Sure, I liked reading all the little things that added together to make an incredible book, but the journey seemed to take longer than necessary. Even though I haven’t exactly experienced these things, I could still get into the book and want the best for the characters.Īnother thing is that it is long, and needlessly so. So much of the writing centers around ‘adult’ subjects-affairs, marriage, commitment-that doesn’t apply to someone my own age, though that doesn’t mean it’s automatically not interesting. But most of the main characters-and this book follows many different characters-are adults, around 30. I read somewhere that it was originally published as adult fiction, but that changed somewhere along the way. First off, I have no idea why this novel is marketed as a young adult book. I’d like to get what I disliked about the book out of the way so I can get to the good things. It was told through a variety of characters who all had their own specific quirks and personalities that came through in the text.

The Spell Book of Listen Taylor was no different in that respect. I picked it up randomly, expecting to enjoy it because I’ve read a few other books by Jaclyn Moriarty and loved them they each had their own writing style and unique way of drawing me into the story. This book definitely caught me by surprise. How will the worlds of these two young woman connect? Only the reader can know! Enter Cath Murphy, a young teacher at the elementary school that Cassie Zing attends, suffering from a broken heart. Into their world comes socially isolated middle grader Listen Taylor, whose father is dating a Zing. They use these things to protect the Zing Family Secret one so huge it draws the family to the garden shed for meetings every Friday night. The Zing family lives in a world of misguided spell books, singular poetry, and state-of-the-art surveillance equipment. įavorite Characters: The Canadian next door & Cassie His rhinoceros smelled like a poppadom: sweaty, salty, strange and strong. She had promised thirty thousand words to her editor by tomorrow, and she had only written eleven. Memorable Quote: When she got back from taking Cassie to school Fancy knew that she ought to be working on her wilderness romance. A moth touched its wing to the front porch light, and the apartment cleared its throat sharply.

Opening Lines: After midnight, the apartment waited, still in the moonlight and the heat.

The spell book of listen taylor