Book Review - Wingfeather: On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness - Andrew Peterson

‘Wingfeather: On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness’ is a kids’ fantasy book, the first in a series, and tells of the adventures of three siblings from the point of view of the eldest as their life is turned upside down by dragons, terrorizing fangs, and mysterious maps.

This book is full of creative creatures such as Fangs, humanoid reptilians, and toothy cows and horned hounds, those need no more descriptions than their names. Throughout the book there are asterisks that give fun information about the world being explored, as well as beautiful illustrations and maps, a must for any good fantasy book in my opinion.

For me, I can see inspiration from the Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia in this story, and a lot of inspirations and references to Christianity as Andrew Peterson, the author, is a well-known Christian musician, that my eldest brother, Nebuchadnezzar, very much enjoys. He and a the pastors wife from my church, as well as Lydia and other friends of mine have all suggested this series to me, believing it would be exactly down my road.

It’s almost down my road. I really enjoyed this book; however, it is clearly written for a younger audience with humour and descriptions on that level. This is the only thing that I could actually find to say about reading this book that was even vaguely negative, and that’s because I’m in my 20s, and not 10s. If I had read this book when I was in its aimed for age-range, I believe I would have adored it and snatched up the next in the series as fast as I could.

The plot twists were enjoyable, those I saw coming and those I didn’t, the characters were alive and distinct in a way that particularly speaks to this story as almost a fairytale. My personal favourite was Peet the Sock-man with his castle. Andrew Peterson creates a lovely town in Glipwood, and if I could ever go into a bookshop of the likes of Books and Crannies, I would question whether I had died and gone to heaven, it is a beautiful description of every reader’s dream!

Its cover is beautiful, and I do look forward to continuing to read this story, especially as aforementioned friends have told me that this trilogy gets better with each book. In such a case, I can’t wait to see how good the last one is!

-Skip Thomas

Wingfeather: On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness