Review: A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

 

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher is a compelling fantasy adventure that follows a young 14 year-old girl whose power lies in her ability to magically enhance her baking skills. I found the story to be a page-turner and finished it in just over a day. 

The thing that hooked me from the start was the voice of the protagonist Mona. She's got a very compelling personality and I genuinely enjoyed reading from her perspective, even though I don't think I've ever truly enjoyed a first person story before. There's a fun, almost sarcastic kind of humour in the way she describes and comments on the events of her tale that just kept me reading and turning the pages. Her voice was very refreshing and very genuinely the voice of a young person trying to navigate the adult world. 

And the author clearly shows through this story that you can write something aimed at a younger audience, something clean, and easy to read that feels "middle-grade" and still question society's expectation and deeply examine some of the problematic tropes we take for granted in the genre. This book might sound young but it handles all kinds of big topics like prejudice and death and war and responsibility and corruption. There are royal characters like the duchess who are portrayed in interesting ways and there are all kinds of problematic aspects to the society, but through Mona's eyes these things aren't just "let go" or taken for granted. 

The book does this all while being extremely fun. I mean I haven't even mentioned the gingerbread man, who somehow manages to be the best character, and the insane stuff that happens at the end of the book, but I'll let you discover those for yourself. 

I highly recommend this story for anyone looking for a good read.