Well written and whimsical. I like that the foster narrative isn't overly sweet or closed. Yes, she does

Spoiler

gain some sense of permanency, but she isn't adopted in some sickly sweet drama.

I also like that one of the characters is trans, but that isn't the primary narrative. It's just a nice humanizing touch, and though the character does get bullied, she is a full person with that only being a portion of her character. Between teh two of those, and the aspect of believable imagination, and then to top it all off there is no big huge unbelievable climax (there is a climax, it's in proportion and reasonable in context of the story), I love this book.

Brilliantly enraging. Also rather dry though.

Solidly built world with interesting characters whose stories leave room for more exploration. Having not read anything before reading this book, I was surprised when

Spoiler

Meddy turned out to be a ghost

and that was lovely. It was done gently, without the "Oh I"m so shocked!" that ruins many plot twists.

Super enjoyed this book! A couple of things stood out to me as odd and not necessarily in a good way, but they are all spoilers.

Spoiler

The main thing, though, is the "Imagine you are a..." interludes that explain weird magical things about the world. They are cool weird ideas, but they don't really fit the character of the rest of the book. Also, what's with the Bai bird and the dying vengeful Mindoren? They come out of nowhere and die out of nowhere and seem to not exist for any particular reason. Lastly, I want to say that this plot really smacks of Moana...not necessarily in a bad way, but it still doesn't seem very original.

EDIT: I just spoke with a friend about this book and now feel much less kindly about its major plot holes. I'm bumping it down a star for those.

3 magical girls who can transcend worlds, brought together in a sanitarium that is not as it appears. Adventures ensue. I adored it, it was such candy reading. I will say that if you haven't read and loved Oz, Wonderland, and Peter Pan, and a few others, you may not enjoy this book. It's very highly literary. Kind of a mid-grade version of Jasper Fford's Eyre Affair. I also don't love the way the girls themselves, despite being the main characters, aren't artistically portrayed that differently from one another. It makes the storytelling less clear than it should be that all have sort of generic white girl facial features. Still, a very fun quick read.

Deeply weird. I enjoyed it and was unsettled by it, probably in equal measure.

In this touching tale, a supervillan is dissuaded from villainy by a little girl why has just one question: Why? Touching lightly on childhood expectations and questioning "winning" as a goal, I highly enjoyed. Though it's in picture book format, I would say this is best read at an older age, say 9 and up.