Title: Magpie Goblin Word Boy
Author: V.R. Friesen
Date: 2022
Publisher: Dimmare
ISBN: 978-1-7774062-7-1
Quote: "Magpie's first collection was rings...he'd leave every third one for the crows."
I cheated. This is not really a Halloween book. It's about a more serious kind of horror. In its unlikely post-apocalyptic world, the law of gravity has been amended, at the same time that large numbers of humans have died. Survivor children roam in packs of orphans in active competition with the "biggies" who compete with them for food. There's an extensive series following different characters at different times of this fictive world's history. This is the short introductory e-book where we meet just a few of the characters who will appear later on as teenagers or adults. Different friends and competitors call the protagonist Magpie and Goblin and other names; this is the story of how he earns the name of Word Boy, a potential rebuilder of civilization.
Word Boy and his acquaintances don't seem to know that their environment was once called British Columbia, but there are clues, like the magpies that don't live in most of North America.
Friesen is "voicey" enough to satisfy anybody, even on the poetic side, and those who enjoy haunting dystopia stories probably will want to buy the rest of the series.
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