Book

573

pages

Average book length in 2024

335

pages

Most Shelved

642,116

people also shelved

Least Shelved

3,362

people also shelved

Filip’s average rating for 2024

4.5

Highest Rated on Goodreads

4.47 average

Filip’s first review of the year

really liked it

This and many other reviews on my blog, TheGrimoireReliquary.com

Marjorie Liu and Teny Issakhanian have created a magical world in *Wingbearer*, the first in a trilogy of graphic novels. I was sent this one (alongside an arc of the second work in the series, *Wingborn*) by Sparkerpoint Studio in return for a review. Their representative reached out to offer me copies of these, for which--thanks, Rylee!

Zuli speaking with the Witch Queen

What a kick I'd have gotten with _Wingbearer This and many other reviews on my blog, TheGrimoireReliquary.com

Marjorie Liu and Teny Issakhanian have created a magical world in *Wingbearer*, the first in a trilogy of graphic novels. I was sent this one (alongside an arc of the second work in the series, *Wingborn*) by Sparkerpoint Studio in return for a review. Their representative reached out to offer me copies of these, for which--thanks, Rylee!

Zuli speaking with the Witch Queen

What a kick I'd have gotten with _Wingbearer_ if I read it about twenty years ago when I was a kid! Marjorie Liu doesn't try to go for anything fancy and genre-defying; she creates a narrative that lives by the strength of her character work, worldbuilding, and plotting. The latter taps into the DNA of the quest narrative, whereby protagonist Zuli, grown among the bird spirits, will answer a call to arms and go forth into the real world to discover why it is that the souls of birds can no longer arrive to Bird Heaven.

Zuli explaining her quest to a bunch of crazy buzzards

Zuli explaining her quest to a bunch of crazy buzzards

From this point onward, what we've got is a marvellous adventure with a colourful cast of characters. From a winged goblin boy and his pet weasel to a royal captain astride a winged serpent, Zuli begins a magical education across this fantastic and colourful world. It looks splendid; Teny Issakhanian has done a wonderful job of rendering Zuli and her adventures in storyboard-like panels, so close to frames of an animated film from Disney's golden era that you'd be forgiven for googling *Wingbearer* to see when it hits the cinemas. I have to wonder if a translation from the page onto screen wouldn't be very easy indeed when the source material is already so embroiled in that type of visual design.

Frowly the Owl is my favourite winged companion since Batty the Bat of Ferngully fame! Well, one of them. I can't help but think that Marjorie Liu is tapping into that exact archetype: Frowly is cautious, a little cowardly, but with a heart of gold. He's ready to do anything and everything for his companion. I can't say that I blame him; two-hundred pages of following along Zuli's adventure, and I'd do anything to help that kid, myself. She's a wonderful protagonist, the kind you'd hope your child might latch onto as a role model and emulate. She's brave and kind, forgiving and curious about the world, without being foolhardy. Naive? Perhaps, but only if you equate naivety with hopefulness and a belief in the best nature of those you meet.

Zuli teaching Frowly the Owl to be less prejudiced

Zuli teaching Frowly the Owl to be less prejudiced

The whole of *Wingbearer* is imbued with a special magic of its own, and will no doubt win Marjorie Liu more than one pocket-sized admirer. Zuli's adventure promises to be the best kind, one of those journeys that will see a ruined world bloom once more. The graphic novel captures well the magic and the wonder of fantasy, and Zuli's lack of familiarity with this world works as well as does the reader's own: the experience of discovery is shared, and all the sweeter for it. If you have a nostalgia for simple and beautiful fantastic stories from your childhood, or else you have a kid you want to treat to a magical journey, *Wingbearer* might well be exactly what you need. ...more

FILIP’S 2024 BOOKS

it was amazing

Filip’s last review of the year

really liked it

First published on my Substack

Wingborn, I'm happy to say, is an enjoyable second act to what has been an imaginative exercise in middle-grade fantasy for the ever-talented Marjorie Liu. I was sent this one by Sparkerpoint Studio in return for a review. Their representative reached out to offer me copies of these, for which–thanks, Rylee!

A full sixty pages longer than *[[Wingbearer]]*, this second chapter in Zuli's adventure is a little darker, a First published on my Substack

Wingborn, I'm happy to say, is an enjoyable second act to what has been an imaginative exercise in middle-grade fantasy for the ever-talented Marjorie Liu. I was sent this one by Sparkerpoint Studio in return for a review. Their representative reached out to offer me copies of these, for which–thanks, Rylee!

A full sixty pages longer than *[[Wingbearer]]*, this second chapter in Zuli's adventure is a little darker, a little more grim than its predecessor, but just as resplendent with hope as the previous volume was. Zuli, Frowly, and Orien are caught in a series of unfortunate events: mistrusted, forced to run for their freedom from one supposed safe haven to the next, our characters are forced to reckon with the difficulty of their task. How do you save a world when that world refuses to believe what you know for a fact is real? How do you do the right thing when everyone in a position of authority stands against you? These are the questions *Wingborn* invites, and isn't that excellent for a middle-grade novel?

Kindness in the face of cruelty continues to be Zuli's modus operandi, and it earns her no small amount of friends and trouble alike. The trouble is great, and treacherous: from haughty, conservative griffins who believe they know best despite being out of touch (sound familiar?) to a nebulous figure from Zuli's past who might well have our protagonist's best interests at heart, but is so filled with anger as to be blinded by it. But the friends...the friends rise up to all that trouble in such admirable ways. Zuli has gathered a coterie of friends from various cultures; her kindness has invited all of them to overlook their prejudices, and that makes for another delightful beat to what is middle-grade literature. Best of all, at no point have I come away from this graphic novel with the feeling that Liu is preaching--the moral lessons her work offers aren't intrusive in the least.

I was more than a little surprised to see that Teny Issakhanian has taken a step back and passed the baton to another artist, Grace Kum. Kum's art style is disparate enough to cause you some confusion if you're reading *Wingborn* straight after *Wingbearer* but if you read the first chapter of this journey in 2022 when it released, the transition might be easier. The characters, the world, they are recognizably the same, and the sense that I was looking at these storyboards for an animated feature continued to haunt me. That is almost to the book's detriment, at times: some backgrounds have so sketched a look they seem almost unfinished. It's a sought-after effect, I recognise that - but it doesn't quite work for me. However, the one- and two-page spreads here are absolutely gorgeous, no question about that.

If there's a complaint I can file, it would be that the cycle of capture and escape the characters go through might have played itself out by the end of *Wingborn*. There are only so many exciting ways to tell chase-and-escape scenes in a fantasy graphic novel with the same cast of characters.

Two *Wingbearer* graphic novels down, two more to go. I hope the wait isn't too long for the next part: excited to see how Zuli and her friends will get out of this latest situation they've found themselves in.
...more

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